Christmas Catchup

Had an awesome, awesome week off, and I hope everyone had a great Christmas.  Let's get caught up, shall we?

The bike saga continues, but with perhaps some actual progress finally.  I brought the bike to Cape Cod Harley - another dealership which I will never deal with again.  Why?  Let's discuss the 'why'...

Stu, the guy that's been helping me out with the bike troubleshooting said he had been buying parts from this dealership and they seemed good to work with.  So, on his recommendation, I went with them.

Stu called them two Thursdays ago and talked to "John" in Service.  He explained the problems I was having, all that we had worked on, the parts we'd replaced, that we'd run out of ideas and that it needed to go onto a dyno so the problem could be diagnosed properly.  AND, he told them I'd be in, in two days (on Saturday).  "John" said he entered everything into the system and that when I showed up, I should ask for him, and things would be good.  Fantastic!

So when I showed up at the dealership two days later and asked for John, imagine my surprise when I found out that John was on vacation.  Huh.  Well, ok - no biggie, I mean...after all; all the info that Stu had relayed to John was in the system, right?  Nope.  There was nothing in the system on me, on my bike, or anything that Stu had relayed.  F'ing awesome.  And this all should have been an indication of other problems to come, but I'm too stupid to think ahead.

Anyway, I gave the whole rundown to the guy at the counter and he entered it in.  He asked if I was in any kind of rush (huh?), so I told him yeah; I like to ride every chance I can, so if they could get right on it, that would be great.  He said ok, and that was it.

Fast forward three hours and I get a phone call from the dealership.  The guy says (and I quote); "We've done what we can.  It's ready to be picked up."  Say what?  What do you mean "you've done what you can?  You're the dealership.  You take in bikes with problems, you ID the problems, and you fix them.  You don't take your best shot and then dump it back on the owner."

This didn't seem to sit too well with him and he snapped "What do you want me to do?"  I said "Put it on your dyno, replicate the problem in real time, then fix the problem."  "We don't have a dyno" he says.  Well WTF - your guy John said that wasn't going to be a problem.

"Look", said the guy.  "My tech took it out for a 30-minute test ride, thought he understood what you were describing so we brought it back, reflashed the ECU and then took it out for another test ride.  We think the problem is fixed."

Whatever.  I told him I'd be down later in the week to pick it up.
Fast-forward again to this past Saturday.  The same guy I'd had the conversation with was at the counter, so I didn't bother getting into any conversation with him, I just paid and left.

Surprisingly, the bike seemed to run much better than it had been.  I only felt a little twinge of hesitation when I was on the last stretch of the ride home, and that might even have just been my imagination.  I need to get more miles on before I can fully say whether things are fixed or not.  (Maybe even get some miles on, on New Year's Day, despite the weather calling for temps in the single digits.)

So there you go - that's where the bike saga stands at the moment.

What else...the Olean crew and I have traded some beers back and forth between hockey and football.  I think I'm a couple, in total, so that's nice.  Thanks Olean!

Ok, it's late and I've gotta run to meet some folks.  I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and that you all have an awesome New Year's.

A brand new year is right around the corner!