[pmanaz1973]

I've been reading posts on this board for a few months now and have been impressed by the knowledge, helpfulness and plain politeness this group shows to its members.

My situation is as follow: 
I live 6 hours away from my nearest RE dealer (Seattle) and have been told by a previous dealership (Spokane) that is only 1.5 hours from my home that they no longer sell or support RE because they were losing money due to excessive repairs and poor factory support.

I've ridden a 2012 C5 and liked the feel and look of the bike and have always owned older bikes, so I'm not looking for a “modern” bike, but some modern features - I guess I kind of know what I'm getting myself into.  RE seems to fit this bill.

1.       What kind of support should I expect from a dealer 6 hours away?

2.       If you do your own maintenance will a dealer still honor the warranty?

3.       Can you utilize a different dealer if the one you purchase from is not responsive?

4.       If something failed on the bike would it be reasonable to expect a dealer to ship you a replacement part if you sent them the failed part?

5.       How often are we seeing factory lemons?  How responsive has the factory or dealers been in rectifying the problem or replacing the bike?

Sorry for the novel, but any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 

[lemming]

I imagine that Kevin and company will be happy to facilitate anything you may need. Seems to me that the service needs vary from bike to bike. Hard to predict.

Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act requires manufacturers to honor the warranty even if maintenance is not done by dealers. Just document your work.

[FastDoc]

It seems you are a fellow Washingtonian. Where do you live?

[pmanaz1973]

That is good news.  I'm not overly worried about service, or minor items or issues, but larger issues such as bottom-end going bad, etc.  I'm a wrench turner, but would hate to buy a new bike and have to buy parts if the thing is under warranty.

The prior dealer made it sound like these bike vary a ton in specs in the motor and sometimes you get a good one and other times...not so much. 

Thanks for the input.

[FastDoc]

1.       What kind of support should I expect from a dealer 6 hours away?

I have worked with my dealer in Warren, Oregon, no issues at all.

2.       If you do your own maintenance will a dealer still honor the warranty?
Yes.
3.       Can you utilize a different dealer if the one you purchase from is not responsive?
Yes.
4.       If something failed on the bike would it be reasonable to expect a dealer to ship you a replacement part if you sent them the failed part?
Yes.
5.       How often are we seeing factory lemons?  How responsive has the factory or dealers been in rectifying the problem or replacing the bike?
Highly variable and likely not possible to determine. They are simple bikes, made by people who have been making them forever to be used in a very harsh environment with less than optimal care. Here, in our hands, they are decent reliable bikes, with a few quirks. They are not Hondas by any standard, but they are a lot more engaging and interesting, IMHO.

[pmanaz1973]

FastDoc,
I live up in Colville - Way Northeast near the Canadian boarder about 1.5 hours north of Spokane.  Amazing country up here if you have never been.

[FastDoc]

If you can change the oil in your Briggs and Stratton riding mower, wrenching on an Enfield will not be too hard. Plus, if you have an independant mechanic nearby, he/she can install replacement parts if needed supplied by the factory under warranty.

My suspicion, is that not many people make use of the warranty, as the bikes hold up OK, and its easier to fix the usual simple things ourselves.

One exception that comes to mind is one member here had a thrown rod, and a ruined engine. The factory replaced it under warranty.

I also have a Ducati, and the nearest dealer is 3 1/2 hours away in Portland, or 2 1/2 hours away in Spokane.

The closest Honda dealer for my Gold Wing is 75 miles away.

[FastDoc]

I make it up to your area about once a year, usually on the Gold Wing or in the airplane. Beautiful country!

[Vince]

     I own Vince's Motorcycle Store in Olympia. I am one of CMW's oldest dealers, active since 1999. To answer your questions:
     1- No matter how close or far a customer is, a phone call should get an immediate response. Most issues are minor and can be diagnosed over the phone,  with simple instructions to rectify the issue.
     2- Sometimes for small stuff. Authorization would have to be obtained from CMW. The issue would have to be carefully documented. Larger repairs that would require an experienced mechanic would be handled at the shop. With good planning, most of the time my out of town customers can come in the morning and I can do the job that day. This will minimize your travel time.
     3- Yes, but you would do better to forge a good relationship with the dealer you buy from. No dealer enjoys getting in the middle of a misunderstanding or dispute between a customer and another dealer.
     4- See #3
     5- I have never had a factory lemon. A good dealer will spend 4 or 5 hours setting up the bike and doing things such a putting di-electric grease in electrical connections. They will also spend time with you to explain and demonstrate proper maintenance. I am alternately shocked and amused by the issues raised in this forum. Most of them would never happen with proper set up and maintenance.
     Don't get me wrong. Stuff does happen. That is why you have a warranty. CMW is the very best in warranty administration.
     Many issues occur from customer add-ons or "fixes". Something so innocuous as installing a luggage rack can lead to stress cracks and breakage if you are not familiar with installation procedures such as recognizing stress loads at a mount point. I've had customers install aftermarket turn signals for the look, but their idea of proper wiring bears no relation to what I've learned in 40 years in this business.
     Many customer issues arise because the customer knows about "motocicles" because his Daddy taught him and I'm just stupid, so after picking up the bike the customer must "fix" EVERYTHING that I was too incompetent to handle. Or I didn't repair it right because that's not how it was done on the interwebs. I apologize for sounding bitter or like a smart Alec, but virtually ALL (thankfully this is really a VERY low overall percentage) of my problem customers and problem bikes fit this paragraph.
     It is a tough call to make on short acquaintance, but if you can't trust your dealer you should look for someone more compatible.
     With your concerns and distance I would suggest leaving the bike stone stock for a year so as to give yourself time to learn about living with an Enfield.

