Ethics and Responsibility**

Early in the fall of 2010 I spun the rear wheel of my Kawasaki Vulcan 1600 on a paint strip while turning left. I picked the bike up, rode it home and called the necessary individuals to make reports and gain assessment of damage.

The damage was mostly cosmetic, with some some simple mechanical and electronic damage. A turn signal, the handlebars, the left clutch, the rear fender, the gas tank and several other parts were replaced. Around 85% of the bike’s bluebook (pristine) value was paid to Extreme Kawasaki of Baxley, GA (here forward known as the “repairer”) for these parts. After having to pay (upfront 80%) for the repairs before they began, the entire balance was paid and the motorcycle was back under my control.

I noticed a distinct lack of my radiator fan rattling at intersections afterwords as well as a very hot gas tank. The repair shop advised me I needed a new radiator (900 dollars). As it seemed working fine before hand, I dismissed this suggestion. I put 3,000 miles on the motorcycle over the winter (mild in South Georgia).

I left the key in the ignition for over a day, turned on. The battery was fully drained. The battery would not charge fully but I was able to turn over the engine once before I had to recharge. I removed the battery and charged it. As I was taking the battery out, I noticed something I had never noticed before.

Note - I have not even washed the bike since the repairs. The paint is still brand new under it’s layer of good clean dirt. This was the first time I took off the rider’s seat.

What i noticed was several wires that did not look right. They are the radiator’s wires. I checked the wiring diagram and there was only one unclosed circuit shown for the motorcycle. Apparently there are 7 unconnected wires, bundled in plastic bits and oddities which do not seem to connect to anything nor do they loop back upon themselves. The wiring is covered not in factory protectors, but in electrical tape.

I then found all the hoses from the pump lead only to the gas tank, the hose from which lead nowhere and was hanging loose without indention that would show it had been connected. The hoses from the radiator were connected to nothing.

I just need some simple advice which is not so simple. What should I do? ***

It’s already costing me 150 dollars to have the bike towed to the only repair shop within 60 miles.*

Should I take the bike back to them, even that? If they want more money, do I call my claims adjuster and then file suit in small claims?

What do I do about the now sluggish engine? Are they at fault for:
a) disconnecting the radiator
b) not noticing the faulty wiring
c) not telling me about the disconnections
d) not telling me they disconnected the items

Help.

*(I am not rich, as I make very little money finding ways to make things that already exist do so in such that anyone can understand and use my modification (which no one has thought of yet) or truly original thoughts which I seem to pluck out of the ether and literally take decades to expand to more than ten pages of theory - although I have decided making money would be nice for a change.)
**(an occurrence of observation in the meta-cognitive quantum thought process concerning the Complacency of Consumers in a State of Greed comparative to the progress of the human race as a whole and those immediately within knowledgeable distance in rural South-East USA with recognition to the state of being in both Republics and Democracies (ancient) as well as the mindset of individuals anachronistically placed in the time of observation)
***(While I love my bike and if i spent the time to fix it, I could do so, I have literally thousands of ideas per day which I cannot even keep up with. I barely have enough time to design inventions and write what I can before my mind decides to whisk me off on another fantastic voyage through dimensional metaphysics or suggests that I can improve any device I see. )

What Is Your Take On Tin Foil ?
CSA

Are they at fault for:
a) disconnecting the radiator
b) not noticing the faulty wiring
c) not telling me about the disconnections
d) not telling me they disconnected the items

Assuming what you wrote is true, yes they are. Good luck getting them to own up to it, though.

**(an occurrence of observation in the meta-cognitive quantum thought process concerning the Complacency of Consumers in a State of Greed comparative to the progress of the human race as a whole and those immediately within knowledgeable distance in rural South-East USA with recognition to the state of being in both Republics and Democracies (ancient) as well as the mindset of individuals anachronistically placed in the time of observation)
***(While I love my bike and if i spent the time to fix it, I could do so, I have literally thousands of ideas per day which I cannot even keep up with. I barely have enough time to design inventions and write what I can before my mind decides to whisk me off on another fantastic voyage through dimensional metaphysics or suggests that I can improve any device I see. )

The * ** *** made my head hurt.

