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ediddy

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Everything posted by ediddy

  1. ediddy
    I not knocking harleys but just had to tell you all this story. A friend on mine bought an 07 street glide. He paid $400 for a sprocket that harley says will eliminate the vibration. After installing the sprocket the vibration moved to a higher rpm instead of going away completely. My friend went back to the local harley dealer and told the service manager he wasn't going to pay $400 for something that doesn't work. The service manager said lets go back in the shop and talk to one of the technicians. When my friend explained his problem to the certified harley technician the technician replied, "It's a damn harley it's supposed to vibrate." My friend is very upset.
  2. ediddy
    I was at the yamaha dealer in Tallahassee, Fl thursday and they had just gotten a yamaha raider. I had seen one in magazines but this was the first time to see one in person. It is one more good looking bike. I wanted it so bad and if I rode just one up I would buy it in a heart beat. The list price is $13,999 which is a low price for a bike that looks like a $40,000 custom bike. I really like the looks of the ultra classic, especially the 08 copper and black color but I have head too many negative comments from people that own an ultra classic. When I left Tallahassee thursday I stopped at a custom bike dealer in Thomasville, GA. A guy came in and told me how good my venture looked and said he had an 02 venture and sold it to get the ultra classic. He said his wife loved the venture and they took many trips with it but he just wanted a harley. The first thing he had to do to make the ultra comfortable for his wife was to buy a kit that moves the rear seat back 4 inches. He said they still can't ride it in the summer because it puts out so much heat his wife can't stand to ride on the back. He said he was going to buy a Kawasaki Vulcan for his son and they were going to ride it in the summer. I haven't head this from just one or two people but from everyone I know that owns an ultra. A friend of mine just bought a new 07 screamin eagle ultra classic and he had to take it to a shop that specializes in modifying bikes to get them to put something on it to cool the back cylinder so his wife can ride. I can't believe harley charges what they do for this bike and no one can ride two up without spending 2 or 3 thousand dollars to get it where your wife can ride with you. But it is a good looking bike.
  3. ediddy
    I was talking to Yogi on this site and he said that he head that Dothan Powersports in Dothan, AL would do a mod on the venture that would increase the hp to 120. Today I rode to Dothan with some friends to the Dothan Bikefest and on the way back we stopped at Dothan Powersports. I talked to the service manager about this. He said he used to have a tour deluxe and did this mod on it. They re-route the air intake and mount four K&N air filters under the tank. Then they put on either bub or barons pipes, I don't remember which pipes he said, and they rejet the carbs. The manager said this would increase the hp to 120 and increase your gas mileage. Just wondering if any of you have heard of this or tried this. Oh, and the cost is $1,200, which means I won't being doing this anytime soon.
  4. ediddy
    Hey ruffrider99, When GEICO first entered the motorcycle market that were buying the business with ridiculously low rates that they couldn't live with for long. The were insuring $50,000 custom choppers with liability and comprehensive and collision for $250.00 per year. In some states they still are. There is no way you can insure these customs bikes for that rate. They are going to get killed. You can drop one of those bikes at a traffic light and do three or four thousand dollars of damage. You can't repair the chrome parts you have to replace them. You can tear a seat and cause eight or nine hundred dollars in damage. And if one gets stolen, and they do a lot, and you pay out $50,000 it takes a lot of premium at $250.00 per year to make up for that loss. A friend of mine ran into the back of a car on his chopper and GEICO paid over $10,000 to repair the bike. The custom bike dealers know about the $250.00 per year rates with GEICO now and are getting their customers to call GEICO for insurance before they leave he dealership. I hope GEICO insures every custom bike in the U.S. because sooner or later they will have to raise their rates out of the roof to pay for the claims. Who knows, they might even go broke like they did several years ago. State Farm is doing the same thing with "crotch rockets." They will insure a Hyabusa with full coverage for 3 or 4 hundred dollars per year. This is going to ruin their rates for motorcycles. Besides the fact that most crotch rocket riders wipe out going 150 miles per hour you can drop one of those bikes making a slow turn and total the bike. Most all of the major companies wouldn't even talk to you about insuring a motorcycle a few years ago. Now they see how many motorcycles are being sold in the U.S. and that riders arent' only Hells Angles anymore but all classes of people so they are jumping into the marketplace. The more companies decide to insure bikes the better it is for us as the competition will keep the rates down.
