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FAQ

Appointments

  1. How far are you booked out?
  2. Do I have to have an appointment?
  3. Why don't you answer your phone regularly or return calls

General

  1. How long will it take to get my bike back?
  2. How do I contact Lloyd's since the phone is off 99% of the time

Appointments

1. How far are you booked out?                

 

During the spring and summer this can be as much as 3 weeks or more for some services. (updated on 5/1/2023- I am looking at JUNE 10th 2023 for anything more than oil changes, tires or fork seals currently, yes I am that booked up for this season already)

 

Typical during season time frames........

Tire changes, fork seals, chain/sprockets installs, oil changes etc all can be done typically within a couple of days from when you contact me. And they all will be done on the appointment date and time. Sometimes you can ride in, wait locally and ride away an hour or two later-but, most often you will ride in, drop it off and then go find something to do elsewhere for a couple hours and come back and pick it up later that same day, or the next day if you bring it over late in the day. 

 These  ~ wait services~  always will take atleast an hour or more, quite often it is more than 2 hours, thus I encourage people to go do something else and return later. There is no lounge or showfloor to wait in and I make a terrible babysitter while working so I refuse to babysit and have anyone hover while I work! There are a couple picnic tables outside if you really "have to" wait. Weather at your own peril as you will not be coming inside the shop or lingering unattended in the customer entry area.

 

 The tune up work and anything more involved, is generally going to be ~ 72-96 hours turnaround. (parts needs can add time), major service tune can add an additional day or even two days on some bikes

 

 

But yes, everything needs an appointment, nothing comes in without one, so DO NOT just show up and expect anything to be done or even to be able to leave the bike without setting up an appointment first, Hell, don't just pop in and think I will even answer the door..... even if, in some instances I can make an appointment for the same day. My space is limited................ my time, like yours, is valuable and I have tons of other bikes to work on as well. 

Be prompt for your appointment and when complete be prompt to pick up. I appreciate promptness. and keeps floor space open for other peoples bikes.

 

 

 

2. Do I have to have an appointment?

 

Yes. Appointments keep the bikes here for less time and allow me to better manage my time and space.

 

Send an email, get a date and time set up and then show up on time with your clean bike, sometimes that $3 trip to the self car wash will save you much more than that! ie- your fork seals have leaked so long oil is all over the bodywork and dripping off the fork legs, brake rotors and calipers

 

 

3. Why don't you answer your phone regularly or return calls

 

 Quite simply put. I work alone and I am busy working on the motorcycles. With the amount of calls I receive it takes up too much of my day. So I want the first contact etc to be via email. You will get plenty of "talking to Lloyd" time when you drop off and when you pick up. I want you well informed of everything done- but there are so many tire kickers and price shoppers, then of course all the spammers and sales calls .... I gave up on the phone all together sans the rarity I text or call you. The phone sits on the desk with the ringer turned off or super low volume 90% of every day

 

 Nearly every pricing question you could have is contained and answered in these pages on this very website. If it is not, most likely I am not interested in doing it.

 

 I understand fully, many people still want to pick up the phone and call. So for those who this is too inconvenient for, well My time is too valuable to me, to spend it on the phone. Just like your time is valuable to you- you have to understand I can not and will not spend 4-6 even 8 hours everyday answering the phone and looking up pricing.... At that rate I could never possibly get the work done. Which is not fair to those who have dropped off their bikes and are awaiting their return.

 

 Emails are replied to usually once per work day, if you choose to leave a voicemail it won't be listened to and it won't be returned- I deleted the app from the phone all together. I do not have time to listen to 43 messages that go from 2 minutes to 6 minutes each (actual amount a couple days ago was 43 messages totalling 189 minutes) If you decide to be one of the idgits that calls/texts/emails multiple times each day- you will never be coming here for any work ever and will simply end up on the blocked list with hundreds of others.

 

 You either understand or you don't. The current customer base understands and in order to improve my return time on bikes I have to cut out a bunch of this wasted time on the phone with tire kickers and turn it into productive work time with wrenches in my hands! This is now year 4 of rarely if ever using the phone and it looks like this will be my normal for as long as I keep working, another 15 years perhaps.....

 

Please send an email and make everyones day a little easier !

