Question: Longest time to have your Wing triked?-From date of order to completion...

[tndragonrider]

Okay here is one that I would like to know. What is the longest time anyone has had to have their Wing converted, from the date of the order to the completion. Now if your dealer has the kit in stock, what would that time frame be like? I probably hold the record here, but would like to hear from others. Of course this is not a trophy that I covet ownership on.

[Shimpy]

My dealer had mine (Champion) in stock.. When I went in and said "OK do it" he called his painter and said, "that trike kit you have and are going to paint yellow, change that to pearl black". That was on a Tuesday morning and they called me Friday and said the trike was done and ready to pick up.

[tndragonrider]

Well I ordered mine on February 11th. The dealer said, "we have a kit in stock and our painter can paint it. It will be done in two weeks." Well today is March 26th, and I have yet to confirm that it has been painted yet. Even though they claim they just painted it yesterday. I will verify this on Monday. Then the body has to be installed and the running boards. Considering how long it's been so far it might be Christmas before its complete.

[Marc H]

Waiting is the hardest part but you are nowhere near the longest I've seen posted.Hopefully they will have you ready soon.

[tndragonrider]

I find it hard to believe that it would be longer considering the kit was in stock. If it had to be built at the factory and painted then 3 weeks for building and 1 week for shipping. But mine was in stock and I feel the dealer wanted to get rid of it and of course if their painter paints it their profit margin goes up.

[tndragonrider]

If mine is done by next Friday, that would make seven weeks. A far cry from the original promised two weeks.

[trike lady]

I could see the trike build being delayed if the guy building them is the shop's only Goldwing Specialist and is involved in the brake recall and being pulled off the build.
Should take two weeks.

[Fabricater]

I did mine myself , It took me a week to get the body ready and paint sprayed . And another week to get the kit installed.Then I did the rake kit before it left the garage the first time.that was another 4 days. I have a full time job that I work 10 hr days,so all my work was done in a few hrs each evening and Friday and Saturday . I did take one day vacation the day I sprayed the paint.There are a lot of good dealers and people out there,but I always seem to get the ones that take longer than it should,so I do most of my own work.I took a engine head to my local machine shop to have some work done.I thought I could drop it off on Friday pick it up the next Friday,I got it back 4 weeks later.

[tndragonrider]

Yes it is Southern Honda and as MrJohn has told me I have got caught up in the transition from their dealership to a newly start up Trike Center. Lack of space, manpower and a host of other factors have contributed to this build.

[DblTrbl]

I don't have a Wing, but I bet I have the record for the longest build.......Ordered in Sept 2014, dropped bike off in Oct 2014......Trike still not fully completed and have 10 April 2016 as the new completion date.......Not holding my breath as he is still waiting for my front rim and has to go back to KY to install the emergency brake. I'll be lucky to see it before May 2016. So right now setting at 19 months and counting....tick tock....

That's all I can say about this.......I promised Zook.....

Hopefully will be able to post pictures very soon of a COMPLETED Trike.

[tndragonrider]

It's Southern Honda, the biggest volume Honda dealer in the USA. I'm sure they process orders in the order they get them and I'm also sure they only have a couple of dedicated trike builders, so I'm not surprised that there is a delay. After all it's spring and they are selling bikes and trikes as fast as they can assemble them and as you mentioned, they are also contending with a flood of brake recalls for both Goldwings and Goldwing trikes. The trikes take much more time to do the recall than do the two wheelers. My local Honda dealer is swamped with recalls too and it has them bogged down big time.

Yeah and I can't wait to install the high quality rake kit that I ordered from Zook. It really is a well constructed piece of engineering.

Thanks Zook!

[DblTrbl]

As I said in my post.....I made a promise not to talk about it on this forum.......I Just wanted to answer the question about the time frame of having conversion completed start to finish......Sorry for not answering but..............

[1800 06 Champion Trike]

I ordered mine from my dealer in the beginning May 2006. He didn't have the white wing, so he ordered that. Called me end of May that it was all done. I went down and picked it up the day after he called.

[Wingrider55]

I ordered my Roadsmith kit in April 2015 and had it scheduled to be installed May 11th. Dropped it of at Roadsmith in White Bear Lake MN. on Monday morning and picked it up Tuesday morning. They were great people to work with there.

[Burnerboy]

I don't have a Wing, but I bet I have the record for the longest build.......Ordered in Sept 2014, dropped bike off in Oct 2014......Trike still not fully completed and have 10 April 2016 as the new completion date.......Not holding my breath as he is still waiting for my front rim and has to go back to KY to install the emergency brake. I'll be lucky to see it before May 2016. So right now setting at 19 months and counting....tick tock....

That's all I can say about this.......I promised Zook.....

Hopefully will be able to post pictures very soon of a COMPLETED Trike.

Dbl Trbl,

I know the trike builder you speak of: (I promise *Mum's the word*) BUT have you ever received any of your promised parts back yet?? I know that was also a situation.... Any problems with the trike, once you finely received it all built?? I'd love to get together, at some point soon for a coffee and put face to name.. and hopefully take a nice ride this spring..

Pm me if you get a chance.. thanks!

Ronnie

[Lee H. Mann]

As I said in my post.....I made a promise not to talk about it on this forum.......I Just wanted to answer the question about the time frame of having conversion completed start to finish......Sorry for not answering but..............

I am ashamed to admit, and I though I had the records for the "most delayed" trike builds.

Some things (most) are just not in the builder's control.

EXAMPLES:

The first one was a 1998 FLHTC anniversary Harley that took 24 weeks to get the painted kit from Lehman in 2001. From that time forward I found a local Hot Rod painter locally and I only ordered un-painted kits which took normally 4 weeks to get. I always had several kits in the pipeline then.

The second one was in 2009 an unpainted Goldwing kit that took over 6 weeks from the time it shipped from Lehman until the time it arrived. It was in a freight transfer warehouse in Denver that had caught on fire and the Fire Marshal would not allow it, or anything else in the warehouse, to be removed until the arson investigation was concluded.

I also had two shipments damaged by the freight companies to the point that the bodies had to be replaced b/c they had speared the crate with the forklift.

ON THE OTHER HAND:

I might hold the shortest time record for a conversion sale as well, paint and install on a customer's bike. Made the sale on a Saturday and delivered his completed conversion on his bike the following Saturday. Everything worked great. Took the body to the paint shop on Monday, spent Tuesday and Wednesday doing the conversion and picked up the painted body on Thursday morning, thus completing and TEST RIDING it by Friday afternoon.

[FRR]

Mine took 5 days when Morton did it in 2012. I friend of mine had his done by a guy here in Clermont County 3 yrs ago since the guy promised to save him a couple of hundred of dollars. Took him 5 months. When my friend finally got fed up after several delays, the owner admonished him with " don't rush me". I think, if he had it to do all over again, he would have gone a different route.

[mgwtrike]

Mine was approx. a week.

I wrote up the order and deposit my down payment in Nov. 4 months early because Roadsmith was running a $500.00 off sale.

After 2 months, I drop off my paint # in (Jan) so they could start the painting for a spring install.

Snow/salt was still on the road in March, so they came to the house in a covered trailer and pick it up for me, no charge.