Just wanted to give you guys a heads-up that I'm going to use you as leverage. I'm going to be visiting the local Honda dealership Tuesday, present the head of sales (who was just a kid when I worked there as a mechanic) with my business card, tell him the size of audience I speak to on the internet, then ask him what he and Honda can do to make me a happy camper before I go home and write a post.
I took my bike in last week to get some parts replaced that fell off of it and to get two recalls taken care of, one of which was for potential frame cracks.
The 2003's are just supposed to be inspected and if there are no cracks, they pass.
Mine didn't pass. My frame is apparently as bad as it felt. It's felt for some time like there was a hinge in the middle of it when doing spirited riding.
They said they can't release the bike back to me under any circumstances because it's unsafe.
I don't have a problem with that. I wouldn't continue riding it with a bad frame.
What I do have a problem with is that some mechanic who I don't know or trust has to tear my bike down all the way, ship off the frame to get it rewelded, then assemble my bike. The guy from the dealership told me "Think of it as a frame-off restoration.", to which I replied "The only frame-off restoration I trust is one I've done. I've done many, and that is one seriously complicated bike and I don't know that your guy will torque every bolt, nut and screw to factory specs."
But it gets worse.
They said not to expect to see my bike again for at least 2, possibly 3 or more months.
While I'm making payments to Honda Finance.
I will be trying to get them to either buy the bike from me for what I feel is a fair price considering the very low miles, or at the very least either make my payments while it's down or give me an equivalent loaner. Or swap it straight across for a comparably low-mileage 2003 and pay me some cash on top of it since it's unlikely they can get one in Illusion Blue, which is an extra-cost and rare color.
I prefer they just get me out of the bike. I've been waiting for it to get out of the shop so I can ride it to the local BMW dealership and leave with a K1200LT.
