I'm looking for a good mechanic....Competition Accessories?

[eurorider]

Hello,

I live in Columbus, and am looking for recommendations for a good place to get service on my 2006 620. I have been having issues with Ducati of Columbus, and need to take my bike somewhere else. (see this thread for details... http://www.ducatimonster.org/smf/ind...?topic=78655.0 )

I talked to Tony at Competition Accessories in Springfield, and he seems very communicative and professional. Anyone have any experience with them? They are the next closest dealer. Does anyone know of any other shops that are certified to do Ducati service in Central Ohio?

Has anyone else had problems with Billy at Ducati of Columbus? I am pretty laid back, and find it hard to believe I am the only one.

Thanks

[Luis]

you could ask the people at DESMOHIO:
http://www.desmohio.com/

most of the guys in that forum are from around Columbus.

-g

[hyphen]

I used to work at Comp when I was in college back in late '90s. I have some negative and positive things to say about them.

The positives:
Large selection of accessories
Decent stock on parts
Their mechanics are great!

Negatives:
Service can sometimes suck on the weekends
Getting someone who is knowledgeable about your DUC is going to be hard


When I worked at Comp I was friends with the owner's two sons. At the time it was becoming are LARGE and very successful .com business. They were one of the first to get their website enabled to take orders online. Then some bad business with upper management and investors happening (all without the owners knowledge) that caused the placed to go under. Luckily, the place never shutdown. However, it has changed hands a few times because the people who have bought it just don't seem to know how to run a bike shop, dealership, and large accessory store just yet.

[nissontek]

www.crookedrivermc.com ;D

[motogpfan]

PM SENT

[DoubleEagle]

I'm very sorry to hear about your bad experience with Ducati of Columbus. I am compelled to tell you some things from my perspective. I have bought 5 new bikes in the past 3 years from that dealership and although it seems like it takes them longer to do some service work I have not had any bad experience with the work the was done including many modifications. Billy was hired on new this Spring and I believe he has a background with BMW. To my knowledge he is no relation to the owner. Since we had such a crazy Spring with that very warm spell , everybody and their brother wanted their bike ready to ride at the same time. With the unprecedented success of the 1098 launch and all the new BMW models , the front end of the business is growing faster than service can move bikes through at a steady pace and when you have a bike that has an unusual problem it backs up the whole works. Do you drop everything else you have scheduled and spend hours troubleshooting a bike when you have everyone screaming for their bike to be done on time to beable to enjoy the unusually warm weather? Billy has been a perfect Gentleman with me and maybe it's because I haven't made his life tougher than it already is. Mark seems to be a fine Ducati mechanic. I know that the Dealership is young and experiencing growing pains but I worked around the Motorcycle and Auto Industry for 30 years and I saw alot of dealerships struggle , fall down, get up , do well ,fall back , then move forward. It's tough. It's unfortunate when something happens like what happened to Eurorider but believe me" They" are trying very hard at the Columbus Dealership. They don't have big bucks backing them so they need the support of the Ducati and BMW and now Triumph community to grow and be a dealership you can be proud of.

[meccanica bologna]

www.hordpower.com

[south of heaven]

Contact Chris out of Cincinnati wera163@yahoo.com
He did a great job for me this past winter!

[05duc4r]

Dont know about service at Duc. of Cols, but I ordered a part from them, they said three weeks, I called after three weeks and they just ordered the part two days before I called, so I'm pretty pissed about that because I thought I'd found a decent dealer. I live in Springfield and don't really trust Comp. Acc.. Had my 600 mi. service done there, 275.00 oil change, I don't think I'll be taking it back unless it's warrenty work. I know the salesman don't know much about Ducati's, not sure about service dept..

[DoubleEagle]

With regards to your $275 oil change. Do you have a stock exhaust system or a full mod exhaust? I was told when I changed from my stock exhaust system to a full Temi exhaust (on my S4Rs ) that my oil changes would be more expensive since the main header pipe now runs directly underneath my oil change parts so the header must be disconnected and moved out of the way taking time =labor cost then put back together =labor cost which means probably an extra hour in labor at $85 an hour . I paid $170 for an oil change and something else that took another hour at the Ducati Dealer in Columbus about 6 weeks ago. I know it's a pain waiting for parts. I ordered a pair of Ducati mirrors in early June and haven't got them yet and it's Aug.13? I know that Ducati and all of Italy takes a full month off for Summer Holiday(August I think) but they had almost all of June and all of July.At least I have the stock Mickey Mouse ears mirrors so I guess those Ducati mirrors will show up someday. We should be mad at Ducati, not the Dealership. Also we need to be proactive and be sure when it comes to service for our bikes that we ask what will be done when we take or schedule our bikes for service and ask how much the service will cost . Remember therei s tax in most states(ohio).One other thing, one reason the shop rates are as high as they are is these dealers do most of their business in this part of the country from March through whenever it gets cold, let's say 1st of November. That meansthey basically go 4 months with very little income but they still have 90% of the bills to pay so a high shop rate helps them get through the lean times.