In Praise of Great Service

[zenjim]

Let me now sing the praises of Valley Ducati Service and the blessed SpeedDog (peace be upon him). Hopefully it's OK on this board.
First, a little history. I've been taking my bike there for a few years now. I commute and take long trips and pile on the miles. I am therefore in need of maintenance fairly often and too XXX to do it myself. Anyway, I was in an accident recently. Now that the case has been settled I can talk about it some. Basically, I was rear ended by a drunken fool. I was f'd up for a while but am fine now. Damage to the bike was bad enough to be totaled but not frame bent totaled. So I bought the bike back for cheap.

Does this bike look totaled to you?


Hell No. SpeedDog did a phenomenal job getting the bike back on the road despite some hassles with the insurance company. He did some tweaks for free afterwards to get the bike in the sweet spot, and I saved enough money to buy the gixxer you see behind it in the picture! Well, kinda. I replaced my destroyed Arrow exhaust with the stocker I had laying around and DucStew gave me a sweet deal on some used black Marchesini rims (no more cleaning the GD white ones!) But our story doesn't end there, oh no.

Every time he does a valve job, my bike feels like an extension of my body afterwards. (I hope there's no penis joke in there). It's unbelievable. What previously had been a good bike has now turned into a great one. Traffic lanes become unclogged, wherever I ride it stops raining, tire life is extended indefinitely. Well, that's how it feels. Maybe he's the only one doing right, I don't know. But the end result is smooth and sweet.

If you are in the LA area you really need to let Valley Ducati Service work on your Duc.

Thank you SpeedDog my brother, and have a great New Year!

        

[fastwin]

Great to hear all that! I feel that folks should chime in more about awesome service work so the word will spread. Typically all you hear are bad stories... I like the good ones better! Congrats on your accident working out in your favor. That too rarely happens. I hope the drunk SOB got criminally charged and is having to deal with that little "issue" as well!

[somegirl]

Let me now sing the praises of Valley Ducati Service and the blessed SpeedDog (peace be upon him). Hopefully it's OK on this board.

 

[kopfjäger]

There is nothing like a good shop to take care of your bike. 

[zippo]

Nick Larson (Valley Ducati") has been supposeldy  "working" on my new 996 engine for well over six month's.
In January, Nick finally told me it would be ready "next week"
-that was 5 weeks ago.
-he's never called back, or answered his cell phone, and Now (March) his 'shop' number has been disconnected.

-other than Nick stalling for half a year, and me now being out my $2,000 engine,  it's a Great place to take your Ducati.-( if you never want to see it again.)
just sayin' what's true-although  i expect this post will be deleted....
scott petersen

[AdamX]

Nick Larson (Valley Ducati") has been supposeldy  "working" on my new 996 engine for well over six month's.
In January, Nick finally told me it would be ready "next week"
-that was 5 weeks ago.
-he's never called back, or answered his cell phone, and Now (March) his 'shop' number has been disconnected.

-other than Nick stalling for half a year, and me now being out my $2,000 engine,  it's a Great place to take your Ducati.-( if you never want to see it again.)
just sayin' what's true-although  i expect this post will be deleted....
scott petersen

I would have been to the store and made sure that the engine still exists 

[Speeddog]

Yes, I've had your engine for over six months.

Four of those months were waiting for you to provide the parts that you said you wanted to get.
Two months waiting for my cylinder head shop to do the valves, guides, and seats.
I'm sorry you're unhappy.
I'm not thrilled with how this has worked out either.

I've called you back, and answered my cell phone.

Dunno WTF you're talking about on the shop line, it works right now.
There was a stretch of time a couple weeks ago when it was out, we were waiting on ATT to come and fix the line.

@AdamX, yes, the engine is still here.

[AdamX]

Sry, not taking sides just said what i would have done. Didnt know anything about the company/person in question!

[zippo]

good to finally hear from you nick- since you've not answered or returned messages  to your cell phone since december , including my calls last week and today.

 your shop number came up as 'no longer in service" twice this morning.

you've had the parts for assembly since december.

so, are you saying the motor was finally ready the first week of januar, like you said?
or are you  saying it's ready today ?
thanks

[zippo]

 I was just in the middle of postingsome real whip-ass condemantion, etc, etc when Nick just called, and it sounds like we'll have this job wrapped up within a  week--and that'll be just fine with me.  -hope to end up with the  good prices and good work that we discussed last year...

thanks

[sbrguy]

i'll have to agree with the original poster here.  I had both nick and stu work on my bike when living out in california.  both were very courteous/honest/ when it came to estimates and also explaining why their prices were such. 

Their work was both spot on and also on time everytime for me.

I wish I had an independent shop that charged their prices around me, just as good as any "official" ducati dealer if not better, but cheaper service bills.

At least this was my experience.  Valley ducati, go there and become "one of the regulars".  Trust me you and your wallet will like their work.

[NorDog]

The thing that creeps me out about Valley Ducati are all the Ricky Martin and Backstreet Boys posters on the walls.   

Seriously though, I do look forward to finally making it out that way.  I am a bit over due for some service.

[EvilSteve]

@zippo - great work on threadjacking, very classy...

[Grampa]

poptarts for all my homies

[Goat_Herder]

Thanks, zenjim, for passing around good karma.  +1