From: leslie@loki.Stanford.edu (leslie gordon)
Subject: Re: Cycle City
Organization: Stanford University
Distribution: ba
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 92 23:26:21 GMT

I don't usually read ba.motorcycles, but Bill Dorsey kindly forwarded
some recent articles thinking that I might want to separate fact from
fiction. I am a good friend of the Randall family and feel that I
should clarify some points which have come up here.

Craig DeForest had confused a number of names and Chuck has cleaned that
up with a few exceptions.

In article 2802@morrow.stanford.edu, karish@pangea.Stanford.EDU (Chuck
Karish) writes:
> In article <ZOWIE.92Sep7211114@daedalus.stanford.edu>
> zowie@daedalus.stanford.edu (Craig "Powderkeg" DeForest) writes:
> >I just stopped by Cycle City the other day, to buy a new battery and a
> >few other doodads.  I happened to see the owner, Phil(?),
>
> Brian O'Hagan
>
> >and talked
> >to him about the service there.  He remembered me from this spring.
> >He seemed embarassed about my experience, and explained that the guy
> >(Larry) who'd done my work, had subsequently been fired.
>
> ? Probably Larry Randall, Jr.  A halfway decent mechanic when
> he wants to be, but with a drinking problem that sometimes impairs
> his motivation.

If you took your bike there in the spring, neither Larry Randall Sr or
Jr would have been involved. Larry Sr sold the business to his partner
Brian as of the 1st of January this year. Larry Jr has not officially
worked at Cycle City since he helped his dad move to the new location
some three or four years ago.

Chuck, I'm bothered with your comment about Larry's "drinking problem",
a) because it isn't true, and b) because you are potentially damaging
someone's career by saying something like that. I would rate him as one
of the better mechanics in the Bay Area, certainly as one of the best
in diagnostics, especially in electrical systems. I know a lot of other
people who would agree with me, including the owner of Teche
Electronics the manufacturer of Ungo Alarms: Larry is the installation
troubleshooter for Techne Electronics.

Larry Randall, Jr is currently working with Pete at Grand Prix. They
both started there about a year and a half ago, and are trying to turn
Grand Prix's reputation around.

Tom Dietrich writes:
>Well, I haven't really taken the yamaha in fo rservice , but Grand
>Prix on El Camino near San Tomas found a really strange problem on my
>Concours, and was very straight forward in his explanation and
>suggested solution. I've dealt with Pete, the service manager, and
>he's as good as they get. IMHO.

>One other point, Yamaha requires a diagnostic machine for tune ups,
>which uses a sniffer for carburation diags. GP has come up with a set
>of guidelines to use the same diag equipment on the Kawasaki's.

Larry Jr handles all the wierd diagnostic problems, and modified the Yamaha
machinery for use on Kawasakis.

Chuck writes:
>Craig writes:
> >and bought out the
> >entire store in January.  Apparently, he felt the other guy was
> >screwing customers and damaging the store's rep.

There are bad feelings on both sides. Larry Sr liked to work on bikes,
frame straightening, plastic welding etc while Brian wanted to push the
new stuff: two different philosophies which unfortunately didn't work
together.

> Brian says he's not interested in Larry's favorite business,
> fixing up wrecks bought from insurance companies and selling
> them.  I don't know how they're going to make money now.

Ditto, the service department used to be the only thing that made money.
We'll see how it goes.

> >They've got a
> >complete machine shop there: sandblaster, mill, lathe, punch, etc.
> >Also an alignment table for checking and truing frames!
>
> All that stuff had been in the service area of the
> building with the showroom for years.

As Chuck says, it has always been there. It is one of the few old style
shops (where they can build and modify parts) still left in this area.

> Larry Randall, Sr. is a good mechanic and was a good service
> manager. 

In addition to his current job, he is still plastic welding for a number
of the shops and dealerships out of his home.


leslie gordon

--
..if you really stop to think about it, Bambi is a parable of sexism,
nihilism, and despair, portraying absentee fathers and passive mothers
in a world of death and violence.
                                	-- Roger Ebert
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