Thanks.

I am surprised you didn’t discover something wrong during one of your pre-trip inspections. Pre-tripping your bike is pretty important, and it’s something they emphasize in the Motor Safety Foundation’s basic rider’s course.

The first time a shop makes this kind of mistake should be the last time you take your bike to such a shop. Find another shop. Keep looking until you find a competent motorcycle mechanic you can trust.

As a motorcycle owner, I think your approach to safety is far too passive. Trusting someone else with your safety is a bad idea. You should be regularly checking the wiring and proper operation of your motorcycle. You have no way of knowing if they disconnected the fan and forgot to reconnect it, if they just never noticed it got disconnected during the accident, or if it happened after they repaired your bike. The time to find these kinds of problems is at the shop, where you thoroughly check your bike and can say, “What the hell!!!”

Using Whitey’s Advice, Instead Of All This Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, Get More Of A Yen For The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.

I have owned and operated eight motorcycles, myself and still have one in the back of the garage.
CSA

I suggest that you contact your motorcycle insurer immediately and have them look the bike over. They can deal with the repair shop they sent you to. Don’t you pay them to wear Yama’s red suit?

When in need of motorcycle parts, I have ALWAYS found it cheaper just to buy a second parts bike…If you can’t repair your own motorcycle, you should not own one…

Todays Rice-Racer motorcycles, BMW too, have fallen into the technology trap where NOBODY can repair them…The magazine test-riders drool over them, but they don’t have to maintain and repair them…

When your bike went down, it should have become someone else’s parts bike after your insurance company totaled it…

Speaking Of Bikes And Wrecks . . .

. . . this past week-end while returning on the highway that runs a few hundred yards away from my house I saw a guy, well first I saw the dead deer on the shoulder (the one I always had to brake for) , and then I saw the guy. He looked OK, so I went by and turned onto my little road and doubled back.

I walked to the end of my driveway and yelled over the canal to him to see if he needed help. He was waiting on the Sheriff so he could get a report for insurance. He asked if I had a bucket to scoop water from the ditch to clean some deer off his Harley.

The bike had hair all over it. His leather jacket and pants had hair and a little blood. The bike had bent crash bars and a little dent in the slightly misaligned front fender. The deer’s liver was hanging off a rear peg ! The rider took some impact from the deer and the bike never went down. After the Sheriff he was able to ride it home. He had full coverage on the bike.
He was very lucky. He told me he was going slow . . . only about 65 or so. He told the Sheriff he was going slow . . . only about 45. I guess the crash confused him some.

CSA

There’s a bit of haze here.
Why in the world spend 85% of the bike value repairing it? A DIYer fine, but not at a shop.

Sluggish engine could be cooked piston rings due to overheating so a compression test may be in order along with a new engine, all depending.

Buy the bike new or used? If used, how long have you had it and any chance this bike was altered before you wrecked it?

How in the world does a paint stripe cause you to lose control of a bike? I’ve been riding for decades and this is a new one on me.

That story makes this guy look pretty lucky.

Tin foil: Not readily commercially available and otherwise completely useless. Aluminum, when combined with hydro-sulfides and ingested is a neuro-kenetic plaque contributor (hearsay) and should be avoided unless one sees the need to eat enough venison to depopulate Valley Forge (PA) or drink several hundred Five Hour Energies per day (niacin).

