I'm a pretty competent shadetree mechanic, mostly because I frickin love machines and cars and…read morebikes and tools, I was poor when I was young, cheap when I got older, and I never could stand the shady greasy predatory feeling I got when I went to most mechanics. You know, the old, "Welp, sounds like you're gonna need a new transmission." before they even look at your ride kind of bullshit. Or the smug know-it-all douches who look down their nose at your 20 year-old bike. Or the capable old guy you talked to who turned around and handed your dear, sweet darling over to the guy who is only qualified to vacuum the carpets, who then goes on to break five things, and the old guy then says it's gonna be an extra $500 because shit happens, ya'know? @#*&%ers! So yeah, laying around on a gravel driveway in the wintertime, bashing knuckles and cussing and riding my bicycle to the parts store and all that was fine and fun, but now I'm older and crankier and have some disposable income, I want to shop some of that shit out. But I'm still uptight and cheap, and I know my stuff, and I can smell BS from the next county over, and every motorcycle mechanic I've been to in the last two decades has either done a half-assed job, took for-frickin-ever, like six months to do the work, or was, like, 30 miles away. So I guess I'm a high-maintenance customer. Or rather, I just want what everyone wants, which is the thing fixed at a reasonable price, within a reasonable time frame, and with a little fluffing of my ego. Is that too much to ask? And I like to learn things about my equipment and maybe my bad habits, so I can better work on both of them in the future.
Which brings me to HDR. Within the first 30 seconds of talking to Gage on the phone, all that history of bad mechanics just washed away. He listened, spoke clearly and to the point, without trying to dazzle me with any of them big words and fancy talk, he was friendly, and the price he quoted me was, in my opinion, too low, but I'm not complaining. Still, I've been burned before, and I've had some messy breakups with mechanics, like the guys who were cool with me, but then cheated my little old lady mom when she went in, so I went in with eyes wide open, hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. However, the whole thing went better than expected. He was done sooner than expected, did what he said he was gonna do, and for the price he told me. He also checked out the general condition of my bike found a couple things that will need addressing in the future, but no hard sell. He obviously knows his stuff, is uptight about getting it done right, and actually wanted to argue with me about me just paying $2 extra rather than waiting around for change from a $100 bill. Take the $2 Gage. Buy half a coffee with it. My spidey sense did not tingle. I learned some stuff. My bike works really well. We shot the breeze. That is all I want from a mechanic. It was only the first job, but seriously, this was one hell of a first job! Oh shit, I think I just wrote an essay! Well, I guess that's how much a good mechanic means to me. That's all I got. Thanks Gage, I'll be bringing in my other bike soon too, after I stuff all these wires back in.