Where have all the mechanics gone?

The expansion of the market to over 100,000 new units in a year will put pressure on the existing pool of mechanics and I suspect we're already seeing signs of it.

I got a shock the other day when I rang the local Honda shop to book Ms M's 1982 CBX550 in for a service. They ummed and ahhed a bit, consulted with the boss and said, yep they could squeeze it in for a date 12 days away. 12 days – it used to be a couple, at worst. The hesitation was that they were reluctant to take it at all. The shop now has a policy where it does not work on anything pre-1990. For a variety of reasons, they made an exception in this case.

From a customer point of view, I was somewhat annoyed. Why accept my 2000 Valkyrie but not my older bike? Maybe I should just go somewhere that takes both. Then again, it's their business and they're entitled to set policy.

This is not a completely new phenomenon. Many specialist dealers (e.g. Harley and BMW) long ago started encouraging the owners of old machines to go to shops that specialized in them, while the dealership stuck to more recent stuff and preferably just simple servicing. This is a practice adopted many years ago by the car industry.

One of the reasons is that there is good profit in relatively straight-forward servicing. Most machines are beyond the abilities of most owners, so a substantial charge can seem reasonable, while the work itself is predictable and can be performed efficiently.

Older bikes are far less predictable and can often raise problems which are difficult to explain and charge for.

Specialist marques are reasonably well served in this area (in the capital cities, at least), but I strongly suspect there is a shortage of places willing (and most importantly, able) to take on the older Japanese stuff. This is likely to get worse rather than better in short term, while the market booms. Particularly since a lot of the existing talent, which cut its teeth in the boom of the 1970s, is reaching retirement age.

I really don't want to go back to servicing my own machinery, but may not have much choice when it comes to the older stuff. Maybe it will represent an opportunity for a few mechanics who dreamed of starting up on their own. Time will tell...

You are always welcome to get in touch on the email at guy.allen@traderclassifieds.com.aumailto:guy.allen@traderclassifieds.com.au. Drop us a line, as we'd like to hear from you.