South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

I stopped at Ashburton services today and noticed oil on the back tyre of my busa. I serviced the bike yesterday so assumed I had done something wrong and called the AA. When the AA van arrived the mechanic quickly found that the issue lay with a faulty oil filter which had sprung a leak where the main body is crimped on to the base.

This cheered me up because I wasn't at fault and because it was an easy fix ie just fit a new filter.

The AA guy offered to drive me up to Bridge motorcycles at Exeter to pick up a new filter so we could get the bike back on the road. I bought the bike from there 12 months ago.

As it was 3.15 and they shut at 4pm we got on the road to Exeter and I phoned ahead to make sure they had a filter. They did have a filter but weren't sure which one use so told me they couldn't help. I explained the situation and still they were unwilling to help me even though they were sure they had the filter but weren't willing to check the net or manuals to confirm which filter I needed. Fook them I thought and I called Speed motorcycles in Exeter.

The guy who answered the phone googled the filter and confirmed that they had one and it was £5. I explained the situation and asked if I could pay over the phone in case they would be closed when I got there. Not a problem he said, I will hang around until you get here. Fantastic effort considering I have never spent a penny there before.

Bridge motorcycles have just cost themselves thousands of pounds today due to their attitude and lack of flexibility. I will relay this story to anyone who ever mentions Bridge to me again and recommend Speed as a much more biker friendly business. I will never spend a single penny with Bridge again and will always make a point of visiting Speed whenever I am after a new bike or the wife or I are after some new biking gear.

Not the first, won't be the Last.


At least you got it sorted.

Glad you got it sorted Tom, Ive not heard much good from Bridge!

That's not good customer/fellow biker service!!
How can a company base itself on friendly service etc I'd never get away with that service at work! I stayed until 6.30-6.45 for a customer just to fit a battery for him!!!!
Little things like spending a couple of minutes of your time to help out someone else goes seriously far nower days as the bad stuff sticks out like a sore thumb and it's the only thing people here not the good stuff!!!
( sorry to rant but you don't get a good rep doing that kind of service )

The trouble is, the larger the place the less "ownership" of responsibility there is ........ I'm surprised they were prepared to help at all - usually the spares side isn't open on a Sunday?

On the other hand, you could have just popped into Halfords at Newton Abbot in half the time it takes to get to Exeter ........ most Halfords generally keep a good range of (Champion?) oil filters in stock ....

TLS-Moose wrote:On the other hand, you could have just popped into Halfords at Newton Abbot in half the time it takes to get to Exeter ........ most Halfords generally keep a good range of (Champion?) oil filters in stock ....

And also they normally have a little chart that tells you what filter fits what bike so if you not sure they normally have the information at hand for you

Oh and by the way Trago Mills also sell them in there bike shop that is outside of the main shop and it is normally very cheap like ish £4

Very sad company I gotta say. But it was a good ending to your story. Lesson learnt and a good customer lost