 

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General

1. How long will it take to get my bike back?

 

 Depends on what is needed to fix it. The length of time it takes to get parts. If there are any addtional problems found.

 

 But typically, tire changes, fork seals, oil changes are all done within a few hours of drop off and when possible I can on rare occassion, do them while you wait, although most of these can take a few hours to complete, so it is HIGHLY recommended to go find something else to do and come back. It is very rare to not get  your bike back from tire changes or fork seals or an oil change etc the same day or atleast within 24 hours of drop off, unless there is some parts issue.

 

 Tune up work generally happens in 5 days for both the two basic tune ups~~ for starters it takes atleast 8 hours for the engine to cool down for the valve adjustment. On occassion total time can take longer if parts need to be ordered, or the bike has some specialty need. But most tune-up work sans the major service tune will be turned around in ~5 days. (The major service tune can be all of 7-10 days) I highly suggest you schedule your tune up drop off the evening before I actually want to start working on your bike.

 

 Carburetor cleaning and a few other jobs typically are 3 or 4 days. As long as parts needs don't pose a problem. There are numerous "older" bikes that need full o-ring kits which can take a week to get here, and on occassion have taken multiple weeks. 3 days would typically be the minimum amount of time on this, but occassionally a bike doesn't need more than what is on hand and may get done in a day, but this is the exception not the rule.

 

 Some major work like engine rebuilds, transmission rebuilds, crash repair where the bike must be disassembled to figure out what parts need to be ordered, then an estimate, availability check, parts cleaned and stored in an organized fashion-then sit and wait for parts to arrive before then finally being reassembled.....These are rarely less than 14 days and more often than not are 18-25 days.

 

 Sadly most of the past couple seasons (2019,2020,2021, 2022 stats) the average time a bike has been here for anything more than tires, oil changes or fork seals has averaged 10 days. Tires have averaged a 2 hr and 35 minute turn around... I am trying to get this to a much shorter timeframe for tune ups and such, 10 days is unacceptable and I know it! So this is really part of the catalyst to not answering the phone and it is also the driving force to move locations even though this location is still too small even @ triple the square footage! More room simply made more bikes sitting and waiting- I simply need atleast 1 more lift to bring it up to 5? Who knows, this is still a work in progress even after 41 years..........

 

 2021 and likely will extend into 2022...... parts have been horrendously slow to arrive on about 80% of all parts orders, which has increased times on everything that has needed parts, shipping costs have increased as well and so have the prices on just about all parts especially tires, it has gone stupid mad crazy (some parts nearly doubled in cost in just 9 months)

That said, 2020 post about June and all of 2021, 2022 has been terribly unproductive with long wait times on everything that wasn't already sitting here ready to go, even several of the tires I install often have delays in production and shipping... (the tire supply issue has continued in 2023, just not quite as bad)

2022....currently been waiting nearly 80 days for the rest of my "spring tire order" that was ordered in January, last notice I recieved was May 14th on some of them......... that is ridiculous imo!! (update, the last 4 tires on that order still have not arrived as of Oct 16th.. more than 10 months after ordering!)

2023........ I am booked deep into June, May or June MN riding season actually begins for most. New Dunlop Q5 and Q5s along with E4's and RSIV's inventory has been ordered as well as a huge stash of Maxima oils, to compliment everything else already here. I also went ahead with some Avon Storm 3D XM in the popular sportbike tire sizes as they come in less cost than the competition and have proven to be quite good by numerous customers.

update (memorial day weekend)............ tires have all arrived and inventory is full..... I am booked deep into June and some things I simply and telling people October on the big jobs I can't do until winter. there are simply too many customers to be able to do everything "NOW". some things have to wait. I am still pushing through some of the immediate needs of tire changes, oil changes and fork seals etc.... But I also still have a couple of the winter storage bikes here not picked up and I still have atleast 5 huge project bikes to complete---hogging 2 of the lifts currently......

 

2. How do I contact Lloyd's since the phone is "ignored" 95% of the time

 

Quite simply go to the email address and type me up a quality email with as much detail as you can...   Riverszzr@yahoo.com

 

or........ go to the estimate page and follow instructions there

 

Both modes come direct to my email account where I will see it at some time within 24 hours...... And I will reply, usually within 24 hours (some days I go there multiple times, some days I never once even open email)

 

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