What goes into a Motorcycle Service?

Why can't I have a same day turnaround, or have it serviced while I wait? Why are there delays?

Why do some workshops miss or get things wrong?

Just a few of the questions we get asked and in this article we hope to address and explain how not only the industry but our workshop and team operates.

Motorcycles are complex, they have many parts

Our industry is relatively small in comparison to cars, the volume of each model is also relatively small. Thus, parts supply is often harder, many parts are not stock by the manufactures in Australia and a high percentage of parts are back-order items. For Italian bikes this is even more of an issue and since covid the whole worlds supply chain and importers stock levels have changed drastically.

RC has put a tremendous amount of work and money into stocking our own parts and are continually growing our inventory. This is a very high cost to the business, but it is aimed at faster turnarounds and better efficiency for our customers

This is a main reason we require a deposit on bookings, so that we can have as many of the foreseeable parts on the shelf when the bike arrives.

Quoting and Scope of Work to be Completed

For many common modern motorcycles gauging what may be needed for a service is relatively straightforward. Things such as the bikes age, milage and use can gives us a pretty good idea what will need to be done. However some older or rarer motorcycles quoting is sometimes a lot harder, even just with parts availability

Variations and Time Allocation

When there is time pressure via pre determined time allocations for each service, or tight delivery deadlines. Then the service technician and workshop are incentivized to ignore procedures, variations or problems that require time to look into or resolve.

Variations are difficult to deal with. First to take the time, care and have the attention to detail to spot them. Then report them to the customer, find out parts availability, quote. Then! reschedule the job and shuffle around all other jobs based on parts ETA, customer requirements, the availability of the appropriate tech's for the job and other job requirements.

It is a constant challenge, and it require dedication to doing the right thing even when nobody is look (this is a culture policy, and we have signs so maybe use a photo)

Speed vs Quality

Many of these reason are why some workshops simply can not put the effort in that is required from a technical and quality standpoint because their metrics and targets are time based rather than quality based. Some car workshops advertise 90min service turnarounds! They target convenience, quick turnarounds and profit over quality. At Race Center, we always put quality first.

Ensuring Quality at times is not convenient at all, but it is important from an integrity and safety standpoint, and this is at our core.

This is also why it is challenge for us at RC and why we can be slow to turn things around at times, because we are quality and technical based first, foremost and wont take shortcuts.

A word from our technicians

Jools, Workshop Supervisor - Servicing is a lot more than changing oil, we need to look over things properly. For example, things like un-even pad wear can indicate the brake caliper needs a service. That becomes a variation, it needs to be quoted. Chain's will have tight spots etc. We need to properly inspect brake lines, fuel tanks for contamination. We need to check the suspension, head stem and many other things.

We then need to communicate all that to the customer then quote it so that the customer can make an informed decision before we proceed.

Harley, Workshop Manager - We really wish we could do things faster sometimes, and it would be a lot easier if we didn't report variations we find or put the effort we do into looking at things properly. But that's not what we do, doing a quality and thorough job is everything we are about at Race Center. Believe me, juggling things around with variations, bookings, parts, parts delays etc.. It's really hard at times, but one of our core policies is 'do the right thing, even when nobody is looking' and this is something that is everything to us.