[FastDoc]

We are lucky to have experts like Vince here. The support system here is one of the reasons I bought the Enfield in the first place.

+1 on leaving it stock. I have been working on bikes/airplanes/cars/boats/PEOPLE for decades and I know that simple things are not always as simple as they appear.

IMHO (again) performance mods on an Enfield are not, how shall I put this, cost effective...

[Rich Mintz]

I purchased an Enfield factory lemon about 18 months ago. (If you view my posts you'll see the whole story.) I bought it from a dealer that CMW (the US distributor) doesn't authorize to do warranty repairs (because they are unreliable), and when I bought it I didn't know enough about motorcycles to do repairs myself. (I've since learned a ton.) In the first year, the bike needed major service four times (transmission failure, gas tank leak, major electrical failure,  chain/sprocket), and had almost a dozen minor but urgent problems, including parts falling off on the road that needed to be immediately replaced.

However, I'm still happy with my experience. CMW stood behind the bike and authorized the necessary warranty repairs without delay. Kevin himself (the president of CMW), who reads this forum, intervened personally once when I needed him to. I found a dealer that I trust, and now I've found a second. For the most significant problem (an internal failure inside the transmission) I didn't have to pay a penny, even though the transmission had to be disassembled three times (!) in order to fix it properly.

The only significant thing CMW didn't pay for was the new chain and sprocket, but to be fair I didn't ask them to. I can't be sure it isn't due to my letting too much time elapse between adjustments, and/or continuing to ride for hundreds of miles on an already-failing drive system. (In my defense, I had no choice; the failure happened when I was on a long trip away from dealers.)

The lack of a widespread dealer network is inconvenient. The two dealers available to me are 40 and 70 miles from home, respectively, and dropping off/picking up the bike is a 4- to 5-hour round trip involving a long train ride. It's an enormous pain in the ass. But the dealers love the bikes as much as the riders do, know how they work, and treat them respectfully.

And this forum is invaluable. More than once it has accurately advised me as I diagnosed a problem, including once while I was standing by the side of the road with my tools out and part of the electrical system disassembled. 

Especially given that you have some wrenching experience, you probably won't be sorry, since you can do routine maintenance yourself. Even I now do things like oil and filter changes and chain adjustments myself, and eventually I'll graduate to more major maintenance. (My other bike, bought after the Enfield, is a 100cc scooter; I'm already doing more major work on that one.)

[pmanaz1973]

Super helpful information everyone.  Thank you.

I used to own a 76 Norton Commando, so I'm pretty good at zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance- I just have no desire to do that much work to keep the bike alive anymore.

Vince- Very cool that you are so active on this forum -a buddy of mine is stationed at JBLM and we dropped into your shop a month or two ago to look at a RE, but you were sold out.  I'll be giving you a call this afternoon.  I'd rather drive the 7 hours to Olympia than the 6 to Seattle anyway. 

Again, thank you everyone for the input.  Super helpful.

[Sectorsteve]

Yah will do well with the 2012 c5. Had mine since new, 45000km no major problems. Little things like clutch cable etc just wear and tear stuff from doing miles. I've mostly relied on ths forum and the wealth of knowledge from the forums members. Helped me through a lot of things. My first port of call is this forum as our dealers in Sydney aren't too helpful over the phone for eg like your dealers there are. Soun like you will have all the support there should you need it, plus the forum!

[pmanaz1973]

Thank you all again for the information.  Called Vince and I have a 2014 Silver C5 on order. 

I don't think I would have purchased one of these bikes without this forum and all the knowledge that is shared here. 

Thanks again all.

[FastDoc]

I'm with you. This forum is one of the main reasons I bought the Enfield.