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The most dissappointing thing to me, is that our own TRIUMPH dealers do not know enough about their own product to be able to help us or answer these questions. I blame some of that on the fact that most dealers carry multiple brands of bikes - mine carries TRIUMPH and BMW for instance.

It is a bit of a challenge trying to be patient and understanding while at the counter talking to a parts guy that knows so little about our bikes. Thanks to this forum and all of our input, we really are better experts than the dealer - at least in most instances I suspect.

I have learned that I can save an aweful lot of gas and aggravation if I need a part by looking it up here, and sometimes finding it on BikeBandit, before I go to the dealer - at least then I can direct my part man (or woman) to the correct exploded diagram and point out the part I need. Paint by numbers.......

I can not count the times I have been in the dealer's and overheard a question from another customer that the counter people could not answer or find an answer to. I can usually tell them what they need to know and then direct them to this forum, the tech vault, Brent's NewSpeedmaster.com, Fast Eddy's, etc. and get them pointed in the right direction.

It seems the dealer should be the expert, but I work on that side of the coin at the Lexus dealership.....we have the same attitude - but not many of my customers come in armed with info. about their car the way we arm ourselves with info. about our bikes. (I hope they stay "un-armed" for my safety's sake!)

Our worst enemy at the shop is the customer who has all sorts of aftermarket parts on their car, and yet wants us to sort out what somebody else screwed up. No question that in terms of ignition, brake, and suspension parts, using Genuine Lexus Parts makes my technicians a lot more willing to work on one's car. They see aftermarket parts and the car suddenly has a "stigma" and no one wants to touch it. Or they want to change all the parts back over and start from there.