2003Mastiff-Mark
New Member
Ok, here is the story. At the end of last summer I saw an ad in the paper for a 2003 Mastiff. It stated that the bike only had 2900 miles on it and was in like new condition. When I got to the privately owned bike shop, the owner who was selling the bike for a customer, introduced himself and stated that he used to work at a Big Dog dealership as a mechanic and now has his own shop and almost exclusively works on Big Dogs.
He showed me the bike and it was in gorgeous condition. After a 40 minute conversation as to the workings of the bike and him stressing that it was a very high performance bike and very temperamental, I took the bike on about a 15-20 minute test ride. The bike performed very well and seemed to be in perfect working order with the exception that the speedometer did not work. When I got back to the shop, I inquired about the speedo and he told me that the original owner, a very short, overweight pizzeria owner had bought the bike mostly to show off to his friends and that it was just way too much bike for him and that he did not want to go through the expense to try and locate and have a new speedo installed. But the shop owner assured me that he rarely rode the bike and that the mileage he quoted me was fairly accurate (within a couple hundred miles).
So I purchased the bike for $10,000. I rode the bike to and from work most days for about a month (11 miles each way) and started having problems with the oil pressure light coming on and the bike sputtering and then just stop running. I gave it a few minutes to cool down and then it would reluctantly start back up. I called the shop owner and explained to him what was happening and his answer was that I was probably treating the bike too harshly and giving it too much throttle. Again, that it was a very high performance bike and that it needed to be babied and that I probably fouled the spark plugs. I took the bike up to him, having it go through the same problem twice on the 45 minute ride to his shop. He took out the spark plugs and said that they were fouled and replaced them and said it should solve the problem as long as I handled the bike properly.
After about 3 days of the same back and forth to work ride, the problem started again. In addition, it was becoming more and more difficult to initially start the bike in the morning. I brought the bike back to him and he again said that the spark plugs were fouled and that I was mishandling the bike. At this point it was getting closer to winter. So I garaged the bike, had it on a battery tender and started it up and let in run for a while each week or two until it one day just would not start at all. I called him up and he asked if I could wait until the weather was better and he would trailer the bike up to his shop and see what was wrong with it now but he was fairly certain that it was a battery problem. I was thinking the starter was bad but I did not want him to know "my" opinion. I wanted to know what he thought was wrong this time.
He called me this morning to inform me that the starter was bad and that it needed a new starter. He was going to try to find the best fitting starter he could to fit the bike with the strongest starter motor so that I would not have this problem again. But he would call me next week to let me know what he has found and how much it will cost me to replace the starter.
Now that the story is done, sorry for it being so long. I really think he is blowing smoke up my ass. First off, since the first day I went up to test ride the bike, he was pushing the whole "high performance, delicate piece of machinery" bullshit. Probably because I pulled up on a 2002 Suzuki GSXr-750. Which I have put 49,000 miles on without needing anything more that regular oil changes, tune-ups and tires. He also has no clue that I've got a Harley Street Glide that I've put over 35,000 miles on with the same maintenance and have never had to replace a major component.
So am I to understand that this "precision machine" that was babied more than any of my other bikes had a starter go bad and had several other problems because I mistreated the machine? Are Big Dogs THAT fragile that you can't treat it the same way you would start or ride a Harley? Obviously I would not ride it the way some of the younger kids ride their crotch rockets, ie: stunts and damn near red lining the tach. I don't even do that on my GSXr.
Any thoughts, comments or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Peace,
Mark
He showed me the bike and it was in gorgeous condition. After a 40 minute conversation as to the workings of the bike and him stressing that it was a very high performance bike and very temperamental, I took the bike on about a 15-20 minute test ride. The bike performed very well and seemed to be in perfect working order with the exception that the speedometer did not work. When I got back to the shop, I inquired about the speedo and he told me that the original owner, a very short, overweight pizzeria owner had bought the bike mostly to show off to his friends and that it was just way too much bike for him and that he did not want to go through the expense to try and locate and have a new speedo installed. But the shop owner assured me that he rarely rode the bike and that the mileage he quoted me was fairly accurate (within a couple hundred miles).
So I purchased the bike for $10,000. I rode the bike to and from work most days for about a month (11 miles each way) and started having problems with the oil pressure light coming on and the bike sputtering and then just stop running. I gave it a few minutes to cool down and then it would reluctantly start back up. I called the shop owner and explained to him what was happening and his answer was that I was probably treating the bike too harshly and giving it too much throttle. Again, that it was a very high performance bike and that it needed to be babied and that I probably fouled the spark plugs. I took the bike up to him, having it go through the same problem twice on the 45 minute ride to his shop. He took out the spark plugs and said that they were fouled and replaced them and said it should solve the problem as long as I handled the bike properly.
After about 3 days of the same back and forth to work ride, the problem started again. In addition, it was becoming more and more difficult to initially start the bike in the morning. I brought the bike back to him and he again said that the spark plugs were fouled and that I was mishandling the bike. At this point it was getting closer to winter. So I garaged the bike, had it on a battery tender and started it up and let in run for a while each week or two until it one day just would not start at all. I called him up and he asked if I could wait until the weather was better and he would trailer the bike up to his shop and see what was wrong with it now but he was fairly certain that it was a battery problem. I was thinking the starter was bad but I did not want him to know "my" opinion. I wanted to know what he thought was wrong this time.
He called me this morning to inform me that the starter was bad and that it needed a new starter. He was going to try to find the best fitting starter he could to fit the bike with the strongest starter motor so that I would not have this problem again. But he would call me next week to let me know what he has found and how much it will cost me to replace the starter.
Now that the story is done, sorry for it being so long. I really think he is blowing smoke up my ass. First off, since the first day I went up to test ride the bike, he was pushing the whole "high performance, delicate piece of machinery" bullshit. Probably because I pulled up on a 2002 Suzuki GSXr-750. Which I have put 49,000 miles on without needing anything more that regular oil changes, tune-ups and tires. He also has no clue that I've got a Harley Street Glide that I've put over 35,000 miles on with the same maintenance and have never had to replace a major component.
So am I to understand that this "precision machine" that was babied more than any of my other bikes had a starter go bad and had several other problems because I mistreated the machine? Are Big Dogs THAT fragile that you can't treat it the same way you would start or ride a Harley? Obviously I would not ride it the way some of the younger kids ride their crotch rockets, ie: stunts and damn near red lining the tach. I don't even do that on my GSXr.
Any thoughts, comments or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Peace,
Mark
Just a thought, maybe the tank liner has peeled some off and is plugging the fuel petcock. After shutting down the liner relaxes from the pick-up and fills the float bowl, then when it restarts the liner is sucked back up plugging the pick-up again. 
( had a bean in the gas tank on a tractor that did that and about drove us crazy. Run, die, run, die) 