Recommendation motorcycle shop in st Paul / Minneapolis mn?

Hi everyone,

Does anybody have suggestions of reasonably priced shops in the st Paul /Minneapolis mn area that do well at rebuilding and cleaning carburetors on xjs?

Thanks,

Wade

 

good luck finding any shop in North America that
a - won't rip you off
b - actually knows what they are doing (XJ carbs are more finiky than other bike carbs and way more difficult than car carbs)
c - won't make it worse and force you do to it your self anyways....

Many good posts and tutorials for doing it yourself here...

 

I know of ONE such shop, but he's here in Michigan.

Good luck; Bob's right. This forum is chock-full of horror stories from folks who spent hundreds of dollars and got either no results, poor results, or even got their bike back worse than when it went in.

If you absolutely insist on finding someone to work on it for you, study up a lot and then ask pointed questions in regard to YICS, valve adjustment, float levels, etc. If you get answers like "the valves in these bikes are bulletproof, they never need adjusting" "you don't need to worry about that YICS, it doesn't do anything" etc., then walk away.

If they SEEM to know what they're talking about, ask to see their YICS block-off tool and their carb-sync rig.

These bikes are now nearly two generations beyond when they were current. Dealerships won't touch them; and finding somebody left from the old days who really does know they're doing is nigh-on impossible. It won't be easy.

Good luck with your search; post up some of the answers you get and we'll "validate" them for you...

 

BlueCat Motors in St.Paul specializes in vintage british and japanese bikes. Really nice and knowledgeable guys too.

http://bluecatmotors.com/

I can't speak to the their prices being especially reasonable for MY budget, but if you really don't want to tear into it yourself I'd say they are the way to go around here. They quoted me over $100 for just a carb SYNC. I promptly made my own manometer and did it myself.

 

8O

I had no idea they were that expensive. I have read mixed reviews of these guys; that being said, most of the negative reviews I've read were from British bike owners (as opposed to Japanese). But c_muck, you may be right in that they're the only ones close.

 

If they can't get old BritBikes right, I sure wouldn't take an XJ to them.

 

It takes less than five minutes to sync carbs. What a jack!

 

IF you know what you're doing and have the proper tools...

 

The guy at Blue Cat has more complaints than any MC shop in the cities. He really screwed my son's friend and would not even talk on the phone with the people at the BBB. Stay away from him at all costs.
There is a guy up by Princeton MN that works on old Yamaha's I'll see if I can get his name.

MN