Here's the whole story. Saturday Sept 7th, we bought my wife Dawn a brand new Can Am 900cc Ryker Rally Edition from a southern Illinois dealer. In the interest of better handling, and as a result improving Dawn's safety, I had them put on a Genuine Can Am accessory swaybar. The part costs $150, but it cost $250 labor to install it.
About a block after I left Ted's for home I found the bike to have a severe headshake. I'm not talking a mild jiggle, I'm talking about a visible headshake. I immediately turned around and took the bike back to the dealer. They rebalanced the front tires but the headshake remained. We left the bike for them to resolve the problem.
We went up today, Monday, to pick the bike up again. The headshake remains and they have no idea how to fix it. I've ridden 3 other Rykers and none had this headshake. I have to assume the swaybar is causing it.
I suggested the mechanic might have installed the swaybar wrong. The service manager absolutely refuses to entertain that possibility.
I even suggested that since the bike was acquired on a dealer trade, perhaps the other dealer's service department did something wrong. He said they did a full check before giving me the bike and that wasn't possible.
Next I suggested they call Cowtown in Cuba MO or some other high volume Can Am dealer to see if they had any idea what might be wrong. He seemed offended that I would dare question his mechanic's competence enough to ask for help even though mine was the FIRST swaybar they had ever installed.
I also suggested they call Can Am's factory service dept for advice. He said they will do that tomorrow.
If they can't get the headshake fixed, he asked what I want them to do. I said they'd have to take off the swaybar and see if that fixes the headshake. He said who would pay for the labor? I said since you installed a defective factory part, I won't pay for it. In fact, I would expect them to refund me for the swaybar parts and labor. t's not like I brought some weird part in on my own and had them install it. It's a FACTORY Can Am part installed by a Can Am dealer.
The Service Manager tried to imply that the extra rigidity of the swaybar was causing road sensitivity and it was not really a headshake. I pointed at Dawn's car and said if I put a swaybar on that Mustang I guarantee the steering wheel wouldn't start shaking. My car mechanic buddy said they might have thrown the toe adjustment out when they installed the swaybar.
Then he tells me he's seen that a lot with off road vehicles like I'm some bohunk dumbass who's going to believe whatever crap story he tells me.
Bottom line, I told him, is I'm not taking a brand new bike with a headshake and I'm not paying his service department to keep guessing how to fix it.
We were very pleased with the process of purchasing our new bike from this dealer. Everything since then has been completely unacceptable.