This morning Doug and I were up bright and early getting ready for Mike's arrival. The plan was to load the bike and head over to Fresno to be there by 9am when they opened. We got the bike loaded by going over to a nearby truck loading dock and it barely fit in the back of his Honda Ridgeline but it fit. Then we were on our way. Mike knew a great local place for breakfast called the Boss Hog, appropriately themed with Dukes of Hazzard stuff. The food was good.
After breakfast we headed over to Fresno and arrived at 9am. Getting there just as the place opened up it was kind of slow to get the bike unloaded. Upon inspection of the rear end it was clear to everyone that indeed the final drive had failed. So the next question was where Steve, the service manager, could source a final drive and what my warranty company would cover. He thought he had a unit coming in already for another customer and believed the customer would be OK with giving up his unit in order to get me on the road. That was mighty nice of him, one day I hope to return the favor. So then it was just a matter of contacting Pinnacle for the warranty coverage.
Meanwhile, I was in the front of the dealership trying to figure out what to do for the weekend. As it was unclear when the final drive he had on order would arrive we figured it would be best to try to enjoy the time anyway. So Doug and I were searching the Internet for rental car rates and looking at numbers of $120/day. Ouch! Then we found rates in the $50 - $60/day rate. Considering at the time that I could possibly be stuck in a car through Tuesday I wasn't looking forward to the bill. Since there was a question about possibly returning the car early if Steve was able to get the bike fixed by Saturday, Doug suggested I give Hertz a call and see what they could do. Well the lady was great when I told her my situation. She did a little price shopping for me and with Doug's AAA card, we got a full size car for 5 days for $114 out the door. Yep, for the entire weekend we'd have the car and it had unlimited mileage. Not bad. Then a quick check with Steve and he said we could leave Doug's bike locked up at the shop while my bike was being worked on. So we rode over to the Hertz place and picked up the car. Then went back to the shop to pickup our bags and drop off Doug's bike.
Upon returning I got some great news. The bike would be ready by late afternoon or middle of tomorrow because the final drive had arrived and the folks at Pinnacle had approved the repair. OK, so a little bit about the Pinnacle folks. Steve tells me they gave him all sorts of grief trying to get the repair approved. First they wanted to say I failed to do proper maintenance on the part. That was b.s. since the final drive is listed as a non-maintenance item. Then they wanted to know if I had added anything to the bike that would have caused the failure such as adding a radio. "What? Adding a radio?" he asked. "Yes", they said, "has he added a radio that could cause the failure?". Steve informed them that there was no such radio that could cause the failure so they reluctantly agreed to pay the claim. With this repair I'm breaking even with what I paid for the warranty but these folks don't seem to be worth a crap and obviously don't know what they are doing. When I get home I'm going to have a long talk with the service manager who vouched for these idiots.
Back to the repair. So I told Steve we had the car for at least one day so if he could complete the work and have the bike ready by tomorrow we'd go see the Sequoia park this afternoon and return tomorrow. Things were looking up. So we headed out to the park, but had to turn around just a few miles from the dealership because I forgot my camera. Doh!
This evening when I got to the room and was able to check my voice mail I had a message from Steve saying they were replacing the drive and that the rear pads had worn by about 65% and that my rear rotor was barely within the thickness spec but that both would likely do fine for the trip home. However I'd better plan to replace the rotor with the next set of pads. I plan to talk to him about that tomorrow since I just replaced that rotor 2 sets of pads ago and I don't have any grooves in there so where's all this wear coming from? It may be time to look for an aftermarket rotor if it is indeed wearing out so soon.
Read on to part 2 for the rest of the day and our site seeing. By the way, I'm not responsible if your reading of my blog voids your Pinnacle warranty on your flux capacitor for your bike. Really they thought a radio could cause the FD failure.
After breakfast we headed over to Fresno and arrived at 9am. Getting there just as the place opened up it was kind of slow to get the bike unloaded. Upon inspection of the rear end it was clear to everyone that indeed the final drive had failed. So the next question was where Steve, the service manager, could source a final drive and what my warranty company would cover. He thought he had a unit coming in already for another customer and believed the customer would be OK with giving up his unit in order to get me on the road. That was mighty nice of him, one day I hope to return the favor. So then it was just a matter of contacting Pinnacle for the warranty coverage.
Meanwhile, I was in the front of the dealership trying to figure out what to do for the weekend. As it was unclear when the final drive he had on order would arrive we figured it would be best to try to enjoy the time anyway. So Doug and I were searching the Internet for rental car rates and looking at numbers of $120/day. Ouch! Then we found rates in the $50 - $60/day rate. Considering at the time that I could possibly be stuck in a car through Tuesday I wasn't looking forward to the bill. Since there was a question about possibly returning the car early if Steve was able to get the bike fixed by Saturday, Doug suggested I give Hertz a call and see what they could do. Well the lady was great when I told her my situation. She did a little price shopping for me and with Doug's AAA card, we got a full size car for 5 days for $114 out the door. Yep, for the entire weekend we'd have the car and it had unlimited mileage. Not bad. Then a quick check with Steve and he said we could leave Doug's bike locked up at the shop while my bike was being worked on. So we rode over to the Hertz place and picked up the car. Then went back to the shop to pickup our bags and drop off Doug's bike.
Upon returning I got some great news. The bike would be ready by late afternoon or middle of tomorrow because the final drive had arrived and the folks at Pinnacle had approved the repair. OK, so a little bit about the Pinnacle folks. Steve tells me they gave him all sorts of grief trying to get the repair approved. First they wanted to say I failed to do proper maintenance on the part. That was b.s. since the final drive is listed as a non-maintenance item. Then they wanted to know if I had added anything to the bike that would have caused the failure such as adding a radio. "What? Adding a radio?" he asked. "Yes", they said, "has he added a radio that could cause the failure?". Steve informed them that there was no such radio that could cause the failure so they reluctantly agreed to pay the claim. With this repair I'm breaking even with what I paid for the warranty but these folks don't seem to be worth a crap and obviously don't know what they are doing. When I get home I'm going to have a long talk with the service manager who vouched for these idiots.
Back to the repair. So I told Steve we had the car for at least one day so if he could complete the work and have the bike ready by tomorrow we'd go see the Sequoia park this afternoon and return tomorrow. Things were looking up. So we headed out to the park, but had to turn around just a few miles from the dealership because I forgot my camera. Doh!
This evening when I got to the room and was able to check my voice mail I had a message from Steve saying they were replacing the drive and that the rear pads had worn by about 65% and that my rear rotor was barely within the thickness spec but that both would likely do fine for the trip home. However I'd better plan to replace the rotor with the next set of pads. I plan to talk to him about that tomorrow since I just replaced that rotor 2 sets of pads ago and I don't have any grooves in there so where's all this wear coming from? It may be time to look for an aftermarket rotor if it is indeed wearing out so soon.
Read on to part 2 for the rest of the day and our site seeing. By the way, I'm not responsible if your reading of my blog voids your Pinnacle warranty on your flux capacitor for your bike. Really they thought a radio could cause the FD failure.
2 comments:
But is there a picture of you and Doug riding 2-up to go get the car???
NO
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