onepointone

so ive been working for a lexus dealer for over 2 years, and it has made my passion for cars fade.. badly. i think its mainly the dealership, but there isnt another dealership around here...

im wonder if there is money to be made in the motorcycle industry? im guessing its not as high as the automotive world.. but what are you guy's opinions? im guessing your local suzuki/yamaha/kawi/honda shops are incredibly high paying jobs, but what about places like ducati?

also, ive ALWAYS wanted to work on a race team. every year i got to VIR and watch those guys work on the bikes for hours thinking how awesome it would be to travel around with a team to work on those bikes. im assuming those jobs are near impossible to get.. but are they? how do those guys land those jobs?

00civichatch

i wanna know too, but i wanna work on the race cars.

skr00zloose

well, i'll step up and answer this one, since i've wrenched at damn near every bike shop in the 757. yes, it's decent money, if you're good. pay at dealerships is usually equivalent of the pay scale you're on at lexus (which dealer, btw? i know some of the guys at a few)

just be prepared to make ALOT less in the off season. around here, the work load is VERY seasonal. bank some money in the spring/summer, and you'll be fine. if i could do it, i'd move south, where more people ride year round. most dealers won't hire anyone without prior school/experience. every service manager i've ever worked for/ talked to, said they'de take experience over schooling any day, but it's hard to get your foot in the door. i just got lucky, i've been around bikes all my life, and the first place i worked for new it, so they gave me a shot. been doing it ever since (with the exception of a lil over a year at a pontiac/gmc/hummer dealer).

mmi is a joke, but it may be the easiest way to get a shop to take you seriously. coming from a car background gives you a little credit, but not much. a motor is a motor, but the way things work, and work together on bikes is different than what you may be used to.

the turnover rate for mechanics can get high at some shops, it just depends on how much buisness they get in the off season.

personally, i don't do it for the money, lord knows i could make ALOT more doing other things. i just like what i do, and there's alot to be said for waking up every morning and not dreading another day at work.

as for race teams... good luck... start studying (non stop)...learn every lil thing you can, especially with theories (the really really technical stuff), and learn not just how things work, but why they work, what makes them work, and what changes to things effect other things. there's alot more to a race tech than you can ever possibly imagine. those guy's are the only people i've ever had conversations with about bikes that can actually lose me, and i've been doing it my whole life.


any other questions, i'd be happy to answer what i can.

Bustadust

"those guy's are the only people i've ever had conversations with about bikes that can actually lose me, and i've been doing it my whole life"

thats scary

skr00zloose

lol, why?

you have NO IDEA the amount of work/knowledge/understanding/physics it trakes to make the top guys go as fast as they do. it's friggin mindbending. i love that stuff, and hope to be on par with them someday, but i have to admit, there's alot i still have to learn.

onepointone

which is my reason for this post. i used to LOVE waking up and going to work. they split my dealership into "teams". heavy duty, medium and light maint. , diagnostics, new/used cars.. im on the heavy team which means i do transmissions/engines, and any other repairs that are really involved and require taking alot of shit apart. its been a blast for the first year, but after pulling more transmissions than i care to even think about (realistically a couple a week for either replacements or rear main oil seals), i think im done. and its not the work, its the complicated way we get paid. if i was making money of flat rate comission i would have no problem, but im on a group comission system and i share my hours with everyone else in the shop. its bullshit. i watch people sit on the internet all day or fuck off for an hour or two while me and a few other people work all day turning hours... its old. im ready to make my own money, and work for it.

ive talked to a tech at a honda place around here and he said they are busy most of the year. motorcycles / jetski's during the summer, and atvs and ect durining the winter. is it not like that at the places you have worked?

i figured mmi was a joke, uti/ati/wyotech.. all those places are a joke as well. there are a few guys at my dealership who have been to those places, and from what ive seen, they learned the same shit that i learned in my 2 year automotive classes in highschool, for free, while they have a 20k tab to pay for school.

as for the race teams, i can imagine all the shit they have to know. and im assuming you would have to have a good background with the manufacter before any team would just pick you up and rely on you to perform for races. its just been something ive always wanted to do, i just never knew how to get into it...

ive been thinking of going to my local ducati place and seeing if i can talk to a tech. i know last time i was in there they were real friendly to me and answered alot of questions i had about the 999r even though i obviously wasnt about to strike a check for one.


i really just want to move down to raliegh and work for johnston lexus. $20 million shop, and i hear they are awesome to work for, plus i know a few guys who have worked there and claim they can get me in the door there. just dont know if thats my best option just yet...



but thanks for the input man.

skr00zloose

wow man, that really is a b/s way to split up a shop. when i worked for gm, we had teams, but they weren't split up like that. i think the chrysler guys had something like that going though. we pretty much had 3 teams, and we all did pretty much the same work, no matter what is was. we did have one dedicated tranny guy . as far as shared hours, that's complete crap! you're not making much more money if you bust ass, so there's no real benifit (other than self satisfaction) for doing so. i'd get the hell outa there too if i were you.

i don't know any duc techs, so i can't really say what thier dealers are like. everything i've ever done has been japanese or american. i've done quite a bit of work on ducs, just never at dealerships.

your best bet may be to find somewhere that does alot of dirtbikes/atv's too, that'll keep you busy in the off season, like you mentioned. the first shop i ever worked at was a honda dealer, and i stayed busy all year, though noticably more soin the summer. the x-mas season is nuts at a dealer, everyone buys dirtbikes/atv's that time of year.

if nothing else, i wish you luck man. it can be rewarding if you find the right place/group of people to work with.


if you're interested in race team positions, most of the teams have applications on thier websites. i thought about it myself, but i have to be honest with myself, and even with my level of knowledge/involvment, i don't know if i could hack it. gotta start somewhere though.

Ick

Cool thread.

onepointone

you think thats crap? how about we have a guy on here that watches over the 6 oil change guys, and hes on the comission split. doesnt even touch a car, much less turn his own hours, but im paying his paycheck?

we have 5 diagnostic techs that do squeeks/rattles, and other cars that require heavy diagnostics, that average 1-4 hours a day each. that also brings our split way down. i make good money for being 20, but man i have 7 ase's, a VSI license, 2.5 years experience, about 8 grand in tools... i can do better. the cars are awesome to work on, and the people are decent for the most part, but im tired of this dealership..


i seriously doubt i would qualify for any type of race team position as ive never worked in a dealership or had any formal training on them, but its definately a goal in life that i have, whether its motorcycles or cars.

skr00zloose

that's rediculous, i'd be outa there asap. i'm sure some bigwig thought that having that sort of payscale might make the crew work as more of a team, but in reality, there's always some slacker that'll take advantage of the situation.
don't they have some kind of report card or something that verifies whether or not any given tech is pulling his weight? granted, with teams spit the way yours are, there's gonna be significant differences in people's hours, buteven still, it'd at least show who the slackers are.

i know at my old shop (when i worked on cars) every tech had a number, and once or twice a month we had meetings that went over everyone's standings, what they were doing(or not doing), what needed to be done and how to get it done.

i know alot of the tech's at a local lexus dealer in va beach if your looking for a new job, i might be able to help out.