Del Amo Motorsports

For all you riders out there who have your bikes serviced at Del Amo Motorsports in Redondo Beach, read carefully and pay heed.

My bike was badly in need of tires. Del Amo simply has the best tire prices, period. They even match or beat internet prices, so they have become the go to place. They offer a discount on mounting when you purchase tires through them. It's 45$, ride in, ride out. Now, I've always mounted my own tires with my friends but I thought this was a really great deal. The Saturday before last, I rode up to the service bay. I spoke with John, a really nice fellow, and he informed me that he will likely get it finished, however, it may not be until close to 6pm. It was now 2. I told him that I would appreciate anything he could do and walked into the store.

I kicked around for almost 3.5 hours. They called my name over the PA and I walked back to the service bay, where my baby awaited me with new, beauteous Dunlop rubber. I rode home, showered, and headed out to meet my friends for a birthday gathering.

It was now dark and I was traveling up the 405 towards Culver City. I signaled and moved from the carpool lane, across each lane to my exit. This particular exit has a very sharp, 90˚+ turn that culminates at a traffic light. Before I entered the curve, I broke to slow myself from highway speed; approximately 70mph. As I squeezed the front brake lever, it collapsed to the handlebar, void of any resistance and, oh by the way, any braking! I feverishly squeezed the lever over and again to no avail. I immediately began stomping the rear brake pedal, again, nothing! Before my mouth could utter the 4 letter word my brain had conjured the nanosecond previous, my left hand engaged the clutch and I downshifted the bike into 5th, 4th, 3rd. She lurched forward as I hit the curve, I threw her down into the turn and as I exited, slammed her down into 2nd then 1st gear. I managed to stop the bike with sliding feet before blowing the red light into oncoming traffic. PHEW!

While I awaited the green light, I could not, for the life of me, figure out why or how the brakes would suddenly lose pressure! When I initially got on the bike at the dealer, I noticed that they had not fully pressurized the brakes. I thought, "lazy follow through on their part," but simply pumped the lever until all was solid and it rode fine. Now that I had brake pressure, I decided to proceed cautiously and see what happened. As I progressed down Washington Bvd, I suddenly heard a KLANK, KLANK, KLANK-ing. What the hell was that? It stopped. I continued and then heard the noise again. I immediately pulled over onto the sidewalk. As I de-saddled from my horse in shining scarlet, I suddenly noticed that the entire front, left brake caliper was hanging by the hose. I was furious! I was stupefied, astounded and completely in disbelief! That a mechanic could be so thoughtless, so irresponsible, so utterly incompetent to not have replaced or tightened the bolts on a brake caliper, is completely unacceptable! Needless to say, I called up Del Amo then and there and left my piece of mind on their voice mail, and demanded they call me in the morning.

Did they call? Of course not. I had to have the bike towed home and then to the dealer in the morning. If the caliper had somehow managed to wedge in the wheel while on the freeway, or if I had not maintained and gotten myself out of the exit, or there were a car in front of me or blew through the light...man! I am thankful that I am alive, that I had the skills I needed despite not being conscious of them, and that I am sharing this with you now. Yes, I am thankful...and they, are lucky! I know that I have grounds for a gross negligence case, however, I am not a litigious person. I have met with the service director, the tech foreman and the mechanic. While I do not wish ill of anyone, this is without doubt, a terminating offense. The mechanic, still works there. For anyone who has their bike serviced at Del Amo, request Mauro or Pablo to work on your bike, no one else! I, will never bring a bike there again.

I presented a list of demands, NONE of them involve service of the bike! They are repairing and painting both wheels to match, gave me a new battery, are reimbursing me for the labor and towing, and providing a loner for the duration of the downtime. We'll see where it goes from there. I do not wish or intend to abuse the situation, but considering they put my life in jeopardy, what would you do?