  5. ediddy
    Hey Ken8143, Having a heavy debt load decreases your credit score. When insurance companies first started using credit scoring I had a hard time figuring how it worked. I had people that were successful and living in $300,000 and up homes that couldn't get a good enough score to qualify for coverage. I would then quote the insurance in the wife's name, she didn't have any credit, and they would qualify for the insurance company's best rate. It doesn't matter if you pay all your bills 30 days before they come due; if you have a lot of debt it knocks your score. Some insurance companies do the scoring on the husband and wife and average the score and some companies run the score on the first person listed as the insured. If you apply for credit and are approved and open the account and then change your mind and close the account it lowers your score so you are better off to keep the account open. If you access more than two thirds of your credit limit it lowers your score. If you have a credit card lets say with a $10,000 credit limit and you aren't using it your score will go up. If you closed the account your score would go down. Another crazy thing about credit scoring is that all insurance companies don't use the same scoring model. I was quoting my homeowner coverage with Hartford Insurance company and I didn't get in their best preferred tier. I quoted with Safeco Insurance Company and I got in their top preferred tier. Some insurance companies use a company called the Fair Issacs company for scoring and some companies such as State Farm have developed their own scoring model. The insurance companies keep the way they score hush, hush and won't let anyone see it. At first, in Georgia, the companies wouldn't even let the insurance commissioner look at their scoring model. When the commissioner wouldn't approve their policies that used scoring the companies finally made the scoring model available to the commissioner. Your credit score can change daily.
  6. ediddy
    I have a rack that I got from JC Whitney and I have the rear spoiler from yamaha. There is no problem with them. The rack is approx 69.00 but I have had a problem with is rusting where the welds are.
  7. ediddy
    Hey Denden, Thanks for the encouraging words. I didn't get to talk to the factory rep when I picked up my bike. The service manager said they replaced the swing arm, rear diff and some bearings that weren't really worn too bad but they replaced them anyway. He said they made sure everything was done to factory specs and all bolts were torqued to specs. They want me to come back after approx 500 miles to change the oil in the rear end.
  8. ediddy
    Hey Saltydawg, Thats why you need a good agent to deal with rather than trying to do things on line. That would never had happened with an agent. Just a quote wouldn't trigger something going to the state. A policy number had to be issued.
  9. ediddy
    Went to Tallahassee yesterday and trailered my bike home. I didn't get to ride but 10 or 15 miles but I don't have a screaming venture anymore. I had the dealer put avon venom tires on and the bike is quiet. Once I put 5,000 miles on the bike I will know if it is fixed for good. The yamaha factory rep pulled the records on my bike and the rear end was being replaced about every 5,000 miles. I sure misdiagnosed the problem. I just knew the whining was coming from the transmission but it was the rear end. Right now I don't have a chirp or whine at any speed so the I basket did cure that problem. I'm anxious to put 5,000 miles on the bike to see what happens.
