Butches Custom Cycles

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It's with great sadness that I write this review, however it's the truth.



We own two Harleys and a Triumph and have been riding for many years. We started using Butch after County Line closed down and have been repeat customers at Butch's for over 3 years now. That ends today...



My wife's 1200 Sporty with less than 6000 miles on it died on the roadside during a ride and we had it towed to Butch. He quickly diagnosed the problem as a bad ignition module and he replaced it with a high-performance aftermarket unit, tuned it and returned the bike to us. Immediately upon receiving the bike we noticed a loud knock coming from the engine. We returned the bike to Butch and he told us he heard the noise and wasn't sure what it could be. He wanted to examine it closer and since we trusted his judgement, we allowed him to do his thing.



What he did in the next few weeks was to completely tear the motor down to the engine cases, running up a bill of several hundred dollars. He then told us he still wasn't sure what it was but believed it was the rod bearings and that he would have to completely remove the engine from the bike and disassemble it further to be sure. He also told us that if it was the rod bearings, that it would cost approximately $3000 to repair.



We told him to stop what he was doing because the bill was far more than the original estimate and more than we expected in order to simply diagnose an engine noise. Most mechanics would simply use a stethoscope. He asked if we wanted the bike put back together and returned to us rather than fixed, and we said yes. He did NOT communicate clearly that returning the bike to us in the same condition that we gave it to him would cost us hundreds of additional dollars in shop time and parts.



After 8 weeks, he called to say that the bike was ready to pick up. We showed up and were blindsided with a bill for a whopping $1143! He billed us the full shop rate for ever hour, new gaskets, oil and parts and still wasn't able to do the job and confirm the diagnosis. It was suspicious enough that a well-maintained Sportster with only 6000 miles was brought to him with no noise at all and was returned with a possible damaged rod bearing. We suspected but couldn't prove that whatever test ride he performed may have damaged the engine. The $1143 bill for an incomplete diagnosis just added insult to injury.



Had he communicated everything clearly in his original estimate, or even on the telephone, we could've picked up the bike disassembled and simply replaced the motor ourselves. He did apologize for the lack of communication, but that apology doesn't pay our bills or put food on the table. His poor handling of this has cost him a repeat customer.