| Author | Message | ||
     Road_King |
Had a good experience at Mancuso's HD (American Speed) in Houston this week. I went over there looking for a battery for S1 #1, expecting to be told that they'd have to order me one. Imagine my surprise when they had 6 in stock! The item was actually an upgrade kit from the old style battery to a newer style, and it included a battery box adapter and all mounting hardware, too. The parts guy seemed as surprised as I was that they actually had Buell parts on hand. When I asked him for a rear brake hose, he said he was sure he'd have to order that, but when he checked the computer, lo and behold, they had that one in stock, too! Good job, Mancuso HD! Road_Thing | ||
| Bonestock |
Does anyone have any suggestions for a dealer in NC...I second the earlier post about Earl Small's in Marietta, those guys rock! I had to take my bike the 2 hours, and they always accommodated me, even let me watch them work on the bike so I could learn a few things. But, Ray Price in Raleigh is terrible...they've had my bike for a month now, I used to sit and wait for my bike at Earl Small's. This is killing me! I going to miss both the Big Kahuna at Road Atlanta, and Myrtle Beach Bike week!!! Any suggestions? | ||
| Mikej |
I think this goes under the "Cautions" heading, and I hope it will be quickly remedied. Caution: if your servicing dealership goes to a new service department format where they rarely take appointments and take in work on a first-come first-served format, start planning on losing a lot time getting your bike in for service. The format don't work. It is a nice concept where the relatively minor service issues like tire changes and oil/lube changes can be handled on a ride-in and wait in line format, in reality it don't work. The line forms on a Saturday morning as early as an hour before they open. The service dept. officially opens at 8am, but sometimes will open the doors by 7:30-7:45 or so. By 8:15am all that day's time is booked up, sorry, goodbye, have a nice day. You can't drop the bike off the night before because they don't have the storage space. You can't make an appointment for anything with less than a 5 hour job because that's not how the new format works. So, for most people who work M-F, there is no way to get their bike's in without missing work from their job. Guess what, the customers are exercising their options and the other dealerships in the area are getting busier. Hopefully they will "fix" their new system, because it isn't a good way to open a new bigger better building when the new system drives customers away. I'm glad I do most of my work myself when I can, and if I need to have the shop do something I'll be heading elsewhere until they get things fixed. | ||
| Caitiff |
Hey, I just got my M2 3 weeks ago, and bought my wife a Blast to boot, and I can't say enough good things about Fat Willy's (Susquehanna HD) in Harrisburg Pa. I've got a few problems w/ my M2, and to my surprise, they were more upset than I was, and have gone the extra mile to make sure its fixed warranty. Gotta love it! | ||
| Court |
Caitiff: WELCOME and that is GREAT news about the dealership. We have a little thing here called a "post card gun". If you get a second drop the name and address of the dealer. It reinforces the value of "being good" when they know that folks around the world are aware. By the way...it's neat that your wive "bought a BLAST® to boot"...but, may I suggest that, instead, she start off riding it before she boots it. Please man...give the bike a chance ! Court | ||
| Jim_Witt |
Greetings, It looks as if Hacienda HD received their quarterly crack shipment in this week, plus as an added bonus they’ve hired yet another new service manager. If I recall correctly, that’s about number 8 since the summer of 1998. Anywho … I haven’t visited Hacienda (for anything) in over a year now due to their poor service and chaos they proudly display. Today I received a statement from them for nearly $450.00 for work they performed a year ago on a shock recall. So I give them a ring this afternoon to find out the particulars. After numerous conversations back and forth with their accounting guru, nothing has been resolved. I was told in the last conversation that my 1-year warranty had expired on my 98 Buell when the work was performed. Of course I then mentioned it was a recall, plus the fact that I have a 3-year extended warranty. Then the guru says he can’t even find me in the database (hint: and he sent me the invoice). As you've heard from me and others, be forewarned fellow hooligans, stay away from Hacienda HD in Scottsdale Arizona! Cheers, -JW:>) | ||