  10. ediddy
    I am an insurance agent in Georgia and can only speak for Georgia but credit scoring is similar in all states. It is not new and first started here in 1998. I was against it and most agents were against it but I talked to our Insurance Commissioner in person and he said the complaints his office were receiving were coming from the agents and not consumers. Insurance Commissioners don't listen to the agents as much as they do from consumers. I have changed my position and now believe credit scoring has been better. The insurance companies have the statistics to show that each time the credit score drops claims go up. I can tell you from experience that some people just seem to find a way to have a claim. Since credit scoring most people are paying a lower rate. Before scoring everyone paid the same rate. Now some companies have as many as 100 different tiers of rates. An automobile premium could be as high as 1500.00 per year with the worst score to as low as 600.00 per year for the best score. Many states and consumer groups have challenged credit scoring but it has been upheld in every court case. All companies that use scoring send you a generic letter that states you didn't get the very best rate if you didn't get in the top tier. There is no way that your wife getting credit at or before age 18 had anything to do with your score. I recently got a quote on my motorcycle from GEICO. I wouldn't buy from them if they were the last company of earth but I wanted to see their rate. I got a letter from them a few days later telling me I didn't get their best rate because of my score. They were $700.00 per year and I am paying $402.00 per year now. You need to find a good agent and call and get other rates because the rates will vary. For example I had someone in last week that insured a 89 Honda 1100 and a 02 Goldwing. Here are how the rates stacked up: Foremost $503.00, Dairyland $492.00, Progressive $453.00, American Reliable $441.00, AIG $397.00, American Modern $340.00 and Victoria $245.00. Another more extreme example was a guy with a harley, his wife had a harley and his 18 year old son had a harley. The rate through harley davidson's insurance agency was $2,400 per year. I wrote the coverage with American Modern for $1700.00 per year but the highest quote was $6,600.00 per year. So as you can see the rates do vary by company. Credit scoring is here to stay and even though you didn't get the company's best rate it was still probably better than the rate if there wasn't credit scoring.
  11. ediddy
    Hey Rick, Thanks for the info. When the fourth rear diff was installed the service manager asked me to bring my bike in after 600 miles so they could change the oil in the rear in case there were metal flakes from it breaking in. I did that and it still wore out. I don't know what kind of oil yamaha puts in the rear end.
  12. ediddy
    The service manager from the dealer called today and my bike is ready and he said it wasn't screaming anymore. This is the fifth rear end. I'm going to see what happens but if this one goes bad I am going to ask yamaha to swap my bike for another. There is one thing that concerns me a little and I would like to hear from some of you. The factory rep questioned me about pulling a trailer. When I said no, I've never pulled a trailer he asked about the amount of weight I carry when I ride to the mountains and what kind of terrain I ride in. I didn't think too much about it then but today I was questioned again about the weight I carry. My wife and I like to take weekend trips and sometimes if we can get off early we will leave on thursday afternoon for a long weekend trip. I weigh 200 lbs and my wife weighs 160lbs. We then fill up each saddlebag with light items that probably wouldn't amount to 5 or 10 lbs. We put our frog toggs that are sealed with a foodsaver, clear glasses for cloudy or rainy weather, a cycle pump air pump, tire gauge, couple of small towels, a can of what used to be called honda spray cleaner, our caps and maps. Between 2 saddlebags this isn't much weight. We pack our clothes in a yamaha bag designed to fit in the trunk. I don't know the weight of this bag but I wouldn't think it would be around 10 lbs or 20 lbs at most. We then have a bag we strap to the luggage rack where we put our dirty clothes and carry such things as tylenol, cell phone and my wife's makeup. I don't think this would go over the 419 lbs that is listed as the maximum weight limit. Surely this wouldn't be enough weight to cause the rear ends to go bad. What do you think?
  13. ediddy
    I called Tallahassee Powesports friday to see when the parts that had to come from Japan would be in. They have already received the parts from Japan and are waiting for a part coming from Los Angeles. Isn't that interesting?
  14. ediddy
    Wow, I can't believe I actually hear some of you sympathizing with insurance companies. I am impressed. I have been an agent for 34 years and when any of my customers have a claim I fight to the finish for them but I also see many fraudulent claims that drive up the cost of insurance. This also puts you in a position when you are honest and not trying to rip off the company that they put you under scrutiny like a dishonest person. Unfortunately the dishonest people make if difficult for the honest people. The marketing rep for one of my companies was recently in and told about a case where a guy insured a custom bike for $60,000 and two weeks later reported it stolen. After investigating the company found that the insured took it to his friends house and asked him to keep it for a few weeks. The insured is now in prison but guess what? He was an attorney. A few years ago I was talking to the president of one of our companies that only insures homes in Georgia. I asked him if the storms we had that year had caused them loss problems. He said its not the storms. It people burning their houses that cause loss problems. He said I don't know how they do it but if the economy downturns you can get ready because the fire lossed go up. He said you could go back to the beginning of the company and see that everytime the economy goes backwards fire losses go up. We all have to pay for fraudulent claims. Thats it for todays insurance class.
