15,000 km service

It's that time again.  The Joymax has reached its 15,000km service at just over 16 months old.  Major items that needed to be looked at were:

• Rear wheel bearings - these were apparently some of the worst the mechanic at the dealership had seen and were begining to affect the oil in the gearbox etc.

• Rear brake disc - had this replaced as it was developing a lip on the outer edge.  I'd thought the grinding noise from bearings was partly down to dodgy brake pads / disc.  Turns out the pads were fine and the disc probably didn't need replacing yet.  Oh well, I've got a spare...

Other than the above the bike just had a regular service including the following items:

• Rear Brake Disc (sourced from SYM) - £76.95
• Carriage Costs - £5.95
• Sundries - £3.00
• Workshop Oil (0.80 ltr) - £5.20
• Gearbox Oil - £3.62
• Environmental Charge - £3.50
• Labour Charges - £43.00
• Vat @ 20% - £28.24

Total Charge: £169.46

Still waiting for my replacement front mudguard from SYM and chasing up the dealership for a replacement exhaust heat-shield that appears to have been damaged prior to me picking the bike up after the insurance repairs.   

The bearings took over a week to show up and the mudguard has been ongoing since mid June.  Bearing in mind this is a bike that is on sale / in production it disappoints me how long lead times are.

Crash, Bang, Wallop

Well...  After many years (over 10+) of care free riding I've finally come a cropper and been knocked off the bike.  Coming out of work after a short 8pm - midnight shift I was caught on the left-hand side by a car and sent rolling down the road with the bike following me.  Seems the bike has come off worse from the accident than myself.  I've suffered a broken metacarpal in my left hand, which now has a pin holding it all together, whereas the bike has more significant damage.

Broken mirror, scuffed brake lever, damaged front fairing,
minor scratches to the screen.

.

Scraping down the side of the front main farings.

Damage to the bellypan / footboards.

Damage to exhaust cover (not sure what damage may
have been caused to the exhaust / pipework)

Damage to the air box.

Damage to pillion footpeg / center stand
and surrounding fairing.

On speaking to the insurance company we're looking at getting the bike repaired for a total outlay of around £1500, not including at additional faults found.  I could have had the bike written off but it's currently on finance and I forgot to purchase the all important gap cover that allows you to bridge the gap between the book price and the price of a new bike. - Lesson learnt, an important add-on to anybody taking out finance!

I could have paid £1500 to bridge the gap between the book value of around £2200 and the costs of a new bike, which is still retailing at around £3500.  My bike is just over a year old, was in great shape, has two brand new tyres and should be relatively new after repairs.  Really didn't make much sense to be spending additional money on top of my regular monthly finance payments.

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As for me...  I've spent a good few days gracing the local hospitals, sitting in waiting rooms for hours on end, to be patched up with a little pin sticking out of my left hand.  Seems I'm healing well and hopefully should be pin free for my fly / ride holiday planned at the end of July.

My hand just after the accident.
I nearly left it like that thinking it was just a bad bruise.

My hand after being bandaged up
ready for my pin to be fitted at
Pinderfields hospital, Wakefield.

Oh... Not again...

Unfortunately after a few months of riding the Joymax has developed the same problem with the front LED running lights.  A couple of the bulbs are starting to flicker like I had on the previous set.  Okay you might think... until you get pulled by the cops for having faulty lights - thankfully not happened.

I called into the local dealers (Padgets, Dewsbury) to follow-up on the last warranty claim.  They made a phone call to SYM and got told that the person they needed to talk to was on lunch.  - Apparently I was expected to wait there like a spare part until said employee came back.  - and they wonder why they loose customers...  Customer service people!  I left after 20 minutes of pacing up and down and told them I'd call in later.

Anyway, my next post will make this all fairly academic... :)

12k service

Just got the Sym back from its 12,000 service.

As mentioned in a previous post, there wasn't a vast amount that needed to be done.  Mainly minor niggles and wear and tear items that needed to be replaced.

A breakdown of costings were:

• EBC Rear Brake Pads - £6.64
• Drive Belt - £42.98
• Oil (0.80 ltr) - £5.20
• Grease / Lubes - £3.00
• Environmental Charge - £3.50
• Labour Charges - £43.00
• Vat @ 20% - £20.87

Total Charge: £125.19

The major item that seemed to cause problems this time around was the replacement of the speedo sensor that runs from the front wheel to the clock binnacle.  Although the dealer was nice enough to offer a courtesy bike (a Honda S-Wing / FES 125) Sym took well over 4 weeks to supply the correct part (sending the wrong one more than once).

As mentioned in an earlier post the idea of spending £100 every 3 months doesn't fill me with joy, but I'm aware it certainly could be a lot more with other models / dealers.

It's that time again...

It's been a while since my last post.  With the weather being no longer fit for ride-outs to the Yorkshire Dales and the like, I've pretty much been using the bike for the day-to-day ride into work.

The bike is due for it's 12,000km service which has come around pretty much on time.  I bought the bike back in March 2013 and the 12k service is due after 12 months. - In theory I'm a month ahead of where I should be which isn't too bad considering the use the bike gets.

Things to note that I'm due to take into this service are:

 - The speedo has been rather erratic of late.  It's spent the last 3+ months returning to about 5km rather than the dead straight 0km return.  The other week it failed to show anything, and the last day or two it's started to bounce about all over the place.  - I'm taking a guess that it's a faulty sensor on the front wheel as it seems to happen every time we have a bad spell of weather.

 - The security flip on the key hole either hasn't been falling into place when the button is pressed, or falls back onto the key by itself making it a nightmare to get the key out.  Something I find a pain in the backside when you're trying to get away from work in the early hours of the morning.

- The center stand won't spring back by itself.  Think it's just a build-up of dirt on the spring / pivot, but again a bit of a pain when you've got to ensure it's kicked back out of the way before setting off.

- Think I've worn the rear pads down to their bare minimum.  There might be some slight scoring on the disc.  Need to check with the dealership on if they think it's salvageable or not.

Overall the bke has been running great.  Not overly happy about having to get it services every 3,000 km, but that seems to be the way things are going with most 125 models these days.

Finally Sorted

Finally after the best part of 4 months chasing both SYM UK (Moto GB) and two local dealers (P and D Motorcycles, Wakefield / Padgetts, Dewsbury) I've managed to get my daylight running lights sorted on the Joymax.  The replacements  came in the form of the two integrated circuit boards in which the LEDs sit and were fitted within the space of a couple of hours.

Thanks to Padgetts for taking up the warranty and fitting the lights once they came in.

You only have to read my previous posts to get an idea of my opinion on the overall process.  Poor customer service and drawn out lead times.  The reason scooter dealerships are going under on a weekly basis!

6 and 9km service combined

Due to work commitments and lack of funds, that and SYM's rather short 3km service intervals, I had to look at combining both my 6km and 9km service.

As part of the service the bike went through a thorough vehicle check as well as the following key items:

• oil change
• valve clearance check
• tyre pressure check
• spark plug replacement
• greasing of parts (where needed)

Since purchasing the bike in March 2013 I've done just over 9,000km and also in need of:

• New Air Filter (to be ordered and fitted when available)
• Rear tyre (was on the legal limit in places)

Servicing Costs

• Workshop Oil (0.80ltr) - £5.20
• Air Filter - £17.85
• Spark Plug - £6.29
• Environmental Charges - £3.50
• Labour Charges - £43.00
• Grease/Lubes (£1.00 x 3) - £3.00

VAT: £15.77

TOTAL: £94.61