| Court |
Hacienda's lack of compentancy is as timeless as your gorgeous Arizona landscape. I, you'll recall, flew out there to see for myself. It was one of the times in my Buell association that I wanted to cry. Details have been previously posted. Suffice to say, absent anything to convince me to the contrary, you're telling no one anything that, sadly, is not common knowledge. On the other hand, it's a pretty building. Court | ||
| Leeaw |
Nobody speaks of my area, but Danbury CT HD goes way beyond the call of duty. They are my shop of choice after buying the bike somwhere else. I just dropped off my rims for tire swap and balancing, next day and $20 and they were ready. To boot, the service manager offered to take my rims home and paint them himself, as we were discussing what more I wanted to do to them after stripping them. He's been riding and racing HD since before I was born, and is quite passionate about his X1 and Buell. Spent about 1/2 hour last night listening to his racing days and discussing why the Vr1000 has not been adorned with new aerodynamic bodywork. I give them my money and 4 stars. | ||
| Court |
Leeaw: DUDE ! It is YOUR JOB, in the Buell Community, to share those things. Knowledge is Power! Er ...wait.....maybe Power is Knowledge. Anyway....speak up or I'll have to fine you. THANKS Court | ||
| Pangalactic |
Bonestock, Ray Price tends to have a lot of parts, but the service there is s s s s l l l l o o o o w w . They had my bike in for a 500mi service for a week. A friggin week! And it took two weeks before I could take it in! Three weeks bikeless! If you're gonna do it yourself, they're pretty accomodating. (They even had service manuals in stock!) Fayetteville is a joke at the moment, but they are supposed to start selling Buell stuff this fall. | ||
| S1_Buell |
I want to recommend a Buell dealer in the Twin Cites. I bought my S1 from them three years ago and have had real good service from them all three years. I just had my 10,000 mile checkup (at 25,000) and when I got my bike home I noticed that it looked a lot nicer than when I dropped it off. Two years earlier I low sided and never replaced the airbox cover which was scratched. Twin Cities Harley Davidson/Buell put a new one on and never charged me for it and did not even tell me that they did it. It was a nice suprise when I got home. | ||
| Leeaw |
Then the dude has spoken! HD of Danbury gets my vote. I'll take the fine if there is a "patch" to fix it. Even better, any car window stickers? I am growing bored of the rebel flags on my car that my hick, aloholic, psoriasis-ridden brother-in-law put on when the car was his, so he could find a rare black 4-door Civic. How many hicks were born and bred in Mt. Kisco, NY? | ||
| Sparky |
Things are looking UP for Buell service at Bartels' in Marina Del Rey these days. There is now a service writer there who owns & rides his Cyclone to work every day. Let me introduce Steve. He rode with us to Tat's Customer Appreciation BBQ a couple weeks ago. Nice guy, soft spoken with the serious look on his face and whose eyes don't glaze over when you mention that your shock is leaking and Buell will cover it. He actually reads the service bulletins and understands them. Case in point - when I went in to get the new front muffler bracket installed, I was concerned about the possibility of losing my charging system due to improper grounding of the new regulator bracket. He pointed out that on the 96 S1, the regulator is back by the battery and doesn't need to be moved. "Oh yeah, that's right", I said sheepishly. So if you need Buell service, talk to Steve first. If not, stop by and introduce yourself anyhow. He'll talk Buells with ya. Sparky 96S1, 98S3 | ||
| Capscorner |
Based on info. previously posted to this BB, I had some dealings with Gainesville HD/Buell recently. IMHO, they went out of their way to accommodate me. I would not hesitate to have future dealings with them again. Brian | ||
| Padrelobo |
Would anyone have recommendations for a shop in the South New Jersey area? | ||
| Buelliedan |
