Down under or Thai? Aussie mum trades Oz for Land of Smiles

[Phatcharanan]

To cut a long story short............went on a tour from BKK to Khon Kaen with my PCX. Then rode to Pattaya. On the way noticed that the gearing was 'whining'. Called into shop upon arrival in Patts.

The mechanic who speaks a bit of English (tallish, slim, slightly receding hairline) stripped the gearing housing down. Showed me that the JCosta variator had a hairline crack on the plate. He quoted me 5,500 for a 'modified variator with much power'. Managed to get that down to 4,500 with specific instruction to use new 11g rollers.

He is doing some stuff and had positioned himself so that where I was sat.......I could not see what he was doing. So I stood up and looked over his shoulder. 4 of the rollers looked new but two were definitely old and blackened. They were already in the plate and ready to be fitted. I took hold of the variator and emptied the rollers into my hand. Two were 11g, 2 were 14g and God knows what the blackened ones were.

When I pointed this out he tried to blag me by saying.....'this will give much power'.

No <deleted>, it won't. It will imbalance my variator and could cause damage. He was trying to blag me off by using odds and ends and no doubt informing the owner he had supplied a new set of rollers.

Got it sorted with the correct rollers but had to watch him like a hawk.

Just a word of warning for anyone..............that's all.

Edited August 3, 2012 by sbk
no name and shame

[JeffreyMcCollum]

I think the problem started with the JCosta

took mine out after a month of problems

[Phatcharanan]

I think the problem started with the JCosta

took mine out after a month of problems

Thats as maybe............doesn't alter the fact they were using their own 'modified' variator and trying to get away with putting odd weights in just to clear some old stock.

[William Osborne]

he quoted a price and you haggled it down 20 %... maybe if you paid what he asked he might have used the proper parts ?? ... just a thought ?

[Phatcharanan]

he quoted a price and you haggled it down 20 %... maybe if you paid what he asked he might have used the proper parts ?? ... just a thought ?

No..........it was haggled down because I know what the cost of these generally are. Also, please read my OP again......carefully. I specifically requested that 11g rollers be fitted and that's when we agreed the price.

Also, whilst the shop has a good amount of stock..............the prices are ridiculously inflated compared like for like with Bangkok. I will shortly be posting pics of my bike. Take a look at the mags. Mai-Thai have exactly the same ones on display at the front.

My mags from SumetCycle.............7,500 baht.

Mai Thai........................................13,000 baht

http://www.maithai-motorbikes.com/home?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=206&category_id=1

Even after their 'special discount' you're looking at just over 11,000 baht.

Even so, nothing justifies putting different weight rollers into the same variator. Totally unacceptable.

My OP is to make people aware of what could happen should they choose to have a variator from these guys.

Edited August 1, 2012 by Phatcharanan

[yankee99]

i also had a bad experience there with my nuovo. It was backfiring when decelerating. They cleaned and adjusted the carb twice. some other stuff was done but cant remember as it was a year ago. bottom line around 1000baht and still backfiring. took it to a shop on theppasit and they replaced what looked like a valve. 180baht and the bike was fine...