The unexpected hiatus was due to the escalation of the dispute between myself and a motorcycle "business" in Southport, a self proclaimed independent specialist in Harley Davidson motorcycles.
Resolution has not been possible so its time to get back to where I was. I'm happy to share the details of the dispute with this business if it saves anyone else falling foul of them . Frosty the owner decided not to buy the bike, and I engaged solicitors through my insurance company, who took two months to examine the case, then advise that whilst civil action would be possible, it would need the employment of an expert witness to guarantee success. Instead they suggested that a letter from them would persuade him to end the deadlock. Once again he refused.
The case is technical and requires an understanding of how the component parts work together, and indeed, are likely to fail. The main piece of evidence ironically is the the photograph Snowman emailed through to me after I collected the bike. I asked for the adjuster and he refused to hand over my property, but emailed this photo through for me.
Here's the photo, which demonstrates not only that no one at the business can operate a camera, but also that they didn't understand how the chain tensioner worked:
I've circled the springs installed in the device, and a great deal of empty space where the inner spring should be. The tensioner requires two springs of the same length to be installed for it to provide the correct amount of tension for it to work. The photo above shows the inner spring is less than half the height of the outer spring. I obtained replacements, something which was beyond the capability of the "workshop" crew, and here is how the original springs look at a similar distance and angle:
Is this conclusive? No.
However the circumstance of the "failure" of the unit is worth considering. The automatic tensioner went in before the last trip to Spain, and performed flawlessly right up to the bike entering the workshop. On the day I first took the bike over to the business, I saw the tensioner dismantled on the bench. This was before the "spannerman" who was working on the bike, knocked his coffee over and before I was told the workshop didn't have the bearing in stock, so I had to leave the bike with them.
When I picked up the bike, within 10 miles the clattering started, which I now believe was because because only the outer spring of the chain tensioner was taking the strain alone rather than working with the inner spring, and so it failed. This wasn't considered by the staff and management of the business, instead they allegedly spent hours working on the bike looking for other explanations that could justify the damaged seal and tensioner.
What else do we have? Well, there was the original explanation of the leak as being caused by porous cases, which they manage to disprove themselves, and then the allegation that the primary chain had stretched, only to be disproved by the business when they installed an new, manual and cheap chain tensioner. We also have the days when the workshop desperately tried to assert that the primary drain plug was at fault, but this line was finally dropped when I scanned the factory manual pages over and the plug was installed correctly. The manual also specifies that when replacing the oil seal, the splines on the mainshaft have to be covered with tape to prevent them tearing the oil seal when the inner case is replaced over the shaft. I don't think this happened, so the oil leak returned.
The rest of the complaint I guess is the unreasonable time taken, the absolute denial that they'd got anything wrong, and then charging me to correct mistakes. And no apology.
Here is the bill that desperately attempts to justify turning a job that should have been three hours at the most in to an 18 hour re-build! Click on the picture to view the details.
Points to note as well as the ridiculous amount of time charged;
1)The charge for fuel is more than the bike can hold, and is especially surprising because the tank was full when I left it in August, and empty when I picked it up. 340 miles worth of testing???
2) The charge includes oil seals. When I took it back I told Frosty that the oil was coming from the seal again, but the suggestion that the seal had been damaged was rejected. It looks like it has been replaced again.
There are no winners in this episode, the "business" may feel proud that they took money from Preston Harley Davidson for the repair, then a further £703 from me, but this will remain as warning for anyone considering using the business and hopefully they will look elsewhere and find somewhere that uses qualified, trained personnel.
I've now replaced the horn casing that was mysteriously damaged during the stay in Southport and have dismantled the starter from the bike, had it tested and the report is that it should work, but it is worn. Back on the bike though, the jack shaft isn't returning from the clutch basket, indicating that the jackshaft hasn't been assembled correctly when the "business" re-assembled the primary case. What a surprise!
This is the horn - the top bolt had been removed, placing all the weight on the bottom mount. The horn fell off as I rode through Lytham. .
