[1970-01-01]

>One time, when a customer asked him to help revive a beloved 1983 Honda Magma V45 that hadn’t been driven for two years, Crawford responded harshly: “Assuming it’s got all the usual problems from sitting, you’re looking at a thousand dollars to get it back on the road.

First, it is the Honda Magna. Second, this mechanic took him to the cleaners. The Magna isn't nearly as complex as a Goldwing. $1000 for cleaning the carbs and a new battery simply isn't honest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7txrxM-NCc

[NikolaNovak]

I am not even remotely an expert, but many motorcycles I've seen that spent couple of years in the storage, let alone ones as old as that, need a lot of gaskets, seals, tubing and what-nots worked on or replaced - or at least examined/tested/cleaned. Plus you want to give a conservative estimate.

Also remember - if I am doing repairs for fun, I only count the parts cost.

But if I go to professional mechanic, it's $100/hr in labour. So $1000 might be $300 of parts and a day of labour to restore to safe operation an old motorcycle.

That is quite in line with the amount of work I've seen friends do to bring old bikes back on road (well... my friends would spend weeks and dozens of hours, but we're assuming mechanics are more efficient:)

[dclowd9901]

Bike mechanics are in high demand and not super common. The quote he gave seemed super on point to me. It’s what I’d charge if someone asked me to do the same thing. I could probably get it running for less but it would probably continue to break down over time

[BluePen7]

Just due to the lower volume the price jumps up unexpectedly.

For the labour of an oil change, I was quoted $25 for my car, and $65 for my motorcycle.

To change the oil and filter on my car, you have to reach in a super terrible spot prone to burning and cutting people who attempt it.

On my motorcycle? It's an enduro, I have a foot of clearance and can see the single bolt required from across the driveway, it also requires exactly 2 quarts.

I got quite quick at changing my bike oil, and continued to pay someone else to burn themselves on my car.

[NikolaNovak]

It's been... A very long time since I've been quoted that little for an oil change, by dealership or third party chain or an independent. And I do not drive an Audi either :-)

Few thoughts / possibilities

- was work done as part of larger work, as incremental?

- does 25$ charge include parts?

- was this a quick turnaround lube shop or an actual qualified mechanic

- do you have a relationship

- what's their business model? A lot of them have loss leaders because when they change your oil for 25 they'll find out you also need a brake change or filter change or or or

[BluePen7]

$25 and $65 did not include parts (the oil or filter)

I use synthetic, and their markup is so much it's cheaper to just provide them with my own. Hell their price for filters is more than the parts counter at the dealership.

Quick lube shop, so the least qualified people you can get to lay their hands on your vehicle. Gonna be honest, I check there's still oil in my car when I get home.

And yes, the quick lube shop is always trying to upsell me services I "need", like $100 to change my air filter, or $80 to change my cabin air filter (both which are literally 1 minute jobs), and $20/$40 parts from the dealership. Same with brake fluid flushes and other things.

[doubled112]

I knew I was getting screwed but wow.

$160 last time I got an oil change at the dealership.

There is usually one bottle that meets spec in retail stores, and it is $80 alone.

I kick myself for the VW diesel pretty consistently, but I still have some time left on the Dieselgate warranty extension.

Canadian prices?

[dclowd9901]

$160 is pretty common for a modern vehicle synth oil change. I wouldn’t call that highway robbery and especially not in Canada.

[travisjungroth]

The $25 oil change is a loss leader. They’re hoping to get more of your business.

[dclowd9901]

I’m guessing you have a subaru flat engine?

[BluePen7]

That is correct, although the filter location on my first gen Tacoma is also not ideal.

[blahyawnblah]

Couple years ago I took my friend's XR600 out for a trip. It had been sitting for a year or year and a half. Two kicks and it started. Didn't leak at all.

[NikolaNovak]

Same with my snowblower. I haven't a clue how that thing manages to start starts!

That being said there's going to be a bell curve. If you're going to ask mechanic for a quote, presumably you were unable to kick start it doth two tries, and now you're in a different bucket.

