It’s a real pleasure to give a couple of shout outs to chaps that have exceeded my expectations of bike servicing recently.
First off, my V100 Mandello S (1200m, 2 months old), had developed a coolant leak - I’m one of many owners to experience this on the V100 by the looks of it from various fora. I took the bike down to Teasdale motors in Thirsk this morning (70 mile round trip), no appointment. The next available slot according to the online booking system was seven weeks hence, but Ty (one of the mechanics) took the bike into the workshop, diagnosed the problem and then told the reception in no uncertain terms that he wanted it fixed a lot sooner than seven weeks. When they showed him how jammed the diary was, he took the keys and just sorted the problem there and then on the spot under warranty. He’s asked me to keep an eye on it and if and if the coolant level falls further, to take it back to him and he’ll sort that too. Brilliant chap, wonderful ‘can do’ attitude despite clearly being under immense pressure with all the bookings Teasdales have in.
Second, a shout out for Paul the proprietor of The Workshop in Poppleton, York. Paul is a now a pro suspension mechanic for the Triumph World Superbike team, specialising in Ohlins set-ups, having been a mechanic for the Met Police in a former career. I called him because with the Ohlins semi-active suspension on my V100 S in auto-comfort mode (as delivered new to me), the rear suspension felt like it was bottoming out (it seems that it probably was doing just that!). He did a ‘manual comfort’ set-up for me just using the system settings rather than fettling any hardware, which so far has worked really well, without the expense of new hardware. He didn’t charge me for his time and expertise in doing tweaks on the system settings and the price he gave for fitting a lighter spring (I only weigh 66kg) was very reasonable.
I really do appreciate it when you come across mechanics that care and help like this.