So I feel lucky to be uninjured and alive today! I just spent a good chunk of change getting rods&bearings and piston rings of my 89 GS500 replaced by a professional mechanic. The bike was running best it ever had, until the next day the starter was spinning freewheel. I did some searches on this forum, and it seemed a pretty benign problem, that the starter clucth wasn't engaging. Anyway I pop-started the bike and it ran fine. Took the bike for a ride and the engine seized on a freeway on-ramp. Luckily I had just straightened up out of a corner and had not merged into traffic yet. Did some fishtailing into the shoulder, but managed to keep the bike upright. Was I stupid to ride the bike after the starter issue? Does anyone happen to have some helpful advice on how to handle the mechanic? Should I try to get a refund for the work? (the parts&labor add up to nearly the value of the bike.. when it was in good shape)
I would
1) breath (yes its upsetting but your fine and alive...that is the primordial factor here)
2) call mechanic that dide the engine job, and schedule to get bike back to him
3) let him tell you what happened to the engine, a great many deals can go wrong mechanically on a engine, it could be a bad ring that snapped and locked the piston for example... this doesnt mean he did not do his job correctly, but is simple bad luck on new parts....
g'luck and happy you stayed up..
You got goats or starwalts.
Cool.
Srinath.