I had the bike towed. I was polite, although I they ‘remembered me from last time’ being what I would assume they think to be an ‘uppity yankee’ - when I asked for them to repair the motorcycle before I paid them for it - and asked the following questions:

  1. What does this look like to you. What do you think about this? (earnest, curious in intention)
  2. If it is not factory wiring (which he said it wasn’t), why wasn’t it fixed when they were paid over 6,000 dollars to do cosmetic repairs as well as ‘check on the radiator’ (which is connected to the gas tank which was replaced as well - so were the front shocks).
  3. If they didn’t do the wiring, and I didn’t do the wiring, and the wiring was not that way before when the radiator worked, why wasn’t I told about the radiator being disconnected. Why was I told I “needed a new radiator because the ball bearings were going bad and the entire unit had to be replaced as a whole, not just the fan - $900”.
  4. Why, when I have not even changed the oil nor washed the motorcycle since the repair - would I have rewired my motorcycle to destroy my radiator, my engine and my transmission? (I have evidence).
  5. When will you be paying for my new motorcycle and lawyer? (after he told me to get the hell off his property and take the f- thing to another shop. Get this sh out of here.)

I even told the guy, on the phone, what was wrong. I told him there was some messed up wiring. I told him I wanted it repaired as cheaply and quickly as possible. It is my only vehicle. I do not go around messing with automobiles. I have enough on my plate.
He told me to bring it to him to let him look at it. He surprised me by being so irate. I didn’t accuse him of doing it, although I was curious as to why I wasn’t told it was disconnected, nor why the wiring wasn’t mentioned nor the radiator pump and hoses.

150 dollars. I am so poor from living in this baptist-made-hell-on-earth that I had to borrow the money from my mother, who is in turn so poor that she is angry at me for wasting the money.

=(

I can’t even Hire a decent lawyer. They won’t come down to this area nor will any from around here do more than shake hand behind the table with the opposition and charge me for the pleasure of paying them.

Caddyman: “If you can’t repair your own motorcycle, you should not own one.”

Oh, no! I guess I have to sell my bikes now since I don’t know how to rebuild the engines and transmissions! Alternatively, I could just ignore obviously obtuse and ill-natured advice. Yeah, I think that’s what I’ll do.

ZoomBune, why would you pay up front in the first place (on your first visit)? That should have told you something was fishy.

You are giving repeat business to a shop that allegedly screwed up on your last visit and allegedly ripped you off? You have met the enemy, and it is you. This is a clear case of “those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

“Oh, no! I guess I have to sell my bikes now since I don’t know how to rebuild the engines and transmissions! Alternatively, I could just ignore obviously obtuse and ill-natured advice. Yeah, I think that’s what I’ll do.”

Although I agree 100% in what you said Whitey…

I used that as an excuse for my son at 16 getting a bike. You can get one when you can field strip it and put it back together…He’s now 20 and still doesn’t own a bike…

Your shop has lied to you on more fronts that I care to touch base on.

Since you never mentioned what year and model of Vulcan 1600, I have pulled the radiator fan part number for a 2008 Vulcan 1600 Classic.

59502-0013

This part cost a whopping $445.68 from ronayers.com
I got the part number from kawasaki’s website, under the Owner Info/Parts Diagrams section.

You should get familiar with all of these things, being a kawasaki riding motorcyclist.
It will save you big piles of bs in the future.

BC.

"Early in the fall of 2010 I spun the rear wheel of my Kawasaki Vulcan 1600 on a paint strip while turning left. I picked the bike up, rode it home and called the necessary individuals to make reports and gain assessment of damage.

The damage was mostly cosmetic, with some some simple mechanical and electronic damage. A turn signal, the handlebars, the left clutch, the rear fender, the gas tank and several other parts were replaced."

I don’t see how this is a $6,000 job. You see, that’s the point where you just buy a car.

Your LEFT clutch? Good thing your RIGHT clutch was unharmed.

At some point you were able to buy this bike. What the heck happened after that? Sounds like there are bigger fish to fry.

I just wanted advice, not to get trolled by a bunch of idiots on the internet.

I’m sorry I even asked. Look, I just wanted to know if this was commonplace. Apparently by the majority of attitudes, it is. Yes, I am an idiot.

I am an idiot who has proven a paradox with simple mathematics and can not only what dark matter and matter are but WHY they are and what they are in lower dimensional forms.

SORRY FOR NOT HAVING THE TIME TO FIX MY RIDE GUYS. OOPS MY BAD. I GUESS I NEED TO GO FRY SOME BIG FISH.

full stop

*explain what dark…