Alternative Mechanic

[MadDuck]

A guy I know has a '94 900SS. He says that South Seas won't work on it because it's too old. Andy's has a 2 month backlog and doesn't really want to work on it even then. Anyone know of a shop or qualified tech that would work on it?

[eltristo]

I've never heard of such a thing 

[WillS]

by the way, your forks seem fine, but an oil change wouldn't hurt. [moto]

and yes i would love to work on any bike, but allready being overbooked,  age of the bike does come into play.
maybe someday, somewhere, there is a place and a time or possibly will be a place with time.

[MadDuck]

Might there be any hint of such a place & time in the future? I'd volunteer my services but I, too, have more than enough on my plate right now and I have often been on the road to hell paved with good intentions.

[eltristo]

Please understand that I mean no malice whatsoever here, I am simply lost and curious. Given a waiting list of bikes, what about the old bike disqualifies it for that list?  Lack of parts?  Harder to work on?

On a different lean, thanks for the fork info.   

[MadDuck]

I bet it has to do with A) hard or impossible to obtain some parts; B) As the bike ages certain other parts will break just because they are being moved as part of work on some other problem (plastic and rubber being what they are) and customers have a hard time understanding and accepting that. Thus, they blame the tech and the tech/shop doesn't need the extra headache; and, C) the tech is looking at 10 years plus of either the owner(s) and/or friends of the owner(s), or similarly unqualified people, sticking their fingers in there and mucking things up. Again they don't need the headache with lots newer and less messed up bikes to work on. Granted there are absolute jewels out there that are in great shape despite being old but they are few and far between so the 10 year limit is the general catch all cut off point unless the shop manager could be convinced otherwise, I suppose.

People do come to me with old clapped out Beemers and I have to turn them away. They simply are not worth the headache. I had a 318i towed to my shop about a month ago. It was dropped off on the street outside the shop and in such bad shape I told the owner to tow it away. He pleaded with me and after five days, on a slow day, I relented and we pushed it inside. Diagnosed a bad fuel pump and gave customer the estimate. Way too expensive for him. It sat on my lot for another week leaking oil and such before he came for it and then all he did was push it outside where it sat on the street again. He came and worked on it off and on for a week (on our outside parking). We finally had to make him move it to public parking. He brought down a used fuel pump and installed it only to find out the pump was frozen. That was a week ago. The damn thing is still sitting on the street. Time and energy spent on the car so far is worth more than the car and that's what I told him in the first place. Now he's got me really pissed off as we traded the on street spot with someone who's car is now in our customer parking, still, because this POS is still there. I will  never allow this customer or his girlfriend to bring in any of their pieces of junk anymore. Period. You try to help and they keep biting your hand.

It could get as bad with old bikes too.

[DRKWNG]

I've got a friend with a big truck and a strong tow chain.   

[WillS]

mac's answer is pretty much the jist.
it is unfortunate to have this rule, but if we were to make that call when the bikes showed up, we would offend many people, that is why it easy to stick to ten years.

[eltristo]

Gotcha.  So, I need to sell the bike in the next 2 years