As well, not all bikes that start are safe to ride. A mechanic may - should - have a safety minded standard of service.

[am44jnsf]

two years is really nothing. you'll have to charge the battery and change the fuel, put air in the tyres, but it'll probably ride

[mikestew]

You obviously RTFA, but it's intellectually dishonest to state that all it needs is a new battery and a little carb cleaner. Sure, you get it running, and take it down the road. Now the forks seals demonstrate that they're dried out and cracked, and leaking oil. I don't know how old the bike was at the time of writing, but let's assume 30 years old. Odds are really good that the brake lines have never been replaced. Hell, it's possible that it's riding on original tires.

As one who has made the mistake of buying a bike that had been sitting a few years, if someone asked me to ball-park an estimate, $1000 might begin to cover it. One might very well get away with less, but I wouldn't count on it for my estimate.

(And I've owned several Honda V4s over the years: those carbs do NOT come out easily, and they go back in even harder.)

[moudis]

It discounts what you're liable to run into once you start disassembling things on old bikes, really. Sometimes you discover that a previous owner or mechanic thought red Loctite belonged on the screws holding the four carburetors together[^0], and your afternoon now involves a torch and chasing threads in old aluminum carburetor bodies. Sometimes you find that the bike was last touched in an era before anyone knew what a JIS screwdriver was, and every fastener is nearly stripped. Sometimes it's not even the bike, but that the last supply for a part is some shop in Maine that just happened to hold one for two decades.

My last encounter with a VFR750 involved a heat gun and a pry-bar to remove the carburetors, they're no joke.

[^0]: I love my GS1000G, but this wasn't my favorite part of getting it roadworthy.

[taylodl]

I'm a new motorcycle rider riding a Suzuki and I didn't know what a JIS screwdriver was! Thanks to you I do now!

[names_are_hard]

If all that comes off this entire HN post is that you get a good set of JIS screwdrivers, it's all worth it. It'll save you trouble down the line. Don't try to open the brake reservoir [0] screws with a Phillips. Ask me how I know.

[0] You might have a plastic reservoir with a screw-off cap, in which case... you'll use the JIS for something else.

P.S. Congrats on the new bike! Take an advanced riding course, read Keith Code, and buy good gear and you'll have a ton of fun with it.

[1970-01-01]

No, "all the problems from sitting" for 2 years should not include new brake lines, forks, etc. It does need just a carb clean and battery. Over-estimates are just as bad, if not worse, for a mechanic's reputation. He either did work that did not need doing, or simply said $1000 because he didn't want that shitty job.

[pengaru]

$1k is a reasonable ballpark estimate for something like that sight-unseen from an experienced mechanic who understands how to manage expectations and prevent getting into situations where he's over-promised and under-estimated costs.

When you err in the other direction it tends to produce worse outcomes for everyone involved, with the mechanic often ending up eating the difference.

(I've worked as an auto mechanic in a former life)

[bityard]

I restore and wrench on vintage motorcycles. I also balked at first when I read this, but I think it comes down to bad storytelling rather than a shady mechanic.

A motorcycle that has been sitting for 2 years does NOT need a complete overhaul, as you point out. But there is much-better-than-even chance that the 1983 motorcycle hadn't had ANY major maintenance done to it up to the point it stopped being ridden. It was probably parked in the first place because it stopped running due to lack of maintenance. And everything the mechanic listed that needed to be done likely hadn't been done in decades.

[futureproofd]

Here in Ontario at least, when you transfer ownership of a bike, you have to get it certified for safety. In my case, the bike was an '81 xs400 which required a fork seal replacement and new front tire (due to side wall damage). With parts and labour I paid approximately $500. Fair enough.

Now, if he had recommended a full carb clean and battery replacement, of course that would bring the total to over $1000. Those recommendations are optional though, and your bike can live without them (if you enjoy using the kickstarter constantly ;)

[dwater]

"The carbs will need to be gone through, it’ll need new fork seals, new battery, new tires, probably new hydraulic lines, and who knows what else."

