DAY 58
Week 9
AUSTIN (Texas, USA)
Thursday August 17th, 2006
TODAYS MILEAGE – 0 miles or 0 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 7577 miles or 12194 kilometres
The Harley was sorted ..... or was it?????? 
I rang Central Texas Harley Davidson at lunchtime, to see if the starter motor had shipped overnight. Indeed it had. It's only a 2 hour job to replace the starter motor and their workshop deals on a first come first serve basis so I asked their Service Manager about the possibility of having the bike back by 11AM on Friday.
His answer would strike fear in the heart of any vehicle owner and especially a motorbike owner. "We could fit that in if the bike was here." I'm like what, the bike was delivered last night. Nope, he has no Night Train in his shop. WOW!!! Holy snapping yip yips!!! Alright, let us get a hold of the tow company and you look around your dealership for it.
It took us until 2PM to get a hold of the actual towie and he had a signature of the mechanic who helped unload it. We traded phone calls between the tow company, the Service Manager and myself for about an hour until we (a) found the bike at the dealers and (b) worked out that the clerk who entered my name as "Fitz–Gerald" instead of how it's normally spelt "Fitzgerald". Who would have thought a hyphen would give a heart attack???
At 5 O'clock Christine hands me the house phone with a casual "the Harley mechanic wants to talk to you" - usually not a good sign. He wanted to know what oil I was running in the bike as they have to open up that primary case in order to get to the starter motor, which requires dropping the oil. As always when I buy a 2nd hand vehicle, I replace all the fluids so I asked them to do that and refill it with full synthetic all. Impressed, of course I was. When was the last time a mechanic called you regarding what oil to use???
The mechanic called back around 6PM with some good news and some bad news. The good news was that the starter motor did not need to be replaced. When Dash had it replaced 12 months ago, the mechanic did not install it correctly. Simply removing the unit, replacing the unserviceable thrust washer and re-installing the starter motor correctly resolved the issue.
The bad news was that the front tire was long overdue to be a part of some deep sea ecological environmental Greenies complaints as it was knackered. I knew it needed replacing and this was as good a time as any. I know what was what with the bike, except for the unseen and any workshop worth it's salt should try and up sell you on goods and services, as they need to in order to keep their doors open. A lot of people get taken for a ride, but it all comes down to the integrity of the shop. These guy didn't try and sell me on upgrading the headlight brightness fluid or the electronic ashtray odorizer as a lot of horror stories we've all heard will attest to.
Central Texas Harley mentioned the front tire and the brake pads and came across with "not a huge deal now, but they require attention in the near future" which I applaud them for. I don't have a motorbike tire changer, so they got the sale for a 21 inch front Dunlop doughnut.
The technician (he had progressed from simply being a mechanic due to his attention customer service), promised me we were still on schedule for a 11AM pickup in the morning before bidding me good night.
That was about it for the day.