The Importance of Using the Right Conversion Shop

[lgjhn]

This is more of a vanity post, but I wanted to stress, once again, to those that are thinking about triking out their existing 2-wheelers the importance of selecting the right conversion shop.

I can't stress the importance of this enough. Do your due diligence, check references, etc. It will avoid lots and lots of frustration, time, money etc. down the road, and may even avoid potential life-threatening scenarios.

When a conversion is done by unqualified/inexperienced/lack of caring personnel, the end product will result in many minor and major issues, both for the short-term and long-term.

The short-term issues can be missing/loose/wrong fasteners, wire terminals/grounds left unconnected, hose clamps missing/loose, etc. etc. and the list goes on These are frustrating nuisance issues that can be readily fixed, but it means either doing it yourself or back to the shop....both are annoying after paying good money to have it done right to begin with.

But there is a long-term side to this as well. And I'll use the following as an example of it: A "lack of caring" individual putting the trike together gets to where he's doing the driveshaft connection. At the differential end, he's not paying attention to what he's doing and cross-threads one side of one of the u-bolts holding the u-joint. He realizes he has stripped out the threads. It's a $2 part stocked at any auto parts outlet. But instead of replacing and fixing it properly, he just continues to wrench it on there (without the lock washer) hoping it holds. The customer takes possession of the trike and finds about 30 short-term issues and gets em all repaired over a period of several weeks, but is totally unaware of the u-bolt issue at the rear u-joint because it looks "normal" from a casual look under the trike. After 15K miles, he notices a high frequency vibration above 65-70 mph and then he notices a "clicking sound" when pushing the trike in and out of the garage. Up on the lift it goes only to find that the stripped u-bolt has worked itself almost completely out of the u-joint connection with the nut hanging by a couple of threads. He buys the $2 part and repairs it. At 20K miles, the high frequency vibration caused by this eventually leads to a u-joint failure along with a pinion seal leak. The pinion seal leak repair requires the pinion nut to come off, seal replaced and the nut put back on to the exact same position that it came off in a vain attempt to maintain the pinion pre-load to within factory specs. Anyone who's ever done any differential work knows that this is a "hit or miss" proposition on getting the pinion pre-load exactly back in spec. Most of the time, it's a "miss" and will require disassembly of the differential to change out the pinion crush sleeve and then tighten everything back to factory specs and clearances....not an easy job even on full-sized vehicles, let alone a trike.

So now, that original damaged $2 part that would have taken maybe a half hour to procure/replace has cost a u-joint replacement, a pinion seal replacement and a tear-down of the diff to get it back in factory specs.

The lesson learned: Choose your conversion shop verrrry CAREFULLY. Find out exactly just who the specific individual will be that's gonna be "spinning the wrenches" on your pride and joy. What's their experience level, are they familiar with your make/model of bike, etc. Don't be afraid to back out at the slightest sign of unprofessionalism, uncaring, and unqualified indications.

There are good shops out there. I know of one right here on this board.

My rant is over.

[trike lady]

I'm retired from the trike business and I could tell you the horror stories about poorly built trikes that were brought to my shop. I couldn't believe the lack of quality control in the shops that did the work, wire nuts holding wires together, a complaint of an intermittent fuel transfer pump (the pump was wired to the running lights and would only work when the key was on), scotch lock connectors for wiring, poor body fitment and the list went on.

Now picture if I turned out this type of work, they'd say "You shouldn't have brought it to a female builder she lacks the skills". I'm very picky about my work and that includes my hobbies or any project I work on. It's sad that there is shoddy workmanship and lack of caring, most places rush the job and its get it done and get it out the door.

I completed a laptop computer for the Cedars senior apartments and while I'm not a professional computer tech, the care I took in making sure that they had a full set of recovery media, a clean laptop and all the programs they needed to enjoy the fun of a computer. It's called take pride in your work.

[lgjhn]

.......I'm retired from the trike business and I could tell you the horror stories about poorly built trikes that were brought to my shop. I couldn't believe the lack of quality control in the shops that did the work, wire nuts holding wires together, a complaint of an intermittent fuel transfer pump.....

Oh, I can believe it. Mine was like a horror movie. My right side exhaust fell off in the middle of the highway within the first 50 miles due to loose & missing bolts. Instead of using the supplied wire harness connectors, the jack-azz saw fit to just cut all the wires, stripped em and just twisted em together. Some of those connections were left without even a wire nut, tape...nothing, etc. He couldn't even follow the simple Roadsmith diagram on installing the spacer & wave washer on the transmission end of the driveshaft in the proper order. IMHO, he had NO BUSINESS ever touching a motorcycle of any kind....NONE! I know of at least one trike manufacturer that eventually refused to sell them any more kits because of the numerous complaints. They finally went out of business...best thing that ever happened for the trike conversion industry. I've spent many, many hours fixing over 30 items; a few of them that could have resulted in serious safety issues. Because of all of that, I did this vanity post to help our fellow potential trikers from having to go thru what we've been thru.

[trike lady]

Sounds like you went to the trike shop in the panhandle of Florida that is now gone.

Nothing wrong with educating the buyers.

[FuzzyWuzHe]

I recently retired from the swimming pool repair business.

In my first service school (put on by manufacturers) the instructor asked, "What is a swimming pool professional?"

After many answers like, "A well trained and well equipped service man", the instructor said, "Nope".

He said, "It is simply a man/woman that is being PAID to work on a pool. No information about how good he/she is can be gleaned from that term".

I'm sure like all service based industries, this applies to the trike builders too! As stated ... do your homework and choose wisely.

[Burnerboy]

Maybe we should post on this site any BAD trike builders...and GOOD ones as well

Ronnie

[tfdeputydawg]

When I chose my conversion shop, I had toured the plant that built the conversion and quized the manager on which of 3 shops I was willing to use would be the best choice. I picked the one that was actually 5hrs away over one that was only a 1/2hr away, based on what I was told.

Got a great conversion done. No problems!