Bear’s Cycle & Restoration

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Bobby Dazzler

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I havent posted anything regarding my problem with the above company whilst I was still trying to give Bear every chance to do the right thing. However other than a court case I believe I have exhausted all avenues now with the result that Randakks have removed him from their list of Recommended Carb Rebuilders.

I suppose the bulk of the message to forum users is as above and I urge people not to use the company and Randakks have agreed but should you be interested in the story its below.
Name James Moss
Email the_james_moss@
Phone +440786
Reason
Customer Service
Bike Information
1975 Honda Goldwing GL1000
Message
I have a serious complaint regarding Bear Cycles, one of your 'approved' carburettor restoration partners. I, my brother and my restorer have all contacted him regarding the complete mess he made restoring my carbs. over a year on and I am now having to pay the restorer to completely strip, clean, restore and replace worn and damaged parts from a set of GL1000 carbs that were sent to him. I did my research via both the Goldwing sites and they all said your carb kit was the best. I went onto your site and saw the recommended installers for your kit. Approved and trained by yourselves it said. Unfortunately, Pistol Pete had passed so I chose Bear. I am in the UK but the bike is at my brother’s house in Boston Mass. I bought it with the plan to come over and do road trips with my brother. It needed restoration so it went to a highly recommended restorer in Mass. I stupidly said he could do all the work other than the carbs which should go to Bear. They were sent but when they came back, they had been trashed. Two float posts were broken, they stank of old fuel and had clearly never seen a cleaning tank. We contacted Bear who claimed he was moving premises and had given the job to an employee to do and it was their fault, this seemed strange as half way through the job Bear emailed us to explain he believed the shafts were from a different set of similar Honda GL1000 carbs. He apologised and said send them back and he would do them personally and he would replace the two carb bodies damaged in the last attempt. We ended up paying postage which is not cheap. The set came back days before I arrived to do a two-week road trip. The restorer fitted them but the linkage had been damaged and it would not run at all on the rear nearside carb. They had to be removed and checked. It was due to something in the carb being fitted upside down which stopped the float from dropping and any fuel from entering the float bowl. I had to cancel the road trip, costing 100s of dollars/£, doing a few days on a borrowed bike, Bear was contacted but he was not interested at all in doing any remedial work or any recompense. After that the restorer explained that he was not going to fit the carbs as he had done a lot of work on the bike and he was not prepared to fit a set of carbs that he was not confident about and is telling me the carbs will need a full clean as they are filthy and another full carb kit. So it now appears that after paying over $600 for Bear to 'restore' my carbs, I am going to pay it again to have a professional to do the job properly. I am coming back at the end of August to do the road trip again. Is this the sort of customer service you expect or approve? I can’t see that you would want your reputation associated with this. I have all the emails and pictures of the abysmal attempt by Bear who has been anything but customer friendly which is why I am coming to you. I am literally hundreds of dollars out of pocket.
 

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Wow, I can empathize with your trial and tribulation. I had a Honda dealer "rebuid" my bikes carbs only to find out months later that they had just used a silicone sealant to keep the carbs from leaking. This was discovered and shown to me by an independent mechanic that I paid to do the job right. He wasn't happy about that sealant stuck in everything as it broke loose, he didn't charge more than what he'd stated it would be, but he got paid more.

PS as a public service announcement NEVER take anything to Ft. Worth Motorsports in Haltom City, TX (unless you want to be ripped off)
 
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I rebuilt 2 sets of GL1100 carbs and it was well worth the effort. They really were not hard to clean and rebuild. But I look at the GL1000 carbs and it looks like a lot more can go wrong. Either way, there is no way a professional rebuilder should ever had sent your carbs back in that condition. It is hard to fathom how they stay in business.
 
No I cant understand it either. I did my research, checked forums like this, checked the Randakks site and Bear Cycles site, Everything looked good. The restorer that I used looked at Bears site and remarked that the pictures of a cab pull down looked like it was done in a surgery, it was that clean. I feel like a dumb *** now and its costing me another $650 or so.
I know people rant on forums sometimes and you think...... show us the evidence and they never do so along with above photos this was Randakks reply
They had already stated that they were not responsible for anyone elses work so I guess no compensation will be forth coming

From: Randakk's Customer Service <[email protected]>
Date: 3 August 2023 at 17:09:03 BST
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Complaint
Reply-To:
Randakk's Customer Service <[email protected]>

James,



Thank you for your patience on this.

