Valkyrie Riders Cruiser Club

So I got a nail in my newish Avon Venom rear tire (only had 8,000)
miles on it. Then I realized, well, hell, it's nearing the middle
ages, or golden years of its life anyway, without the plug.. 8,000
miles is not "newish" for a bike tire.

I decided to take the opportunity to go over to the Darkside and run a
car tire on my rear rim. With a fellow heathen bikers help and
guidance I purchased a 205/60/16 tire and started calling around to
bike shops to see if someone would mount it for me. I knew I would
have a clearance issue with the bolts that hold my hard saddlebags in
place. There is an extensive technical help article and a story on
the Valkyrie Riders Club that I belong to:
http://lifeisaroad.com/stories/2004/10/27/theDarkSide.html But to
summarize you basically need to turn the bolt around and put it in from the inside out to make the needed room.

When I called around to find someone to mount the tire for me, I was
mostly told that the beads wouldn't line up, or that the tire would
explode. Explode and injure the guy trying to mount the tire! (KS
cycle in Katy, TX). Finally I found a place that came highly
recommended and they said they work on Valkyries all the time, they've
mounted other car tires for people, and they said it would be no problem.

I really didn't want to have to go buy a bike lift, just for this, and
I didn't want to spend the hours I figured it would take me to tackle
this little project.  My time is very tight right now, and it's worth it to pay extra to save an hour or two.
 So, thinking I was taking it to the
professionals, I took it to Enchanted Bike Works, LLC ("Custom" bike
shop) in Manvel, TX.

These guys are total incompetent morons. Incapable of even simple
mechanical jobs. The place LOOKED impressive enough when I arrived.
Lots of chopper type bikes out front, some dirt bikes and 4X4's in
the yard also. Several "biker" looking guys standing talking, or with
various bits of grease on them as they walked by. The garage (really
a barn) that they work on the bikes in was open, and customers did not
seem to be discouraged from walking in and standing by their bike
while it was being worked on. Cool. So the mechanic that was going
to do the job looked at my bike and said, "Oh sure, we do this all the
time for Valkyries.. it'll take about 1.5 hours of labor at $65 per
hour." In addition, he said, if I had to wait, and didn't have a ride home, he'd try to get me out
of there even quicker than that!  I live on the NW side of Houston, and this place is in a little city to the South of a little city South of Houston.  So..   I told him I'd wait.

That didn't sound too bad. I reminded him of the clearance issue I
would have with the bolt heads. he said, well your car tire is
actually no wider than your motorcycle tire, it's just shaped
differently, but I'll take a look when we get your tire mounted.

It was 12:30 pm on Friday afternoon.

at 2:00 PM They had not figured out how to remove my hardbags. The guy
CUT the blinker and brakelight wires running through my hardbags
instead of disconnecting them from my battery and threading them
through the holes. He put little quick-disconnect wiring connectors
on at the junctures that he cut so that the hardbags could be more
easily removed! WTF?!?! How hard is it to disconnect them from the
battery?? WTF?!?!  He did ask me if i wanted him to go to the store and buy some kind of fancier connectors, but it was already time for them to be done, and i didn't want to delay anything, so I said "no, use whatever you have here and I'll fix it later."

at 3 I was told they had found a BIG wiring problem. I went in and
they showed me that the coaxial cable running from my CB antenna was
getting "mushed" by my seat and some of the rubber was worn off in one
tiny spot. I said, "I don't care, I'll wrap it with electrical tape
when I get home." Mike, the mechanic asked me if I wanted him to
reroute it under the metal bar that was causing the problem. I said,
yeah, go ahead.   (They wedged it between my rear fender and the bar under the seat so that it is now being mushed and cannot be moved without removed the entire fender)

at 3:40 PM I asked why it was taking 4 hours to change my tire and
another mechanic said, 'well we did have to fix that wiring problem
for you.' WTF?!? unscrewing one coax cable and flipping it under
one metal bar, then screwing it back in?? Okay, that would account
for about 2 minutes of those 4 hours.

at 4:30 PM I came into the shop, rolled up my sleeves and pitched in
to help, because I began to realize these guys had no clue what they
were doing. At the time I entered the shop, they had the tire mounted
on the bike, and were trying to re-mount my saddlebags. They could not
line up the openings for the front saddlebag bolt. After a minute of
watching them try to push and pry my fender forward so that the holes
lined up, I explained to them that since they'd already tightened the
rear bolt the fender could no longer move separate of the chrome and
the bag they had already attached to it. If they loosened the rear
bolt it would give them so room to play with. They said that they
knew what they were doing, and they'd get it in a minute. Then, after
a few more minutes of struggling, one mechanic loosened the rear bolt.
They weren't strong enough to push the fender forward though (because it was mashing into the CB antenna cable that they "fixed" for me by wedging it between the frame and the rear fender), Mike
complained that his hands were tired. WTF?!? so I pushed the fender
forward for them (yes..  smashing my CB antenna wire), and they were able to get the bolt in. I'm under
the impression that this was at least 30 minutes of struggling before
I showed up.

