This is gonna cost me!

Ok, instead of being pissed that my bike is down, I'm gonna try to look at this as a opportunity "to meet new people." So here's the deal,

Last Friday I bought a new bike. It's a '00 Yamaha R6. It's got 22,xxx miles on it. Since I bought it, I haven't touched a car. LOL. I've been riding everywhere. Went on a ride yesterday out hwy 20. Noticed that I was having trouble shifting. I thought that maybe I was missing a shift because I had new gear that hadn't been broken in yet. I had one of the guys in the group take it for a quick spin to see what they thought. He stated that it was indeed missing gear and not shifting properly. He suggested it that it might be the shift forks (proper term?). And he tried to explain how they work. I'm a newbie, and didn't understand much of it, but the basic concept is that the shift forks help slide the gears in and out of place to engage/disengage as you cycle through the gears (did I understand that right?).

Sooooooooooooooooo...... I took the bike to the shop this morning. They said in their best guess they think it is probably 1st, 2nd, and maybe 3rd gears need to be replaced. As well as the all 3 shift forks. BUT, they can't tell me for sure until they drop the motor, crack it open and look at the transmission. Not a big deal, I thought. EXCEPT, they want to charge me 1,300 dollars just to drop the motor and open it up. Once I pay that 1,300 for them to open it up THEN they will tell me how much it's gonna cost to fix and what needs to be replaced.

Does anyone on here know how to work on R6 motors/transmission that is willing to help me? I can tow/carry/haul/push/pull the bike to wherever you are. I can pay for time, and all parts and shipping. I'll also pay for beer and pizza. And if it's not to much of a hassle, maybe you can show me what is what, so I can learn about my bike and not have to rely on shops raping me to keep my bike running. Long and short is, I'm hoping someone can either repair/rebuild the problem or do a motor swap for me cheaper than a shop, and can show me what's going on as they do it so I can learn about it and be more knowledgeable about bikes (my bike in particular). Like I said, I'll cover parts, labor, shipping, beer, and pizza (or burgers.) I just want to get it running soon so I can enjoy riding this season. I don't want to spend another season bike-less.

HELP!!!!

 

Any suggestions on sites to check out would be greatly appreciated.

 

LOL! That's funny. You're the second guy today to mention Fuzzy. My brother is trying to help me get my bike running again, and someone he was talking to suggested getting ahold of Fuzzy. I tried calling him a few times, but kept getting voicemail.

 

Thanks for the advice, and the referall. I'll get ahold of him if this other lead falls through.

 

yes it was test rode. My brother took it out and around before I bought it. It ran great all week. I bought it friday evening, and was promptly out riding it on Saturday. Went for a ride with my brother and his friend on Sunday. Did some riding monday and tuesday also. I've pretty much been riding non-stop since I bought the bike. The tranny just went out on Thursday. It had been working fine before that. I'd been out to monroe, and then down to auburn. I've been to Kent, Pike's place, even tacoma. It had been running fine up til I started riding on Thursday morning. It just wasn't working right. I did get it home. And now I have someone looking at it. My brother did all the "check this, this and this" stuff before I bought it. Made sure vins were right, made sure paper work was right. He checked the fluids and everything. He was pretty thorough (i thought) before he agreed it'd be a good bike to get some experience on. I wasn't upset at the price for the diagnostic, by itself. What upset me was that the shop told me they could tear it down, replace the parts, and have it back together and worse case scenerio it would run me about 2,500. Then it was gonna cost me about 1,500 just to order parts if (worst case) I had to replace the transmission. Then when I talked to my brother to get his opinion, he stopped by the shop, and they told him it would cost 1,200 just to take the motor apart and find out how much it was gonna cost to fix, and told him it would probably run about 3,500. I just feel like the amount keeps changing everytime I talk to them. So I decided to get on here and see if anyone knew how to work on them. Hoping to find some less expensive than the (multiple) estimates of 2,500 - 3,500 dollars. Plus if I found someone on here to work on it, there is always the chance that they'd be willing to show me and teach me so I would know more in the future. I don't want to just ride a bike, I want to "know" my bike and how it works. That way when something doesn't work, i can find a good starting point. Right now, all I can do is say "it makes this sound and does this thing" Makes me feel stupid and bike-retarded. So I wanna learn. But I did get some good referalls and have someone looking at my bike. So hopefully I'll know what it's gonna cost, and what is wrong, soon. And hopefully it'll be worth fixing so I can go riding this season.

 

thanks for all the great advice guys. I found someone that's working on the bike now. And the whole price for beginning to end is hundreds cheaper than the "diagnostic" the shop was gonna charge me. the benefit of the private shop is also that he's willing to take the time and explain everything to me in basic terms til i have an general understanding. I feel confident with this shop working on my bike. I will post results when I get the bike back. (which is estimated to be mid week next week.)

Diz

 

FZ, I've been looking for a '00 R6 motor, just in case something is terribly wrong that he hasn't found yet. Seems damn near impossible to find. If you find any that are in good shape, please PM and let me know.