Our manager has attempted to reach out to Bear on 3 separate occasions with no response.

We will be removing him from our Recommended Carb Rebuilders.



We apologize for the unsatisfactory service you have received from Bear,

thanks to your feedback, no more future Randakk customers will have the same issue.



Please let us know if we can further assist.



Thank you and have a great day,

Sam

Revival Parts

201 Kelsey Lane | Suite B | Tampa, FL 33619

Dime City Cycles | Z1 Enterprises | Mikes XS | Randakk's Cycle Shakk
 
Sad to hear this. I had Bear's restore the carbs for my 84 Aspy about 3 years ago. They came back pristine, and he even threw in a replacement plastic plenum cover as the original looked like there was a fire in the plenum.

Hopefully he turns things around.
 
Bear here. This guy was trying to get a free rebuild out of me or something. I tried to please him by going through the carbs again but it became clear that only a free rebuild would satisfy him. My rebuilds are as clean and perfect as ever, I promise. Nearly 1000 happy by-mail customers in the last 5 years, great reviews, and my only issue is major volume keeping turnaround times above 8 weeks.
I haven't heard a thing from Randakk's about this. Bear's Cycle is still an Approved Rebuilder. I assume it's nonsense.
 
Yes, he did bother Randakk's into temporarily removing me from the list. The company that owns Randakk's has a new GM who I wasn't introduced to yet, but it's getting worked out and you'll see my name back up very soon.
This guy is really on my nerves. Waits 2 years to post pictures of a '75 755A set. I had a hard time finding the record in my computer because it was actually his brother who was my customer, not him, and the record states that it was a '76 758A set that we built for him. Awful fishy.
No worries, my rebuilds speak for themselves, with many hundreds of happy customers with perfect carbs.
 
Yes, he did bother Randakk's into temporarily removing me from the list. The company that owns Randakk's has a new GM who I wasn't introduced to yet, but it's getting worked out and you'll see my name back up very soon.
This guy is really on my nerves. Waits 2 years to post pictures of a '75 755A set. I had a hard time finding the record in my computer because it was actually his brother who was my customer, not him, and the record states that it was a '76 758A set that we built for him. Awful fishy.
No worries, my rebuilds speak for themselves, with many hundreds of happy customers with perfect carbs.
Even what I've considered the best in the business makes mistakes. Pistol Pete for instance, I bought a set of 78 gl1000 carbs that he rebuilt a few years back. After installing the set they ran perfect, flawless, however after playing with the set and fine tuning the engine I noticed that #1 cylinder wasn't running as hot as the other 3. Using a thermo gun I could see for sure at idle the others was around 250° and number 1 was around 125°. However the set ran perfect, smooth as silk. After speaking to another carb builder since Pete has already passed away, he walked me through the set and I found one of the little idle jets under the rubber plug was stopped up. After cleaning it out thar cylinder temp is same as the other 3. Now a few months later I bought a set for another 78 gl1000 from the carb builder that helped me. After putting his set on the bike ran smooth also for about an hour while I was fine tuning this engine as well, but it coughed 1 time and lost a cylinder ar idle. Now 6 hrs later after trying everything over the phone with the builder I found that the carb that fed the now dead cylinder, the puck was stuck from dried gas. Once I cleaned the puck and the little ports under it that cylinder came back. So goes to show you 2 very great carb builders can miss something or after trying out rebuilt carbs then setting on a shelf waiting to be sold could have problems. From the pictures this guy is claiming you did a bad job probably wasn't your carbs. Noone that builds carbs for a living would send out such a dirty set. The 2 sets I bought yes I can see it happen as little things can be over seen but not like he is claiming.
 
I rebuild gl carbs 1100 and 1000s I always inform the client of everything needed too. They receive a full teardown plenum halves carbs all ultrasonic cleaned all air passages brushed or guitar stringed
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I used micro drill bits until a few years ago when I discovered tapered jet reamers.
 

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I'll be darn , I've never seen them before
When you have a few minutes to spare. Will you call me. I have an idea for Air flow testing I'd like to run it by you for your thoughts 573 579 0887 Donnie
 
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