I know where TO is. In fact I bought my '04 from the folks at TO Kawasaki/Yamaha. The short story is that I will never do business with them again.
The dealer in Woodland Hills (Kolbe) has a service department run by a very decent guy and, while I do quite a bit of my own work, I have had lots of work done there, also.
There are also a few independent shops in the area though I have not used them. LB Racing and Peak Performance, both in Simi Valley, come to mind.
Several folks here on the board can tell you a lot about CalCoast cycles in Ventura. I have had tires mounted there but have had no other work done at that shop.
Wish I could be of more help.
Thanks for the replies.
I just took my 08 for the 600 mile service. When I got the bike it stalled at almost every stop, I did the BJM modification and for the most part that solved the problem but it surged a bit at idle and still occasionally stalled at a stop. I read on this forum that doing a TBS improved the idle and made for overall smoother performance. I asked the service person at TO Yamaha about this and he asked me if I had heard that online and that if I had it was a load of BS. Being the smart ass that I sometimes am I asked him if he thought I was full of shit since fjrforum was the website I was referring to, you know the one with a lot of people who OWN FJR's! And I asked him how many FJR's he had owned. Well needless to say this was not the way to begin a relationship with someone who was going to work on my bike. :assassin:
I have to say when I brought this issue up in this forum I was quickly bounced to the "Never Ending Pointless Thread" and told to search. That's a real pet peeve of mine, although I mentioned that I was taking my bike in for the 600 mile service I was also asking if my bike continued to stall and they did a TBS was it included in the warranty. Yes, simply doing a syntax search for the words "600 mile service" yields lots of replies that are largely out of context. But that's for another "Never Ending Pointless debate." :blink:
Anyway, the service ended up costing me $407 and to me the bike runs a little rougher. When I asked the service manager he said that when he test road the bike it didn't hesitate, which I replied it never hesitated, it just stalled at an idle. He said the throttle body synch was fine and didn't need adjusting so I couldn't help but wonder what he charged me for. Since I'm not a mechanic and I admit that I didn't handle this well I'm hoping to find a different service center I can trust and try again. I thought about talking with the owner but decided in this instance I would vote with my check book and never return.
I realize this is all based on personal opinion, but for example I also have a Honda and Erik, the service manager at Thousand Oaks Honda is great. Every time I take the Honda in for service he always does a little more than requested and charges less than the estimate. For anyone who might have a Honda in this area I wouldn't hesitate recommending them. In fact, I wish they could perform Yamaha warranty service.
Its often hard to tell how well a dealerships service department is from experience with their sales department, but I offered a fair price for a new 07 AE and the sales manager at CalCoast was kind of a jerk. When my wife wanted to shop for helmets there, after I purchased my new 08 elsewhere, the salesman recognized us and was very unhappy that we didn't purchase from them saying they would meet or beat any deal. But when we tried they told us to not let the door hit us on the ass on the way out. The whole operation feels a bit slippery to me.
The folks at Kolbe where very pleasant to work with but I almost feel bad because they called to accept my offer for the 08 about half an hour after I purchased from the dealership near Valencia [which is just too far to go for regular service]. I'm going to give Kolbe a try, I'm sure they will appreciate the business anyway.
