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| Article | Shop Relations 6/1/2006
As riders gather in one place or another you always hear someone praising one shops’ ability or bad mouthing another. Shops on the other hand will refer to undesirable customers as shop hoppers. These scenarios are the results of poor communication and the lack of a working relationship between service provider and the recipient or customer. Dealerships try to encourage this relationship through predetermined mileage service intervals, even if performed and records maintained by an after market shop. The one thing that is most important is the relationship between man and machine. By knowing your machine you can relay your concerns to your servicing support shop who has your machine’s information on file. Keeping a log of all service performed with any additional cause and effect that may be discovered is a wealth of knowledge to be used for your machine’s longevity.
Shop hopping can often lead to conflicting diagnostics or discipline of methods, and mismatched products which leads to utter confusion. There can be many ways to achieve positive results for a particular goal. Unfortunately, many of these ways can not be mixed and matched outside of their particular package without significant trade-offs. So, if you are looking for price point only, you may be in for some sobering surprises. Many shops specialize in certain products. For example, Precision V Twins is a Pro tuning Center for S&S Cycles. We also are VFI and Side Winder certified. We recommend, use and support a lot of S&S products. We here at Precision V Twins are also a Dynojet Tuning Center for power commanders. With Dynojet and S&S as a support network for us, we can better serve the fuel injected and carbureted tuning needs of the motorcycling community. We use many products which have proven themselves over the years as reliable, but reliability will not be cheap.
Many shops are good at something; this is why they went into business. You must find the shop that best suits your needs. These days there are support products to achieve even the most technical of goals but you must implement them correctly. The more complex systems become the greater need for technical support. With the E-85 Alcohol fuel coming we will be doing a lot of conversions on EFI as well as carbureted machines. These systems will be complex to convert and can not be switched back and forth. Today we are seeing shops specialize because of the cost of equipment, education, and product support. The motorcycling community is changing fast, technologically, and it will take all of us working together to embrace the rapid pace changes ahead. When shops work together and that includes dealerships, the motorcycling community is a better place to exist. The people, who bounce from one shop to another, can expect that same loyalty in return! Once again, to match systems to machine and rider demands is a difficult task. If one size fits all works for you, then be happy. If you have specific expectations, then be careful in you product and shop choices. If you have higher ambitions then be precise and prepared to adventure where few go!
Good Riding and God Bless
Steve Caldwell - steve@precisionvtwins.com
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