I thought I would give a bit of feedback on my previous posts.

African Bureaucracy or African Corruption?

Due to the rising number of cases involving corruption amongst petty officials in our government, our President, Mr. Jacob Zuma has opened a “hotline” to help ordinary citizens overcome such issues.

There is the option to telephone or e-mail this “hotline”, and as a last resort I wrote to him about the problems I was having getting my Softail registered.

I thought this would be the last I would ever hear and resigned myself to a life of riding an unregistered bike.

Imagine my surprise, when, ten days later I got a phone call from our local traffic chief!

He asked if I wouldn’t mind popping in to see him the next day. I had visions of him booking me for riding without plates, could it be that he reads this blog?

Then I thought, maybe my letter to the President got into his hands and he was going to arrest me for treason or some such violation.

With trepidation I went to his office the next day where he had documents on his desk which he proudly told me were the registration papers for my bike! He apologised for the delay in registering the bike and explained that “he” had moved hell and high water to help me!

What about the roadworthy (vehicle safety test) I asked? Not to worry says he, you have waited long enough.

I paid the princely sum of $50 and walked out with the bikes douments and licence. To be kind to this wonderful man I promptly bought number plates that are smaller than the legal minimum size.

Apathetic Dealers

I got a call, only 2 days after getting my Softail registered, from Harley Clearwater telling me that the accessories for our FLHTK had arrived and could we bring her in for them to be fitted.

I thought that I had travelled through time and that Christmas had come early!

I arranged to take both bikes through as the Softail was in need of a service.

On arrival, we had a chat with the service manager and I explained that I had modified the intake on the Softail and could he please re-map the Power Commander to cater for the change in gas flow?

We don’t do Power Commander he said.
My heart fell.

But he said he could send it to the other dealer in Johannesburg who has the software for this.
Wonderful I said, please can you arrange it for me.
We will do the service on Monday he told me and send it to Rivonia (the other dealer) on Tuesday for mapping.

We went through the accessories to be fitted to the FLHTK and everything seemed to be in order. They agreed to clean and detail the bikes for me, which is a blessing as this is about 2 days work for me and the chief bike cleaner (my partner in life)

As I have mentioned before, we live some 200 miles from our dealer and it isn’t easy to deliver and collect the bikes, especially whilst I have a job to hold down.

They offered to send the bikes back on a trailer by Saturday, maybe earlier, but certainly by Saturday.

Friday comes and we get a call that the bikes are on their way home. The trailer arrived at about 7pm with both bikes on the back, looking nice.

Can it be that Harley Clearwater have got their act together? Do they read this blog too?

Being dark, we waited till the next morning to have a look and take them for a spin, the Softail first. I noticed when I got on that the grips were covered in a fine film of oil that was now all over my hands. Closer inspection showed that the whole front of the bike was covered in oil and no-one had bothered wiping it down, never mind detailing.

I took a look at the FLHTK and the same story there, the front was covered in a fine mist of oil. We took her for a spin and heard a rattle.
When I put down the highway pegs the left one dissapeared and my foot nearly hit the ground, which is not good when you are travelling somewhere above 80mph!

I got her back to my house and took out the toolbox, where I reset the highway peg that was loose, and fixed the rattle, which was a loose muffler (also on the left side).

Do different technicians work on different sides of the bike?

This is concerning to me. I don’t want mechinics working on my bike that don’t know how to tighten bolts.
What if it was a wheel nut?

We had chrome lower fork sliders fitted, and closer inspection showed that the axle clamp was not chrome.
Where is that I wondered? We have lovely chrome forks and an alloy axle clamp sitting at the bottom of the forks.

It also turns out that the Softail never got re-mapped!

So a big onion to you Harley Clearwater, you still haven’t got it right, and you still have $850 of my money.

I think I will spend that on accesories and take the bike to Rivonia in future and see if they know how to give customer service.

Other Stuff

Thanks to this site we have “found” a great radio station that can be found at Bikerlowdown.com.

DJ L J James runs a great show for bikers and his guest for the day “bag lady Sue” had us in stitches. Keep it up LJ you have two big fans in Africa, Oh Yeahh.

Till next time, Ride Safe

What can be done about dealers that don’t seem to give a shit about customers?

I am talking in particular this time about Clearwater Harley Davidson in Johannesburg South Africa.

We ordered a new FLHTK last year and took delivery in January of this year. The bike is stunning and a real step up from the previous FLHTCU, with a much better power band and pull-away from lights and junctions. The 103 motor is a dream for such a big tourer and we both love the bike to bits.

Anyway this is not a road test, it’s a moan at shocking service from those holders of what is (in my opinion) the best franchise in the world.

Back to ordering our Limited; after we ordered her (all bikes are females…not so?), we ordered some accessories including chrome lower fork sliders and a chrome inner primary cover; this was on 11 December 2009. The agreement with the dealer was that the accessories would be fitted prior to delivery or at first service dependent on delivery time from the USA.