Dealer Report: Barnett HD/Buell El Paso, TX They Suck!!! I bought my S3 from them. Every time I have a breakage I have to call Buell customer service because they want to give me a hard time about repairing it under warranty. All they care about is the inital sale and selling you clothes and chrome afterwards. Stay away from these guys!! | ||
| S2no1 |
Dan, Have to second that. They have no Buell parts in stock. Although if you look the part number up for them, they will order it. Arvel | ||
| Vr1203 |
I was wondering if there is a mail order Buell dealer that is up on Buells.I would like to do business with somebody over the phone that knows Buells. The dealer in Bettendorf Iowa, Wieblers, seem to treat me and the Buell as unwanted stepchilds.Its almost a 2 hour round trip anyway.I have been waiting for the 2001 shift linkage kit and other hardware for weeks now.Then getting the stuff wrong/incomplete.The Harley shop in town here, which I thought would be able to help me ,is NOT a Buell dealer and they tell me that everytime I go in there to buy a jet or oil/filter! Boy talk about animosity! Jeez, its like getting kicked out of a Chevy dealer because you own a Corvette! | ||
| Tripper |
VR: Topeka HD/Buell loves to ship UPS. 785-235-6104 For parts: Dave Chall - M2 owner. For Service: Bruce Zimmerman: S2 & XR1000 owner. Both guys are enthusiastic Buellers, will listen to you and give excellent advise. Others will highly recommend Modesto, and Manchester. I have visited Manchester and found Dave King (the parts King) to be very enthusiastic about Buells. Got any recent pics of your project? You snagged the coolest buell in the world. | ||
| Vr1203 |
Hi, Tripper thanks for info , I'll mail order for now on.I've mounted the turbo and I'm in the process of tuning the carb. There was a hold up trying to find a #220 main jet.I can take some photos and try to post them in the photo section. | ||
| Jima4media |
Modesto Buell Rox! You all knew that I know, but I have to keep saying it when they do such an outstanding job. I posted this on sacborg.com, but it is worth repeating. I had a tipover yesterday, and they had all of the broken parts in stock, and put them on for me while I waited. Take this list of tipover parts to your dealer and see if they have them in stock. Then ask how long it would take to have them install. Post the replies here. Footrest Mount 50509-94YA Handlebar Low Profile N0002.K Clutch Lever - 45187-96Y Fairing Kit, air scoop M1667.K Turn Signal Asm, Left Front Y0503.K Or do the same thing with a list of the same parts for your bike. What Modesto Buell was able to do, is what every dealer should be able to do. I wouldn't expect most dealers to do the work the same day, but they should have tipover parts in stock, for all models, all the time. Now, the second part of this excercise is to see what candy parts your dealer has instead of tipover parts. If you dealer has these things in stock instead of parts you might need subtract one point for each part - 1. Buell CD case 2. Buell Beer Glass 3. Buell T-Shirts 4. Buell Axel Covers 5. Buell cigarette lighter And another thing - If they hand you a "Get Radical" card offering a $500 bonus towards Buell parts and accessories if you buy a "Radical Paint Set" for $2,000 - $2,300. Take the card and a CD-case and start a bonfire in their parking lot with them. When they ask you why you did it tell them them they don't have a freaking clue what it takes to be a Buell dealer. Jim X-2.5 | ||
| Dgemal |
Hi all, Well as most of you know...I traded in my Blast that was fitted with the V&H pipes etc. for a Dyna wide glide. I have had a lot of people ask me what the experience was like trading the Blast in using the Trade-up deal. I have to admit that it was painless and that was mainly because of the dealer I went through. They had no quibbles and did not even balk at all... Huffmans Harley Davidson of Lakeland Florida (and especially Bill and Frank) were GREAT! I had called some other dealers, and when they found out that I wanted to trade a 2001 Blast they either hiked up their prices or started to get really resistant to the deal. Others I called just didn't have a bike I wanted, so I can't comment on them. I had one little quibble with the fact that they didn't want the V&H because it was too loud and they requested that I change it back to stock. I suppose that is reasonable though and perhaps I