I noticed that he had not reversed my bolts or done anything about the
clearance issue. I pointed it out again, and he said, he measured and
the tire won't come anywhere near the nuts on the back of those bolts.
That I had more than plenty of room. Another passing mechanic
stopped and reassured me that they had both checked and I was just
fine. I cleaned the bike. I helped Mike mount the saddlebag rails.
I stepped out to call home and when I returned He had drilled some
unnecessary holes in my saddlebag rail flooring to run my brake light
wires through and the edges of the 1/2" holes he drilled were rough
and sharp. I started filing the holes smooth so at least my wires
wouldn't fray and another mechanic said, "we'll get that." I said,
"Clearly you won't." and kept on working.

at 5PM he was still struggling with my saddlebags

at 5:30 PM he was still struggling with my saddlebags

at 6PM he was trying to re-attach my rear fender.

at 6:15 pm he was trying to charge me 5.5 hours of labor for mounting
the tire, and $100 for "detailing the bike" and 1 hour of labor for
adjusting my wiring!!!

What a total rip off, scam artist, bullshit excuse for an incompetent
mechanic.

Obviously I laughed. And pointed out all the problems with the work
and they help I had to give, and the incompetence of the mechanics,
and the fact that my entire day had been wasted, etc. etc. (at this point I didn't know about the smashed CB antenna wire yet, didn't see that till I got home)

We settled on a MUCH lesser amount, but I was still ripped off from my
original estimate of 1.5 hours.

I drove the bike home, and learned that in the curves, when the bike
is leaned the tire scrapes the nut cages on the inside of the fender..  DUH!!  Like I told them it would!!
What a bunch of Idiots!

So now I get to do that job myself anyway (Like I should have in the
beginning) and fix his incompetent work. I might even cut off his
stupid wire connectors and splice my wires back together, because his
connectors are not water resistant in any way, and totally unnecessary
anyway.

I'll never let anyone that ever worked at Enchanted Bike Works do
anything to my bike again, that's for sure. They have no fracking clue!

cheers!
Vithar

P.S.   Follow up:    Andrew came over (VRCC Brother) and we removed the fender, removed the nut cages, reversed the bolts and were done in less than an hour.   I will spread the tale of the incompetence of Enchanted Bike Works everywhere I go.

Took the bike out today in the Storming Rain.  It was great!  I'd forgotten how much I love to ride in storms!   The car tire performed fantastic.

I found a puddle sitting on some asphalt in a 18-wheeler parking lot.  I did some donuts in the puddle, and some figure 8's.   I was trying to lean far enough and go fast enough to experience a little slippage of the rear car tire so that I'd know what it felt like.

The problem was, I couldn't get it to slip!!

My 14 years of riding experience were screaming at me that I was going too fast in too much of a lean for a slippery surface!!   I just KNEW that was about to slip.  It was nerve-racking.  I KNOW that I was going slipping speed and sliding angle!   But..  The car tire didn't slip.


I drove out of the puddle onto some dry ground at an extreme lean, and then stopped the bike to check the amount of contact patch.  I could see the wet tire print on the dry ground and see how my contact patch changed from leaning to straight up by the time I stopped the bike.  The contact patch was definitely smaller during a lean.   I think it is maybe about the width of the contact patch of my motorcycle tire when it is straight up and down.   maybe 2-3 inches..   maybe that's a bigger contact patch that my old motorcycle tire, come to think of it.

But when my car tire is not leaned very much, or straight up and down, the contact patch is more like 6 inches!!   I can take off from asphalt under 2 inches of water without any slipping, so I get instant traction and a FAST take off!

I even planted my boots and popped my clutch to get a "burnout."  Nope!  Just took off like a shot, almost jerked the bike out from under me!   BAD ASS!

Unfortunately I never did get to experience the slippage feel as I was too chicken to lean the bike further or go faster in that puddle..  I swear..  I SHOULDA been slipping already!

Cheers!
Sam

Final follow up.

Definitely got it to slip this time!

Had to make a run for some supplies..  Slip sliding all over the place several times.  Don't know what the difference was.  Maybe I leaned a tad more..  maybe I was on slicker pavement somehow.. I dunno.. 

The car tire still gives me the feedback that I'm about to take a spill on low-speed turns.  I've got 250 miles on the tire now, most of them in the rain, and I'm still not used to the new sensations that I get during low speed 90 degree or more turns.  I've spun out from a start, I've locked up during braking, and had the tire slip during a few turns.   Overall I don't think it performs worse than a MC tire..  At this point I think I'll be keeping it.  I feel as if I can take off a bit quicker.  I feel I have better control on dirt and grass (and on mud and wet grass).  I feel that I have LESS control doing low speed right-angle or greater turns on pavement...  But I think I can live with that.  Maybe after a while I'll get used to it more and be able to compensate somehow..   But even if I never get more used to the low speed turns I think the extra mileage and the smoothness of the high speed straights and turns are worth it.

Now I need to put a passenger on board and see how that feels.   Guess I'll wait till it's not actually raining for that one though.   I can just picture me asking my girlfriend, "Hey Kim, I just got that new car tire on, and I want to try it out with a passenger in the rain, wanna hop on baby?"   Somehow I don't think the response would be positive!  LOL!

Cheers!
Sam

Sorry to hear of your bad experience with those guys.
I am glad you posted about it though. I was about to take my little bike there for rejetting.
I wish you had contacted me beforehand. We could have taken the wheel off ran it over for the tire mount and
done the nut cages and been done. I could have rerouted your cb cable so that it rubbed on the new tire. ;D
I live almost around the corner from them.
Those car tires are GREAT on the Valk aren't they! I loved mine. About the only negative is if out of town and you
get a flat, is finding some bike shop or tire store that will repair it. The latter of the two you would have to remove the wheel as well.
Ride Safe!