First, it is the Honda Magna. Second, this mechanic took him to the cleaners. The Magna isn't nearly as complex as a Goldwing. $1000 for cleaning the carbs and a new battery simply isn't honest.
Also remember - if I am doing repairs for fun, I only count the parts cost.
But if I go to professional mechanic, it's $100/hr in labour. So $1000 might be $300 of parts and a day of labour to restore to safe operation an old motorcycle.
That is quite in line with the amount of work I've seen friends do to bring old bikes back on road (well... my friends would spend weeks and dozens of hours, but we're assuming mechanics are more efficient:)
For the labour of an oil change, I was quoted $25 for my car, and $65 for my motorcycle.
To change the oil and filter on my car, you have to reach in a super terrible spot prone to burning and cutting people who attempt it.
On my motorcycle? It's an enduro, I have a foot of clearance and can see the single bolt required from across the driveway, it also requires exactly 2 quarts.
I got quite quick at changing my bike oil, and continued to pay someone else to burn themselves on my car.
Few thoughts / possibilities
- was work done as part of larger work, as incremental?
- does 25$ charge include parts?
- was this a quick turnaround lube shop or an actual qualified mechanic
- do you have a relationship
- what's their business model? A lot of them have loss leaders because when they change your oil for 25 they'll find out you also need a brake change or filter change or or or
$160 last time I got an oil change at the dealership.
There is usually one bottle that meets spec in retail stores, and it is $80 alone.
I kick myself for the VW diesel pretty consistently, but I still have some time left on the Dieselgate warranty extension.
Canadian prices?
Pre-COVID I was doing full synthetic (Mobil-1) for $25 a bottle on sale plus a $15 filter in my other car. A good sale is $45 now.
Everything feels like highway robbery now.
I use synthetic, and their markup is so much it's cheaper to just provide them with my own. Hell their price for filters is more than the parts counter at the dealership.
Quick lube shop, so the least qualified people you can get to lay their hands on your vehicle. Gonna be honest, I check there's still oil in my car when I get home.
And yes, the quick lube shop is always trying to upsell me services I "need", like $100 to change my air filter, or $80 to change my cabin air filter (both which are literally 1 minute jobs), and $20/$40 parts from the dealership. Same with brake fluid flushes and other things.
That being said there's going to be a bell curve. If you're going to ask mechanic for a quote, presumably you were unable to kick start it doth two tries, and now you're in a different bucket.
As well, not all bikes that start are safe to ride. A mechanic may - should - have a safety minded standard of service.
As one who has made the mistake of buying a bike that had been sitting a few years, if someone asked me to ball-park an estimate, $1000 might begin to cover it. One might very well get away with less, but I wouldn't count on it for my estimate.
(And I've owned several Honda V4s over the years: those carbs do NOT come out easily, and they go back in even harder.)
A motorcycle that has been sitting for 2 years does NOT need a complete overhaul, as you point out. But there is much-better-than-even chance that the 1983 motorcycle hadn't had ANY major maintenance done to it up to the point it stopped being ridden. It was probably parked in the first place because it stopped running due to lack of maintenance. And everything the mechanic listed that needed to be done likely hadn't been done in decades.
When you err in the other direction it tends to produce worse outcomes for everyone involved, with the mechanic often ending up eating the difference.
(I've worked as an auto mechanic in a former life)
My last encounter with a VFR750 involved a heat gun and a pry-bar to remove the carburetors, they're no joke.
[^0]: I love my GS1000G, but this wasn't my favorite part of getting it roadworthy.
[0] You might have a plastic reservoir with a screw-off cap, in which case... you'll use the JIS for something else.
P.S. Congrats on the new bike! Take an advanced riding course, read Keith Code, and buy good gear and you'll have a ton of fun with it.
Now, if he had recommended a full carb clean and battery replacement, of course that would bring the total to over $1000. Those recommendations are optional though, and your bike can live without them (if you enjoy using the kickstarter constantly ;)
The parts for that these days would probably be over $500, and around here shop labor is $100/hr, so it would probably be more than $1000 today.
On the bright side, I’m learning more and more about sidewalk mechanic-ing. It’s a lot of fun. Very flow state in that way that programming just hasn’t been able to scratch in years. You go to replace some mufflers and what feels like 5 minutes was actually 2 hours.
a lot of younger folks are impatient (past me included) and get suboptimal results for a lot of time spent, which puts them off of doing work themselves. the irony is of course that younger folks have all the time and none of the money. they are also the ones complaining the most about how expensive home/auto/whatever services are.
this will also teach you the limits of what you actually can and can't do, so that when you do spend money on a pro it's money well spent. they also prefer to do the more complex jobs (less customer overhead, setup and cleanup time eating into margins) so it's win-win. as someone above said, they're far more efficient at the actual work but you can't make a lift go faster or shortcut any consumables used.
Because just like we have bugs in production, things break when you wrench on them, even if you do everything by the book (note: first-hand experience there).
But those are just setbacks, and no big deal if you are prepared for them.
Even something as simple as an oil change can go wrong. Drain plug broke and you need a new one? Or you forgot to put a gasket and it leaks and now all your oil is on the floor? Well, now you need a trip to the parts store, or order it and wait until parts get there.
In my case, it was a routine maintenance operation: changing brake fluid. I used a power bleeder, and at a third of the pressure specified on the manual, the reservoir ruptured. So now I needed a new reservoir. Parts store didn't have it, and it took 2 weeks to get there.
Hey, better this happen while you're wrenching than when you're zooming through the twisties and need to stop
Luckily that one was just a quick trip to the parts store to get the right fluid and reconnecting the line properly this time!
Often I'd invite a friend over while I did the work, keeps me company and that way they can be the backup vehicle (and I'd return the favour).
This is the other reason a lot of people will do their own motorbike maintenance - for a lot of people, the motorbike is the second vehicle.
It's also rare to order too many parts or tools. Rental tools are very useful, but many times as a car ages, you may need to order other parts.
Though I don't get this complaint; because there is often lead time at a mechanic's for the parts too; you still need a backup transportation plan for that situation. (And it's even more likely to effect you during a 9-5 if you your wrenching on weekends or weeknights)