klr mechanic needed in la

[sarah@labiker.com]

> I would like to ask you guys if anybody knows a reliable and > logical mechanic for my KLR here in Los Angeles. I would > appreciate any suggestion.

Well Luis, As for mechanics, there's not many good ones in town. I had one that I trusted, a small independent, but recently it got affiliated with a brand, not Kawa, thank heavens, because all Kawa dealers suck. But, it's still a brand affiliation, and now the mechanics in the back, well, they aren't the 2 guys in the little shop that I used to trust. They both left... Unfortunately, all this turn-over in personnel didn't clue me in to not leave my bike in their formerly trusted hands when she suffered a most unceremonious "no more compression, engine no go" incident (at 2 am, when I really had to spend lots of time at work, and couldn't deal with unreliable transport, so I borrowed a co-workers cage for the rest of the week, until I could get a new battery for the CBR, tape up her plastic (please, don't ask), and get her back on the road). 2 months later, I finally got my bike wrestled back out of their hands, and a friend has gotten me snuck into another shop (they don't usually handle KLR's, but they're _GOOD_). If all goes well from that, I'll refer you to them (although they may end up being expensive, I have yet to see...) If you have any wrenching ability at all, and a decent place to work, I'd highly recommend doing it yourself. When my bike coughed and wouldn't catch, I thought for sure it was beyond my abilities, but I suspect I coulda fixed it faster than the first shop took to _allegedly_ do a top end rebuild. (But, seeing as they forgot to adjust the valves -- enough so that even _I_ knew there was still something very wrong with the engine, just from listening -- I consigned it, once again, to professional hands.) As for what I think did it in -- I suspect one of the exhaust valves was too tight (it was near the tight end of the range at last adjust), then I did a highway run from LA to Monterey for World Superbike races, then about 3 days of local commuting (barely enough for the engine to get fully warmed up before it was shut off again), and, for some reason, the exhaust valve that had previously been tight, was, well, way too tight, and burned the seat out. In the interim, I've taken a track day at Keith Code's school (the all women's one that MOTA sponsored at Streets of Willow Springs), my PT Cruiser finally came in, and I moved, so now I have a garage that I can do some amount of wrenching in... Jazz, have a blast kicking up rooster tails on Cloud 9. ---o&>o--- Sarah Barwig sarah@...