Quote Originally Posted by F6Dave View Post
My first new motorcycle was a 1976 Kawasaki KZ900. I'd done plenty of work on my previous bikes, including rebuilding a few engines, but I was encouraged to have the dealer perform the initial maintenance for 'warranty purposes'. As I remember it was at 600 miles/1,000 km and included an oil change, check of various components, and a basic tune up.

When I got it back it wasn't running as well as before, so I took it home and checked it over. They had attempted to adjust the ignition timing. Those old bikes had two sets of ignition points (one for each pair of cylinders) mounted to a plate, and timing was adjusted by moving the plate. Timing was way off, but easy to fix, so I set it and all ran fine.

I've owned 9 bikes since then, riding them over 600,000 miles. But that was my first and last trip to a dealer for the initial maintenance.
Looks like the hive mind says do it myself, so I will. The local dealer isn't who I bought the Wing from, and frankly, I had an experience with that really makes me question their shop folks. a rather small piece of wood got stuck behind the fan on the left side. Thinking it was warranty, I took it in, the shop did a perfunctory check without tearing it down, and they could see something, but not determine what it was. As I have full coverage on the bike, I got my Progressive rep involved, and he authorized the teardown, when the wood was discovered. I paid my deductible, Progressive paid the rest, of what turned out to be almost a $1K fix.

I go to pick up the bike, and notice a screw missing from the front lower cowl. I point that out to the service desk gal, she gets the mechanic back out, who makes a couple of trips back into the shop, and finally puts a screw in. Notice I didn't say "the" screw... And the guy didn't say a word to me, no "oops", or "sorry about that". I get the bike home, and sure as hell, the guy just grabbed a screw with a similar head and the same thread size; definitely not the screw that came with the bike. Later that day, I was running my GPS cable to the battery, so removed that skinny piece of molding that runs up under the pocket on the left side. The mechanic had not replaced one of the plastic clips that hold that piece on!

Rather than dick around with going back to the shop, I ordered the pieces myself, but did tell the shop that if I ever used them again, I didn't want that guy touching either of my scoots; in fact, I didn't even want him looking at them. Everyone makes mistakes, but this guy's nonchalant attitude was what cheesed me off.