am being too picky... but when you get such excellent service, I suppose anything slightly off stands out. I arrived there today and swapped the exhaust, jets and air filter back out. Everyone at the dealership was excellent, friendly and helpful. I had a couple of the mechanics even come out (when they were on their breaks) and help in a couple of places with no request from me (they were just friendly, helpful and polite)... they gave me helpful tips and helped me out with a specialised tool that I didn't have (to remove the exhaust retaining clip). I even had the General Manager (Bill) pop out to see how I was doing and he offered me the option of coming inside the workshop and doing the work there where it was air conditioned... I am VERY impressed. As far as the deal I got on the Wide Glide, I have nothing to complain about... although I didn't buy at MSRP, I paid a little over, but they had the bike I wanted, in the color I was happy with and it was available now. Every other dealer I spoke with was priced waaaaaaay higher for a floor bike or insisted I take accessories etc. Huffman's of Lakeland is a great dealership I would recommend to anyone. Make sure you deal with Frank if you are there for sales. I was not as impressed with the rest of the bike sales force. The ladies doing reception, clothing and accessories were excellent, friendly and helpful. The parts people were great too... very knowledgable... (quoting the standard jetting sizes for Blasts without having to look it up etc). I am also posting this to the Blast section and to the Dealers and stealers web site... So to summarise... Don't hesitate to shop there... they are Great. A special thanks to Frank and Bill for all your help in my original purchase of the Blast and making the trade up to the bigger bike such a painless pleasure. | ||
| Mikej |
Eastside H-D/Buell was great to work with during my recent mishap/accident in Washington state this past week. Basically I was rearended by an elderly driver over on the Olympic Pennisula in Washington state, 2,500 miles from home while on vacation. I borrowed a relative's pickup and took my damaged M2 up to Eastside unnanounced, just pulled up in their parking lot. I had been there a few days before to look around prior to the crash but didn't really buy much of anything, I think a couple quarts of oil and a coffee from the lady in the espresso stand on their front porch. Anyway, even though their service department was extreamly busy one of the mechanics took the time to give my bashed bike a preliminary damage inspection, communicate with the insurance people several times on the telephone, and then write up a preliminary damage report with the help of Barry (aka: Castlehead) in Sales and the sales manager (Rick I think?). This helped to expedite the initial damage estimates for Allstate insurance, which helped them to expedite an on-site inspector and in-house processor to conclude that my bike was probably a total-loss. Eastside parts department gave me a bunch of assistance by looking up part numbers and getting me printouts of the options I'd added to my bike to add to it's fair market value. The ladies in motorclothes helped to size and price and check inventory of helmets for me. I had free use of a telephone while there since I was putting all the calls onto my ATT calling card. Basically, I showed up without being a prior customer of theirs on a Monday morning and dumped my problems and broken bike into their collective laps, and the response was "no problem, what can we do to help". I basically lived at their store on Monday and Tuesday while trying to sort out things with the insurance people. So, to Eastside H-D/Buell, thank you very much, every one of your staff helped to make a traumatic and difficult situation much more manageable. Your hospitality and assistance will be long remembered by me. And I do hope you are able to recover some funds for the storage and work you did while helping me from Allstate. If things had happened more efficiently from the insurance people I might have ended up on the 2001 black S3T or M2, or maybe the pearl-white '97 S3 police model you had downstairs. Great people and a fair selection of new and used Buells. Thank you. Mike Jaquet, with the totaled 2000 M2. | ||
| Court |
