Daring I know the feeling, I took my carbs off my 83 Virago 500 and took them in to be rebuilt because I didn't have the time to do it. They told me it would be about a week because they were booked up. Long story short, it took them 5 weeks till I got them back.... If I had know it was going to be that long I would have don it myself.... I told them they will never see me again, I will take my buisness some place else.. This little 500 is fine, but I do miss my Goldwing, but now it's the size of a tin can....Thanks to a 20 yo drunk...*&^*&^*((&^ bastard...
Just keep the shiny side up....

- Hi, My guess is that the people you ordered from ALWAYS give a short lead time for the arrival of parts that they have to special order. Once they collect your money, they sit on it and wait until they have enough stuff to order from that particular source to meet the source's minimum order amount, or to get a discount for orders over X number of dollars, or to be able to come out ahead on the shipping costs, or something like that. It's always about the bottom line. Then, they play motorcycle-guy tough guy when anyone asks why they did not meet their delivery promise. Fuck 'em. You SHOULD have told they guy when you called and he pulled that nasty attitude on you that you do not like his tone and you want to speak to the owner of the shop. Tell them that they have exactly five working days to produce your part(s) or you will be in for a refund. Take it from there and go to the wall with them Make them give you a 10 to 30 percent discount on the part for lying to you and being late. They mark everything up 100 to 300 percent anyway. At that point it becomes a testosterone problem, so you need to give them some room to save face. SLO.

I recommend avoiding the Tail of the Dragon, the infamous 11 miles near Deal's Gap. Too crowded with idiots, and too much enforcement watching for you to slip up just 'this much.' Find any other road in the area, probably just as good. Also try 335/336/337 in the Texas Hill Country, Lolo Pass in Montana, 555 or 26 or 800 in Ohio, Smuggler's Notch in Vermont, or 198 & 25 in California, just to name a few. There are GREAT riding roads in just about every part of USA. A little research will reveal them. As for being held in position in cars, have you ever noticed what appears to be a foot-rest all the way to the left of the driver's footwell in some cars? Press your left foot hard against that to the point that your back is pressed firmly into the seatback- that will brace you in right-hand turns (or you can brace your left knee against the door). If your car has a center console, press your right knee against that in left-hand turns. You'll get the hang of how much to brace in no time. The idea is that you should never be 'hanging on' to the steering wheel because your body is moving in the seat- this leads to bad steering. You want your body to be braced enough that you can maintain a light and supple grip on the steering wheel, and this will allow you to control the steering with much precision. With motorcycles you also want a light and supple grip on the handlebar. Learn to use your whole body to maneuver the bike, including pressure on the pegs with your feet and gripping the tank with your knees. Once you get the hang of that it will feel like the bike is steering by thought because the inputs will be very subtle and you'll find that you need a lot less countersteering. Of course the lousy ergonomics of cruisers make it very hard to really do this, as well as other things like standing on the pegs to get your weight off the seat so you don't get bounced off the bike riding over bumps.

hey there,

Fem i as per your previous post i chose to pay cash because thats just the way i do things they only asked for 10% down

Phun no thanks on your advice i simply want to cruise around and enjoy country roads. fast and wreckless is not for me. being a trucker i have seen the results of both and trying to help a person who is dying in your arms is not something i want to do again or put another in that situation.

just an update: i found lots of crap in the fuel system and had to remove both tanks. FUN WOW!!!! now if it would just stop raining..........

Akron, I think you may be right in this case. I have a friend who built a custom harley with all e-bay purchases! Saved one heck of a bunch of money, got it done right, on time and the perfect bike he wanted.

Buy the parts yourself, and find someone who will do install-only. Of course you can save yourself a few more bucks by getting a temporary tax ID number, create a fake company, and get things at a wholesale cost. Not sure of the legalities, but here in PA, it's easy to do, unlimited numbers you can obtain and no records are kept for temp numbers after one year. I do it all the time for trade show purchases.

I'm American ~ and I ride pretty good! LMAO There is also nothing wrong with asking who they are using as a supplier and call them yourself and find out what the backlog is for delivery. I have found in our business of manufacturing..........some companies may owe monies to a distributor and that account has to be satisfied before anymore shipments to the vendor is completed. Small shops owe money and they use your pre-payment to activate their account again. May just be a ploy to help them keep their accounts up to date. I would think any business that sells stock type items could order and receive WITHOUT a prepayment. If your order is cancelled, re-stocking fees may be charged, but also is an expense to operate a business. If prepayments are required, probably means their financial situation is way behind and I would reconsider using that company in risk of closure and loss of any pre-payment monies.

Nobody's assembling a bike in America that I like.

Are there still people out there riding bikes that arent made in America. I have waited a whopping 48 hours for parts for my Harley but most of the time the parts are on the shelf. Glad to hear you are on the road. Be carful out there, the four wheelers dont watch for us.
Mike

Congrats. Hopefully you won't have the same issue in the future.

Zo.

UPDATE:

Thanks for all the input but i called today and my carb kits are in. dont know what took so long but i am just glad to have them.

Mr. Daring