....... Breakers has been good to me over the years, ......
Me too, I run over to Nanaimo to get them to service my Suzukis. A good mechanic who you can relate to, get along with, and trust is a valuable and much cherished commodity.
Our experience riding motorcycles in 24 countries and needing on ocassion the services of a honest and competent motorcycle mechanic taught me some very good lessons. It doesn't matter the size of the shop, I always want to see how it looks.
If things start to look bad from the get-go they won't ever get better.
Call a tow truck and immediately move your bike to another shop even if it is 100 kilometres away.
We only had one bad experience. I was pretty sure we needed a new clutch and the shop in Germany was telling me they had to pull the engine and crack the cases because the pistons were scored and needed to be replaced. They refused to let me see my bike or talk to the tech or walk into the shop. I had them roll the bike out and it still started.
We managed to get to Venice and board a ferry and when we arrived in Greece we found an amazing shop. Old but spotlessly clean. The owner had a friend pick up a new clutch assembly in Athens and bring it to Patros.
On another trip we had had a long day and when you go from Northern Italy to Southern Italy the pumps change colour . We had been really moving trying to get to Rome that day and I didn't really pay much attention when I went to fill up.
What that means is the hi test pump colour is now the diesel pump and vice versa.
The bike went about 20 feet, made a horrible sound like an engine vomiting and stopped dead. I had a big tank on the bike and i had just put nealry 30 litres of diesel into the tank. I gave the station manager some euros and we pushed the bike to where I could drain the tanks and I cleaned the plugs, but no joy, It was time for road service , The KTM has about 514 fuel filters and I had buggered everyone of them up.
Everyone was terriffic , the tow truck guy just kept our bike on his bed overnight, the guys at the dealership were superb the next day . I had a KTM tech I knew in the states up on email and we were emailing and google translate was doing its thing back and forth .Now you always need to carry cash . It keeps the good guys happy and when you are on a 6 week ride you don't want to be stuck waiting around. A good shop will always step up for tourists, and a decent tip after the service is the best thing you can do to set the stage for the next traveller
The sales guy even brought my wife fresh biscoti that his wife had made.that morning,
He drove us to and picked us up at an amazing Italian restaurant for lunch . He introduced us to the Maitre'd who was from the Bronx . The Restaurant was filled with lots of men dressed in expensive suits from central casting and some were taking their "nieces"out for lunch .
It was right out of the Godfather.