  15. ediddy
    Hey Kit, I thought I was the only one who has ever been asked to practice safe sex and go and @#&% myself. I did have a lady, uh woman, tell me that I wasn't just a SOB but a revolving SOB. Anyway I turned I was a SOB. Thats life. You can't please everyone all the time.
  16. ediddy
    I know what you're saying. It would be upset also. But I recently wanted a set of avon venoms for my bike. At biketoberfest in Daytona I went by J & P Cycles and they gave me a price of $139.99 per tire. I went to my dealer and asked them for a price on 2 tires and they said they would sell them to me for $140.00 per tire. When I asked how much they would charge to mount and balance the tires they said there would be no charge. Even if I paid a little more than I could have gotten them elsewhere it wasn't worth the hassle for a few dollars. However if I had spent the kind of money you have and sent customers I would be upset with them for not mounting the tires and I would have told them so.
  17. ediddy
    Just talked to the yamaha rep again. They are going to replace the swing arm instead of rebuilding it. Said there wasn't one in U.S. so it may be a while before they get one. The rep said he put my bike on the lift and ran the bike and listened with a stethoscope and it isn't the transmission or clutch basket, it is the rear end. They can't understand why my bike is as he said "chewing up rear ends." The bike was perfect until the 16,000 mile service so he says something must have been done then that put the rear end out of alignment. He said the only time they have ever seen anything close to this is where some people were pulling trailers with their bike. I am encourgaged and hope this solves the problem.
  18. ediddy
    Just got a call from the yamaha tech rep. They are going to rebuild the rear end of my bike starting at the rear swing arm and going back. Maybe this will be the end of my problems.
  19. ediddy
    Hey Kit, Thanks for the encouraging words and all the work you have done. I hope to hear from the dealer today as to the prognosis of my bike. If it is the rear end I don't understand why they keep failing. This will be the fifth and when the fourth was installed they installed a new drive shaft also. When I talked to the regional service manager, Jim Coddington, he asked me if I pulled a trailer. I thought that an interesting question, but I don't pull a trailer. The service manager at the dealership asked me what kind of roads I traveled on when going to the mountains. I have been to the North Carolina mountains four times this year. I told him hills and curves but that shouldn't have any effect on the rear diff. I'm sure there are ventures that ride through the mountains all the time. One thing that was encouraging to me happened this spring in Daytona. I was at the bikefest and went by the star exhibit. I was looking at a venture on display and the guy with star asked me how I liked the venture. I told him I already had one and the trouble I had experienced with it. He said they had a factory tech rep there and asked if I would like to talk to him. I said yes. The tech rep introduced himself as Al Harper. When I told him I had an -05 silver venture and had trouble with the rear ends and chirp he said you must be from Albany, Ga. I asked him how he knew and he said my bike had been discussed by the tech reps and managers. This is a small consolation but it is good to know they must have meetings where they discuss problems they find and they all were aware of my problems. Al Harper wasn't the guy that came from Titusville, Fl to replace one of the rear diffs so he wouldn't know. Anyway, maybe I will get some news today.
  20. ediddy
    Hey yogi, Thanks for the offer. I will call Charlie and tell him. I don't know what time the rep is going to be there. Charlie called this morning and just said it would be tomorrow. If I can find out I will let you know. If you get a chance give me a call. Thanks, Eddie
  21. ediddy
    Hey Orrin and Eck, Thanks for the reply. I have read all of Kit's post and appreciate what he has done. I mentioned taking my bike to the dealer on his last post. And Eck I think I was the one that gave you Jim Coddington's phone number. I have talked to Jim Coddington several times and he has always been pleasant to deal with. If I have to ask yamaha to swap out my bike it won't be the service people I have to talk with, it will be the customer service people. We will see.
