Well, my bike lately has been making a rather scary sound to me. Kind of a knock.of sort. Plus started vibrating in the handlebars when cruising down the road. So i stopped at the Shop to see what they say. Vibrating is due to my front wheel weight being gone. Easy fix. Other thing not so nice. I need a valve adjustment, and also a new Cam chain put on. The new tensioner wasnt fixing my issue, so a new chain is needed. He said a new cam chain, tensioner, and valve job would make the bike run like a champ. So i am going to get this all done. He quoted me between 5-700 bucks for the whole job. I bought the bike in March. I kinda want to ride it this year, and next year, and after that if it will. So i guess i will be forking money out on it already... Sorry for the post. Just venting a lil... Bike ran great when i bought it. Since March little things have been popping up. Hopefully this is a good thing. Kinda scares me putting money into something 20 years old. But i love the bike. So i will. Hope everyone is having a good day...

Paul

 

well, look at it this way, you probably needed a valve adjustment anyway. i have to get valve adjustments every year. plus tires, plus tuneup, plus other things when they go belly up. see, $700 doesn't seem that bad now does it?

 

Yeah. I hear ya... Thats part of owning toys like these i guess. I just am too nervous to work on it myself. Cars are no biggie, but the bike intimidates me for some reason. I will just take it in so i know it is done right.

 

you dont want to know how much money I have put into my cane in the last 18 months. few trips to a no-good shop, tons and tons of hands on, reading the manual, and hours on the forums. Im actually glad I bought an old POS or I wouldnt know a damn thing about bikes now.

btw, my handlebars vibrate, not excessively, but after long rides if I clap my hands together I get a weird tingly echo type feeling in them.

 

I am going in tonight to make an appt to get it done. The vibration wasnt there until recently. So i am sure it is due to the wheel weight being gone. You can tell it just recently disappeared since it is a clean spot there now. I know the bike runs good. Other than these issues. So hopefully this makes it good for another 29,000 miles.. I do know it needs its normal maintenance done though. I just dont know how long, if ever its been since it had a vlave adjustment done. I am sure tha cam chain is the stock one. I know it needs replaced. So i am getting it done. Cant wait to get it back in top shape. They all told me how shocked they are to see a Cane in such good condition. So thats nice to hear.

 

i know how it feels to always want to ride even when the bike isn't running well or needs something done. you just hate the downtime, because that is time you could be riding. it's not like you could go to rent-a-bike and pick one up for a couple days till your own ride is done. so there you are, pacing the garage, waiting for the mechanic to call you back telling you the bike is ready to pick up. you'll have many more of these days.

this is why i take my bike in during the off season to get tuned or fixed. everybody sends their ride in at the beginning of summer or late spring to get their ride tuned and it creates a backlog at the shop. during the colder months, shops don't have as much work so they take their time fixing bikes and usually get them done faster. so by the time summer rolls around, you're good to go.

 

I would do that. I just got my bike in March though. So didnt have it last winter. I asked him if it could wait til fall, and he said he wouldnt ride it like it is. Can cause more damage. So i will just get it done. I can go without. Just gotta fork out the money. Oh well. I guess its a price to pay for the amount of fun i have on it.

 

You could just get another bike for when one or the other is being repaired.

I know, that's a bad suggestion, but it's what I did. I've almost always got either my cruiser or my hurricane torn down, muddling with something or other. That way I can still ride, maybe not as many twisties on the Intruder, but hey, I'm still riding.

Look at it this way, if you keep riding, and it breaks something, it will be in the shop a lot longer. You may want a second opinion also. Not all shops are very reputable. Bike shops don't pay too well, it's why I work on cars for a living. They sometimes will hire just about anyone just to have a warm body working on bikes. They aren't all like that though.

Just my opinion.

 

We only have 2 shops in town. I took it to the other one the first time. They told me all was fine. Just need a new CCT. So they put one on. Didnt help anything. Noise was still there. So i took it back to them and they said maybe my cam chain is stretched, so they can do that. So i got to thinking. They are just trying to get me to bring it back multiple times to get more money out of me for labor. So i am going to give the other shop in town a chance. They told me straight up. It needs this, this, and this. This will be cheaper to do now since we will already be in there, and so on. I liked that. Just gotta see how the outcome is now to decide whether i stick with them or go to the next nearest shop that is 35 miles away. We'll see.