Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

6000km service on a Z1000

Good Experience: Flywheels in Alexandria.

Professional staff (Rob konws his stuff), immediately attentive to the issue, much more profesional looking workshop and setup and an immediate diagnoses of the problem. Its there being looked at as i speak. I'll get it back tomorrow, but i'll definitely be going to flywheels from now on.

Just my 2 cents. (by the way Admins.. perhaps we can have a sticky of a Positive experience or Negative experience regarding this sort of stuff) certainly would have helped me not waste $300 odd on a negative experience prior.


**edited for the sake of settlement

BikerBoy wrote:Good Experience: Flywheels in Alexandria.

Professional staff (Rob konws his stuff)

I second this...

And I had the same experience with both dealers in the sales dept when I was interested in the 250r! Suffice to say 4 months later I didn't hesitate to purchase a 10 with Flywheels!

BikerBoy wrote:Just my 2 cents. (by the way Admins.. perhaps we can have a sticky of a Positive experience or Negative experience regarding this sort of stuff) certainly would have helped me not waste $300 odd on a negative experience.

the positive stuff is well and good but declaring a place to be shithouse in a public forum might potentially land admins in legal hot water, Australia isn't Amercia (yet) but there are still plenty law suit happy types out there and an increasing number of pay only if you win type lawyers going around too.

I took my ZZR600 to a Kawasaki dealer in the inner-SE suburbs (some would say an affluent beachfront suburb) for its 48,000km service.

Cost me an absolute shitload, new tyres, new sprockets, new chain, fork service and when I picked it up just before they shut it had a strange 'clunk' from the front end. Was a bit flighty on the way back to home, but put this down to the new tyres, except when I got it home it clunked every time I turned the bars left and right. Turns out the bolts that hold the front axle to the forks were all loose and about to fall out. Not only that one of the top bolts on the rhs of the forks was loose. Not happy Jan, ripped them a new one the next day. I think they have changed hands since...

Took my bike to an ex-Kawasaki dealer in the city (co-incidentally now a Kwakka dealer again) for a chain and sprocket replacement. Got the bike back again (just before shutting) and got about 500m from the dealer when I noticed there was a god-awful howling coming from the front end. Checked the chain and it was so tight you could have carved meat with it. Went back to the dealer - shut. Rode 85km home with the bike howling like a banshee...bastards.

On the good side took the ZZR to a Suzuki dealer in Bendigo (ABS Motorcycles from memory) as they reputedly had a great ex-Kwakka mechanic (Graeme). Did a really good job and it was surprisingly cheap seeing they were a Suzuki dealer . When I accidentally filled my float bowls with water when getting a bit enthusiastic with high-pressure water Graeme knew exactly what it was and diagnosed and talked me through the fix on the phone. The cranky bastard that used to run the now-defunct other Kwakka dealership in the city (now part of a bigger chain) just gave me an earful...and that is why I never bought a bike nor anything else from the prick.

Ask Mario about the time one of his front caliper fell off post-service.

Mick

I had my zzr600 serviced by same inner city Kwaka dealer, new front tyre and decelerate from 100-80 odd, take hands off bars and voila, massive tank slapper. Never been back there since, also had it serviced in fairfield, hand prints all over the frame, sump bolt barely in and a few other unpleasant type things, not been back there since either.

I had a bad experience in 2000 in Phillip Island! Went down for the superbikes, got a flat at the track got it towed to Crowes, the guys changed my tyre, charged me for a 1 1/2 tyrs i think, he was charging like a wounded bull that weekend, then didn't bleed the back brakes or bolt them back on... so i tried to ride off and only got 50m down the road.. pushed it back and gave him a mouthful, the main guy made some smart ass comment and got a kid to fix it..... then when it was fixed he told me to f**k off.

mick_dundee wrote:the positive stuff is well and good but declaring a place to be shithouse in a public forum might potentially land admins in legal hot water, Australia isn't Amercia (yet) but there are still plenty law suit happy types out there and an increasing number of pay only if you win type lawyers going around too.

For this particular thread expressing concern about a bad service experience that is true should not be a problem, these guys seem to be getting a bad rap most of the time so maybe just maybe there is a reason for it

Llyoyd Penn at Artarmon was highly recommended to me and i was pretty impressed. Guy was straight forward, did a good job and didnt try to overcharge me. One hours labour to fit a full yoshimura system to a bike seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Only drawback i could find is that the bike i took in washed and polished came out with some weird markings on it. They came straight off with a wash though so im not going to complain.

Bad experiences there are too many too list. The worst i have had though was another shop in Artarmon i wont name, you might see it on the pacific highway though. I had to get new fork seals. Took them 3 1/2 weeks to do it when they told me they had the part (which they didnt) and i ended up with them trying to palm off a just shy of $1,000 bill to me. Apparently they were convinced i told them to do a major service on it as well - which was not the case. A lot of arguing later i left paying way too much for fork seals, but not $1,000. Never been back there.

maraach wrote:Llyoyd Penn at Artarmon was highly recommended to me and i was pretty impressed. Guy was straight forward, did a good job and didnt try to overcharge me. One hours labour to fit a full yoshimura system to a bike seems like a pretty good deal to me.

I have known lloyd for over 20 years & he is the ideal mechanic that takes pride in his work & is a straight shooter, its funny you should mention the shop up the road... that's where Lloyd worked before doing his own thing many years ago

havnt been to lloyd penn... guy i baught the old cb250 off used him tho and recommended him...

only ever had a tyre fitted from the shop up the road... no mechanical work done but they did it in a reasonable time... no real complaints as yet...

alto charge like a wounded bull, but its convenient for the time being, tho for the 12,000km service i will probably shop around....

one guy who i can give a good wrap to is Alon from LOVE MOTORCYCLES... he used to be at atarmon down near autobarn just around the corner from american thunder... dad took his BMW there for a few years and didnt have a bad word to say... had a couple of things done on the cb250 done there too but by then he had moved to waitara... straightened my right front fork on the cb and did a bloody good job of it...

dont have his number to hand but he is in the small industrial area just behind maccas in waitara...

got my bike back from this morning and she's back to purring like a kitten.

Mmmmm interesting reading . . . . glad I sussed out this thread.
The beast is due for 100,000kms service and the clutch seems to be slipping, obviously something I want to get sorted before GP. And tbh I'm a bit over the shop I've been going to for a few years, I just don't think I get looked after as well as I should - it's time for a change. Think I might check out Flywheels!

Here Here Hearing feedback is good to know so you can make better more informed choices..

Im glad you posted bb.. good bike shops are getting harder to find and more so trust.. What stands out from this thread, your Pm's and from my own experience is to thoroughly check out your bike (or cager) before leaving the shop.. and ask heaps of questions about what they did ! try and speak with the mechanic not the desk jockey!

BTW - Thumbs up to Slingshot Suzuki in Shepparton!.. recently i punctured my (new) front tyre on the Z.. desperate and crazy i rang around town.. no one would answer because it was after 5pm on a Friday... then i tried Slingshot..they politely answered the phone - this deperate crazy woman explained how she needed to get to Melb that night.. Not only did they stay open afterhours on a Friday to change my punctured front tyre straight away, they also suggested i come back later the following week to pay... Upon going back i had the back tyre changed for a newbie and they did that on the spot too! .. they even followed up to see how i was travelling a week later!...Very grateful..!!

BikerBoy wrote: F*(ken basic!...

Just an oversight lucky its still got some
So what were they doing removing them anyway?