The parts for that these days would probably be over $500, and around here shop labor is $100/hr, so it would probably be more than $1000 today.

[Swizec]

My local motorcycle shop charges about $200 per mechanic hour. I would love a $1000 bill!

On the bright side, I’m learning more and more about sidewalk mechanic-ing. It’s a lot of fun. Very flow state in that way that programming just hasn’t been able to scratch in years. You go to replace some mufflers and what feels like 5 minutes was actually 2 hours.

[inconceivable]

the trick to wrenching on your own stuff (including home maintenance) is to take your time and never rush anything. read the directions and watch the youtube video 10x before you start. just assume it's going to take hours and hours. go to the auto parts store or amazon as many times as is needed to get it done right. get the right tools, even the cheap version will save you tons of aggravation and frustration.

a lot of younger folks are impatient (past me included) and get suboptimal results for a lot of time spent, which puts them off of doing work themselves. the irony is of course that younger folks have all the time and none of the money. they are also the ones complaining the most about how expensive home/auto/whatever services are.

this will also teach you the limits of what you actually can and can't do, so that when you do spend money on a pro it's money well spent. they also prefer to do the more complex jobs (less customer overhead, setup and cleanup time eating into margins) so it's win-win. as someone above said, they're far more efficient at the actual work but you can't make a lift go faster or shortcut any consumables used.

[Fradow]

Also have a plan B if things go south. And yes, that means not working on your daily (or someone else) if you don't have a backup transportation solution.

Because just like we have bugs in production, things break when you wrench on them, even if you do everything by the book (note: first-hand experience there).

But those are just setbacks, and no big deal if you are prepared for them.

[ambicapter]

So basically if you want to work on your vehicle, you need a second vehicle. That was basically the reason I could never get behind doing work on my own car.

[Fradow]

"Backup transportation solution", it can be public transit, or even a bicycle if it's enough to get you where you need to, but yes that's my opinion.

Even something as simple as an oil change can go wrong. Drain plug broke and you need a new one? Or you forgot to put a gasket and it leaks and now all your oil is on the floor? Well, now you need a trip to the parts store, or order it and wait until parts get there.

In my case, it was a routine maintenance operation: changing brake fluid. I used a power bleeder, and at a third of the pressure specified on the manual, the reservoir ruptured. So now I needed a new reservoir. Parts store didn't have it, and it took 2 weeks to get there.

[Swizec]

> at a third of the pressure specified on the manual, the reservoir ruptured

Hey, better this happen while you're wrenching than when you're zooming through the twisties and need to stop

[BluePen7]

Unless you have a bus route that goes straight to the auto parts store, yeah that's the ideal.

Often I'd invite a friend over while I did the work, keeps me company and that way they can be the backup vehicle (and I'd return the favour).

[smileysteve]

This is a great example; said friend also convinces you to stay hydrated, double check your safety, and not just apply more force in the wrong situations.

[michaelt]

> So basically if you want to work on your vehicle, you need a second vehicle.

This is the other reason a lot of people will do their own motorbike maintenance - for a lot of people, the motorbike is the second vehicle.

[smileysteve]

I once took 3 Ubers to 3 different auto parts stores; I've biked to a stores. I've borrowed neighbor's cars.

It's also rare to order too many parts or tools. Rental tools are very useful, but many times as a car ages, you may need to order other parts.

Though I don't get this complaint; because there is often lead time at a mechanic's for the parts too; you still need a backup transportation plan for that situation. (And it's even more likely to effect you during a 9-5 if you your wrenching on weekends or weeknights)

[inconceivable]

i love how there's a problem for every solution on this wonderful site.

[stcroixx]

He probably also replaced all gaskets, seals, possibly even belts. Flush and replace all fluids. Just had this done to an even simpler bike for $1300.

[salonium_]

The article is on a collaborative online platform, so you can add comments or suggestions for corrections on the website :) https://books.worksinprogress.co/book/maintenance-of-everyth...