  22. ediddy
    Last Tuesday I left my bike at the dealer because I don't have a whine, it is a scream. The service manager called me this morning and said he finally got to test drive my bike and it "screams like a banshee." He doesn't think it is the clutch basket but thinks it may be the rear end. As most of you know from my previous post I am on my fourth rear diff now. The service manager has asked someone from yamaha to come in and see what they can do. The rep will be there tomorrow. If they can't get my bike back to normal I am starting the battle with yamaha to get a new different bike. The service manager did tell me that he is seeing more and more ventures with the chirp and whine problem. I like my bike but can't take the screaming anymore.
  23. ediddy
    Kit, I hope everything goes as you say tomorrow. Let us know. I took my screamer, not my wife, my motorcycle, to the doctor tuesday. I haven't heard from the dealer as of this moment. Here's what happened. My wife and I left home thursday for the North Carolina mountains and put almost 1100 miles on my bike by the time we got home sunday. We went from Albany, Ga to Albany, Kentucky. I don't tell my wife whenever there is a problem with the bike such as vibration or whining. That way she won't have any preconcieved notions and will tell me if she can tell there is a problem. By the time we got to Macon, GA thursday she said the screaming was killing her ears so we stopped at a sporting goods store and bought ear plugs. I know it isn't just me when she tells me the bike is screaming. We met up with my brother and sister in law friday morning in Clayton, GA and they rode with us. He has a goldwing. At breakfast sunday morning he told me he heard my bike screaming and asked how I could stand listening to that all day. A perfect trip was ruined by the screaming transmission. Even with ear plugs you can't hear the motor running because of the loud scream. I turned the radio up until the music was distorted but you couldn't listen to it over the scream. I had an I basket installed at approx 18,000 miles and the whine went completely away but gradually started coming back until now, 28,000 miles, it starts at 30 mph and gets louder until at 60 to 80 mph it hurts your ears. I am fed up and ready to fight yamaha. Tuesday morning I took my bike toTallahassee, Fl and left it. The service manager said that the factory rep for yamaha was at the dealership then looking at another bike. He said he would have him test ride my bike. I told the service manager I didn't care what they had to do but I either wanted my bike fixed or yamaha to swap another bike for mine. He said they recently had a warrior that they couldn't get to run right so yamaha told them to crete it up and ship it back to Japan and they gave the guy a new warrior. This particular factory rep has worked on my bike once before. He came from Titusville, Fl to hear in Albany, GA to look at my bike because I was getting a bad vibration. I am on my fourth rear diff. Back when I was having trouble with the read end vibration I talked to the regional district service manager with yamaha and he was very pleasant to talk to. I don't know what I will hear from the service manager. One other thing. I have two friends thave have ventures. One has a 99 and the other has an 04. I rode their bikes and there was no whine. They rode my bike and said they couldn't put up with the whine in my bike. Kit, I have been very encouraged by what you have done and by what you said in this thread. Thanks for your work. I hope soon I can quit tellling everyone I have a screamin eagle venture. Eddie Hall
  24. ediddy
    There was an interesting article on MSN in May about financing and Harley Davidson. The article stated that in order to keep sales up Harley had lowered the beacon score to qualify for financing with their finance company and as a result they had taken a hit with repos. Also because there are so many used harleys on the market they couldn't get the price they had been getting for used bikes. As a result their stock had dropped from $70.00 per share to $59.00 per share. So much for harleys holding their value.
  25. ediddy
    The weekend before last I rode to daytona with some of my buddies. One of my buddies has an 04 or 05 American Ironhorse Chopper. The most he had been offered on trade in with the harley dealers was 15,000. In daytona he went to Rossmeyer harley davidson and looked at an 08 anniversary edition ultra classic. He told the salesman if the would give him 20,000 for his chopper he would give them 27,000 out the door for the ultra classic. He rode home on the ultra classic.
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