There are 3 Yamaha dealers in the area: One in Huntsville itself (Quinlan's), as well as Bracebridge Yamaha and Beacon in Dwight. None of them will be of any use to you for parts. Quinlans is a former Harley dealership that initially branched out into Honda so they'd have some sport bikes to flog. They picked up Yamaha a year or two ago, in anticipation of Honda's recent abandonment. That pi$$ed off Harley, who dropped them. Now they are trying to become a marine shop in a desperate bid to survive and have more boats lined up outside than motorcycles. Debbie, the girl at the parts counter, seems nice enough and reasonably competent but they just don't stock anything. It's usually a week or so to get anything in from Yamaha. They don't even have a set of valve shims -- to have them do the shim adjustment would mean leaving the bike sit in their shop while they ordered in the individual shims required! I know the one mechanic there to be pretty competent, but I don't know anything about any of the others. The one salesman is a pretty useless jerk but I doubt any of you would be buying an FJR there next weekend ;-) When I took Pandora there for the TPS recall, I supplied them with a copy of the service manual.
One final note: they started as a Harley dealership and while the marque has changed, the pricing policies have not. They are very proud of their merchandise! I tried to price a pair of BT-020's there when they started with the Yamaha line and was told they choose to carry Dunlops. When I insisted I wanted the 'Stones he said he could order them in if I was really set on them, tossed me a catalogue and told me to look up what I wanted. Pricing was full MSRP -- PLUS SHIPPING TO HIS STORE!!!
Bracebridge Yamaha is the longest serving dealership in the area. Historically they have sold the odd motorcycle, but their bread and butter business is snowmobiles and outboards with a smattering of ATVs and generators. Yamaha wouldn't even let them have an FJR for the floor when it was first announced (same with the R1 -- not enough MC volume going out their door). They really are not familiar with motorcycles and I have had to show them how to find parts in a Yamaha parts fiche in the past. As with Quinlan's, they don't stock parts. Order and wait.
Finally is Beacon in Dwight (Hwys 35 and 60). They are a gas bar, gift shop and deli that started selling used boats on consignment in the parking lot, then eventually picked up a Honda dealership for the outboard motors and added Yamaha primarily for the sleds. I actually bought a used boat through them many years ago and the owner seemed like a decent fellow. My son coasted up to his pumps one night only to discover they were closed. He called me to come out with a can of gas but in the meantime the owner was driving by, saw him sitting there and opened up to sell him a tank of gas! You don't see that in the city, but then I guess you don't see too many motorcycle shops that sell "I visited Algonquin Park" tee shirts and coffee mugs featuring "Canada's National Bird -- the Mosquito" alongside fresh produce, homemade frozen TV dinners, hardware, trail permits, wave runners, live bait, generators and dirt bikes either. :lol:
If anyone has a breakdown in the area, give me a call. If nothing else, I have a trailer, a fair collection of tools and some vague familiarity with the FJR. 788 3693.