Mike: I am priting a copy of your post and sending to Harley-Davdidson dealer service folks (this sort of stuff counts toward awards, I think) and I am sending a copy to Eastside. Glad...in the end..that you are well and safe. It was good to see you. Court | ||
| Mikej |
Thanks Court. The bottom line is it could have been a whole lot worse. Parts is parts, people are what make the difference. | ||
| Cyclonem2drew |
You gotta watch Harley/Buell of Edison. They have been great in the past (their parts department is awesome...I've never waited more than 7 days for anything, from H-D or outside vendors). Their service has slipped, though. They installed a '01 shock on my '00 M2 (per the recall). They informed me that the shock is set to almost max preload (I like to have it firmer so that I can go two up with my girlfriend without adjusting the preload). On a recent ride, however, none other than Blake notices that the shock is set to almost MINIMUM preload...and upon checking further, the belt was completely taut! This should have been checked and adjusted before I even left the dealership...but I should not have been told it was set for almost max. The people in Edison are cool, but you need to double check everything. BIG THUMBS UP for Williams HD/Buell in Lebanon, NJ. They are a new Buell dealer, and they are totally into the whole deal. They have a dedicated Buell tech that really takes pride in his work...talk to Jimmy Virago. (908) 236-0767. They are also building a new facility next door to their current one...pictures look awesome. | ||
| Lake_Bueller |
I should have known better.... I had a gift certificate to Woodstock H-D/Buell. Thought I'd finally upgrade the stock pegs from my '98 S3T to the newer style. I called to see if they had the parts in stock before driving 35 minutes to the dealership. "No problem" they said. "We have 7 pairs in stock" I drive down to find that they had ZILCH in stock. They're on order. After I pick them up, it will be the LAST trip I make to Woodstock. This isn't the first time I've had a problem. Sorry, just venting. Mennis | ||
| Shooter |
Been meaning to post this for a while now... Dudley Perkins HD/Buell - rocks Golden Gate HD/Buell- sux During my annual pilgramage to Laguna seca/World Suberbike, I snapped the belt on my S3 in Lincoln City Oregon on July 4th. Not wanting to miss Friday's pro Thunder race I decided to rent a u-haul and continue South. With toyracer and his X1 keeping my broke S3 company We headed South, stopping at Snail's house for a great dinner and lots of ribbing about the latest Buell touring accessary, a u-haul.Printed a list of dealers off the web and drove all night, arriving at Jim and Jim's HD/BUELL in Ureka at 0800.Jim showed up about 0830, and looked for a belt.No go.He called around the SF Bay area and found a belt at Golden Gate HD/BUELL.He explained my situation (traveler etc etc) and they said tough doo doo, they were not gonna do the belt. They didnt have the "special tool".Dudley Perkins was called, they did not have a belt either but said if I coukld find one they would put it on.Back in the u-haul and off to golden gate.I figured once I drove up, IN A U HAUL, they might reassess the situation. I was wrong.They sold Me the belt,not wanting to call HD about a goodwill.The special tool turned out to be the cherry picker. service writer wouldnt look at Me.Well screw em, off to dudley perkins.double park the u haul on a narrow busy street in downtown San Fran, people come out to help unload, bikes on the lift 1/2 hour after I am there.Drop off the U Haul 2 blocks away,have a few beers with Toyracer at Zeitgeist, come back and the bike is done.A goodwill for refund of my belt purchase is already gone to HD,and the Buell tech comes down to wish Me luck on the rest of my trip. | ||
| Pilk |
Bumpus H/D BUELL of Memphis very cool about fixin travelers bikes. This last week a couple of friends and I rode from MO to New Orleans, friends Fat Boy broke a primary gear, had it towed to Bumpus they put it right on a rack, ahead of scheduled work and fixed it. Six hours later we were back on the road. X-1 was FLAWLESS for the 1700 mi. trip. and averaged 65 mpg. All the people at Bumpus are very NICE. PILK | ||
| Az_M2 |
Thumbs Up to CHANDLER HD/BUELL. Just had the bike in for 2500 mi. service. In and out on the same day (reservation ahead of time) and the Cyclone had been washed while there. Also picked up the Service Manual which was in stock. |