We took delivery of the bike in late January 2010 around the 22nd as I recall. The accessories were not fitted but it was promised that they would be fitted at first service. On the same day the dealer was paid for the balance outstanding on the bike together with approximately $6,000 for the accessories we ordered.

I’m not sure about you but I always look forward to the first service, the new exhausts, the re-configuring of the EFI, the increase in power….. I digress again.

This wonderful event happened on 6 March 2010 after we received a call to say our accessories had arrived. A bit of background here….. we live about 200 miles from our nearest dealer and we can only deliver and collect the bike on a Saturday.

The following Saturday we went to collect the bike only to find that there were no chrome front fork sliders and no chrome inner primary cover. On enquiry we were told that the wrong sliders had been delivered and there was a pregnant silence at the mention of an inner primary cover.

The dealer promised to rectify the situation quickly and a series of correspondence ensued.

We went to the Africa bike week in April and we had a chat with Harley Corporate for the EMEA region who promised to have a chat with the dealer and get things moving along. The last e-mail I got from the dealer told me that some more accessories had arrived but not the parts in question, that was on 20 May, some two months ago.

I requested that the dealer provide the list of parts that were paid for and I am still waiting for that information.

So, the dealer has had an order for accessories for some 7 months, he was paid for these parts 6 months ago and now he refuses to answer my calls or respond to my e-mails.

I have felt it necessary to involve the services of a lawyer, but that is wrong on so many levels, why should I have to pay for legal services? Why can’t Harley Corporate do something about it?

Can any employees of Harley explain why this is?

I see that Harley do not have a complaint line or e-mail address to address these issues, so what do we do about it?

Since Harley do not have the facility to listen to complaints and reign in rogue dealers, what I propose is that we boycott such dealers until they either behave professionaly or go out of business.

The problem is to make everyone aware of who these dealers are.

Any ideas?

I have just returned home to South Africa after working in various foreign countries for the last 15 Years.

I did this at the request of the South African Government, who have an initiative called the “homecoming revolution” that is designed to encourage skilled South Africans to return home. Many skilled South Africans left the country as a result of a fear of an ANC government or because of the Affirmative Action policy that was initially poorly administered and that ensured that white South Africans were overlooked for jobs, thus causing an exodus of these people to countries that offered good employment opportunities.

Anyway, the initiative did encourage myself and my wife to return home (along with the global recession, we intended to return home in 2012 anyway).

On my last assignment in the U.A.E. I bought a Softail Custom (or rather my wife got it for my birthday) and I spent a fortune getting my bike as I wanted her. She has Arlen Ness wheels, a lovely Alligator skin seat from Christine LePera, Porker exhausts and many other changes including a chrome front end, she is fondly known as “Eish” (This is a South African expression of wonder).

I shipped her from Abu Dhabi to Johannesburg where the Customs department held on to her for over 4 months, using various excuses such as “they have not had time to check the frame number”. This dillitory behaviour by the customs people cost me $1,000 in storage fees; thankfully this was reimbursed to me by my company who I understand will recover the money from the taxpayer through the initiative I recently mentioned.

Having had the elation of getting my bike I then tried to register her with the traffic authorities, what a mission this is proving to be……
I got the Customs clearance papers showing that I paid my Customs Duty and taxes and that stated the bike could now be registered.

I got the Letter of Acceptance from our Beureau of Standards stating that the bike conformed to South African traffic requirements and could be registered.

I had the original receipt showing that the bike was paid for and owned by me.

I received clearance from the South African Police confirming that the bike was not stolen and could be registered.

I got Interpol clearance stating that the bike was not stolen from the country of export.

All the documents necessary to register the bike were in my possession………

The local registering authority told me I need to provide them with the original registration documents from the U.A.E.

Why? I asked

Because we need them they said.

I patiently explained that in order to obtain an export permit in the U.A.E. the authorities there require that all the original registration documents have to be surrendered.

Where is the export permit they asked?

Why? I asked

Because we need them they said.

I explained that the export permit was given to my export agent who then gave it to the U.A.E. Customs officials in order to export the bike.

Then we can’t register your bike they said.

So, after nearly 7 months of trying I am riding an unregistered bike, the local authority is not getting revenue from my licence and registration fees and no one is winning.

I am hoping to be arrested for my crime so that I can sub-poena the Minister of Roads and let him explain to the Judge why he has failed to register my bike.

My friends tell me that in their opinion the local authorities are deliberately making my life difficult and that if I offer money that these problems will go away and my bike will magically get registered.

What do you think, is this Beuracracy gone mad or is some petty official trying to make some extra money?

P.S. I hope all my American Brother and Sister Bikers have a great Independence Day.