JC'S Performance Ltd

I took the bike to them about the first week in June. Because it's an older bike (1983), it took a long time to get the parts. However, there were also several weeks during which JC's had parts but was waiting to get to the job, so I wasn't able to pick up the bike until late August, which seemed excessive for the repairs done. Among other, smaller items, they replaced the valve head cover gasket, speedometer cable, and swing arm. When I went to pick up the bike at first, I rode away and found that the rear brake--which had been working perfectly--was dead. I returned the bike immediately and they bled out the fluid, which fixed the problem. However, I'm convinced that they did not test their repairs, as that serious safety issue would have immediately been spotted if they had done even a brief test ride. The speedometer needle now moves, but is wildly inaccurate--reads over 100 mph as I'm riding slowly through town. The odometer now is turning, but I have no way to know if it's registering accurately. I called Jeff at JC's about this issue, and he said that the speedo/odo might "free up" as I ride, otherwise I'd have to replace the whole panel--another item which they would have discovered and let me know about if they'd tested their repairs. The oil leak from the head cover was also much worse after JC's worked on the bike, to the point that the bike was smoking when I left their place and a mid-sized puddle was left on my garage floor. I asked Jeff about it when I called about the speedometer and he said I should ride the (smoking!) bike around for a while and give them a call if the problem remained. Additionally, the bike was idling MUCH too high after they'd worked on it, not a problem it previously had. Because I didn't trust JC's after they made the oil leak worse and sent me off with a nonworking brake, I took the bike to a local dealership for repairs. I dropped the bike off at the dealership in mid-September and they were done with it in mid-October--again, about half that time was spent waiting for the correct gasket for the bike. The dealership told me that the head gasket (the part alone cost almost $100, plus labor) had not been lying flat when JC's installed it and was pinched/crimped in the head cover, thus causing the leak. I also learned that several of the head bolts (again, almost $100 in parts, plus labor to fix) had been stripped out, again apparently due to JC's work. The idle was too fast because JC's had apparently messed around with the carbs, which now need to be cleaned out. The dealership also identified a problem with the way the swing arm had been installed. All in all, JC's had actually worsened the condition of the bike and charged me almost $600 to do it. I decided that I would call JC's to see if they could give me at least a partial refund for the crimped head gasket and stripped head bolts, since the dealership had saved those damaged parts for me and I could directly link that expense to their work. Jeff told me that I should have come back to them when the oil leak continued and that I can't call him "after [I] rode the bike for three months" and expect to get money back. When I stated that it had been in the dealer's shop for much of the _two_ months since I'd picked it up from them, and that I didn't trust them after they'd sent me off with a nonworking brake and worse oil leak, Jeff again stated I'd had the bike for long enough that I should have brought it back to JC's. I could see I was getting nowhere on the phone and decided that the matter was closed and ready for my Angie's List report.