Dealer VS Dealer

Thats a bummer. I can't say I've dealt with that attitude before with the exception of our local Yamaha and ZHonda dealers who only want to work on their brands and will NOT touch your bike until all customers with their brands are repaired. So, your bike can be there a LONG time if a Honda or a Yamaha comes in after you, it still gets worked on before your bike. Suzuki dealer works on any brand though andin the order they came in for work, reguardless of brand. Easy call as to what shop I go to. I can bring my Yamaha, Suzuki or Honda all to the same place.

I have seen cases where Harley Dealers would not work on a rig due to it not having a Harley Sidecar. One case was as simple as needing a tire mounted.

That's an odd way to do business in my estimation.
If a client wants his sidecar (that he purchased from someone else) installed, that's work coming into the shop and a potential return customer. I've done this many times and as a result have gotten many referrals and sidecar sales from this attitude.
In your case the initial purchase had already been made so what the vendors gained by refusing to sell to you, or work on your rig escapes me. Some petty, smug, satisfaction that maybe he has deprived you of some item he alone possesses, perhaps? Certainly no profit from a retail sale was to be had. Not too much good will either.

(We have sold non-Harley sidecars to your local H-D dealer in Phoenix,OR.)

Lonnie Cook
Northwest Sidecars
Boise, ID
(We will work on other peoples stuff.)

Many dealers in our area: Harley, Honda, Yamaha and perhaps most others these days will not do any work on a bike that has a sidecar attached. I have dismounted and remounted quite a few sidecars so clients could have warranty service and other unrelated work done on their bikes.
Several dealers service managers have told me that if a bike will not roll up on a solo bike lift they won't let it come through the door. There are others who have an $85. per hour labor rate for solo bikes and another rate (double ?) for hacks and trikes. They feel each lift in the shop is worth $85. (One lift, One tech.) for every hour their shop is open.

Lonnie
Northwest Sidecars

I'm real lucky in that my Harley dealer (D&S HARLEY) here in Medford, Or. has no problem servicing my combo. I can even understand a little bit the fear a bike shop has about lack of knowledge about a hack. D&S had no problem installing my 5% triple tree that I had deliverd to them from a sidecar dealer.I saw & admired a headlight/turnsignal that a hack dealer sold to a driver of his hack, but would not sell me the same light because I had purchased my hack from someone else. I don't know it to be true, but I've heard he will only sell his triple tree to Harley riders. In this case I think "cutthroat" means cut his OWN throat. I know when I get ready to switch to another hack, he will NOT get another chance to say no to me, & I'll sure as hell not send anyone his way!!!

Interesting. So if I decide to take the plunge and put on a hack, I can expect to pay twice the usual service costs for my bike? Or figure out a way to take off the hack and then put it back on before routine service? I guess a third alternative might be that I must do all my own service on my bike, but that's problematic for me...I can do the basics, but if we start talking about the more complex service issues, I'm smart enough to know I'm not sufficiently gifted or equipped to take care of those.

That's something I did not know until today. Makes it difficult to justify putting a hack on if this is a standard practice everywhere. Is this pretty routine with most dealerships?

Bob

Here in Grand Juntion Co. Booth Honda/BMW and Harley will work on a rig I do not know if the price is different

I've found that dealers don't charge more per hour to work on a bike with a sidecar but it does sometimes take longer to do the work required. Can't get at things as easily. So you may end up paying a little more than if the work was done on a solo bike.

Well I am lucking to live in Fla as there are a lot of M/C here so a lot of shops. I have a older Honda and there are two dealerships with in about 10 miles of me. When I 1st started looking the one was willing to work with me the other I did not talk to so I do not know about them.

I bought my bike through Greg’s Custom Motorcycles in Clearwater. I had the sidecar dealer here install the sidecar. Boy was that a mess but Greg got it right, he has installed two sidecars in the last 6 weeks and the people are pleased with the work. He made a statement to me last week that makes since “It is a lot of work to get someone through the doors the 1st time so it would be dumb not to do them right so they come back.” he has always done me right so I go back and will send anyone that I can to him.

So with all this said Bob look around you may have a Greg near you.

Luck of the draw I suppose.
My local dealer - Gails Harley Davidson in Grandview, Missouri - even has a factory trained sidecar rigger on staff!
I recently had some work done where they had to take the sidecar off and when they re-installed it, it was set up better than when I brought it in....;)
The rigger there - wish I had his name - actually test rode the bike both empty and with a monkey to get it just right.
Now I don't know about other makes/dealers/etc...but I have found Harley dealerships at, at least 4 other locations/states that also had a rigger on the service staff.
Labor rates were the same and they really didn't seem to mind working on it either.
They DID use it as a mini-training session for the other service techs who were not familiar with sidecar rigs - I though that was pretty cool!
Now maybe the fact that my sidecar is a Harley also makes a big difference - but I know that there has been at least one occation where a fairly new Harley with a Ural sidecar was getting a tire changed (on the bike) while I was there.
I would not expect them to change out a tire on a sidecar of another make - as that would most likely incurre liability issues, especially if the tech was not familiar with that particular sidecar make.
Just my .02 cents.
Happy Motorin'
Dean

This Thread wasn't meant to start a motorcycle dealer bashing. I was in hopes the sidecar dealers/installers would read & learn that it might not be to their advantage to turn off the only buyers they have. Even if we don't happen to pull their particular brand. I for one will never pull the brand that gave me the cold shoulder. And I will not send any one their way for car, or accessory or service of any kind.

That is a very good point also busness lost and never regained . Also a tire is a tire should not make a diferance what car it is on

Originally written by Ron Campbell on 11/26/2007 12:44 AM

That is a very good point also busness lost and never regained . Also a tire is a tire should not make a diferance what car it is on

Probably would not be wise to take what has been written here as gospel as far as dealers go. We as humans tend to voice 'bad' before 'good' and there are , I am sure, many more good dealers out there than bad ones. Check around and see what happens on a local basis and go from there.
Heck we never have turned anyone away who was seeking our services if we could help them. We have refused to hook up some combinations due to saftey issues and will continue to do that.
Sleeping well at night has a lot of merit.

Claude, I'm sure you are right. And I did not mention any names of dealers because I might have caught them on a bad day or something. But I'm sure he monitors this forum & maybe the next customer will be treated better. I have the phone # and address of 5 hack dealers within 500 miles of me. I consider 500 miles a nice days ride. So if I want something hack specific, or if I'm looking for a new sidecar, or whatever, I'll visit 4 of them to shop for it.
By the way, If any one is reading this that is in Claudes part of the country, I must say that Claude has helped me via E-mail when I had a question about tires, & wear & alignment. And if I am ever in his part of the country I'll stop in if for no other reason than to jawbone a bit.