God, I hope this is the final post on this.
On several occasions, this guy mentions that Richard got a "great payday" on this job.
The total he was charged was $439, which came in under my worst case guesstimate by $11. And all along he would say to me that I would get a $25 finder's fee.
So I hauled the wheels and motor to Toledo for free as I was going there for personal moped business. Richard met me there on a Sunday, and the Toledo event was pretty much over, so he made a special trip. We spent around 2 hours mounting 2 tires and greasing wheel bearings.
Richard cleaned the exterior of the motor before the rebuild. During the rebuild, he discovered that the rings on the 600 mile motor were toast, that the starter clutch leaf spring was worn, that the pedal cranks were mismatched, that the front sprocket was to be replaced with an 11t, and as a precaution, swapped in a brand new capacitor. This raised the estimate by around $80. All parts came to around $314 and with his labor charge, the total came to $439, which included $70 in New tires and tubes.
So for those of you who can rebuild your own stock V1, $314 bucks to make a turnkey bike isn't too bad, and without kitting, nothing out of the ordinary was done to the motor, not even porting.
I test ride the bike 13 miles and he's bitching about that. I know it's 13 miles because the speedometer / odometer was WORKING just fine. The Speedo stops working a few miles after delivery and he feels Richard should fix that for free.
Imagine that, a 40 year old Speedo gear, cable, or unit failing? It was never touched other than to remove the front wheel for tire replacement and grease, and Richard is supposed to fix whatever has failed at his expense.
So how did Richard's "big payday" pan out?
1. 90 mile round trip drive to Toledo - $15
2. 360 mile r/t drive to my place - $60
3. Turnpike tolls - $20
4. New chain and master link from me - $15
5. 90 miles for me pick up and delivery - $15
6. 1 gallon ethanol free pre-mix with Red Line Oil - $5
7. My alleged $25 finders fee.
If my math is correct, that totals $155, and if his "big payday" was $125, he is $30 in the hole!
Not many of us make a profit on mopeds, but I don't know of anyone who wants to lose money just to be considered a good guy, especially to an adult fixing up a gifted moped for his son.
So after a couple stern but polite text messages to this guy which included a screen shot of the 3 parts needed from Treats that totaled $63 before shipping, he's gonna take care of the Speedo issue himself.
I won't be this nice again.