Suzuki dealer

[Seeker]

I bought my SV from B&B in Lincoln, I got a good deal, they are rated highly in customer satisfaction so I return for services and was there today to collect my bike.
They loan a bike out if it's an overnight job and I got their hideously uncomfortable SV650S pointy with a Renthal bar conversion - makes my neck ache. How you do know when your spoilt? I was griping because there was no gear indicator nor fuel gauge - the low fuel light came on on my return home - where's the nearest petrol station? How big is reserve? Like I said: spoiled.

The owner Pete (might be joint owner) is always ready to chat about bikes - he was prepping a new GSX-S1000 for another dealer to collect. It seems that new bikes are still in short supply so there's plenty of horse trading occurring.
He had a red framed SV650, I've not liked the look in the pictures I've seen but it looked much better in the metal, the red colour looked deep, dark and lustrous. I was asking him whether it was Euro5 since it looked just the same as my Euro4, he said it was but didn't know how they'd achieved it. Yamaha had to move the cat closer to the head on their CP2 engine (MT07/XSR700) to achieve it.

He'd just bought an immaculate GT550 (3 cyl two stroke) for his collection - not sure if that's a collection of just 2 bikes, but he's had a GT185 in his office for years.

Since I was last there he has become an independant Ducati service centre because the Lincoln Ducati dealer had closed. I asked him if he would buy a Ducati, he looked at me, sideways and said: No. Apparently, the bikes have many niggles that require a lot of attention. Not sure whether this applies to all models or just the older ones. He didn't want a Ducati franchise either because it would cost too much to bring it up to what Ducati expect (decor, flooring, even floor size).

He's a tall man, when we got outside to my bike and were talking about head bearings (one reason it was there), he somehow pulled it against the sidestand and lifted the front wheel a good 18 inches in the air to check if he could still feel any notchiness (?) in the head bearings. Who needs an Abbastand?

I know dealers often get a bad reputation but B&B are one of the good ones.*

*( I haven't been paid for this )

[Sir Trev]

It's nice when you find places like that. The Suzuki dealer in Didcot where I bought my curved were lovely - small family business, remembered your name, happy to chat... They lost their franchise a long time ago when Suzuki got rid of all such small dealerships in favour of big impersonal ones, that I loath.

[Craig380]

I bought both my SVs from Single Tracker in Crewe, they've been a Suzuki dealer since the 70s. Proper old school, they really know what they're doing.

One of their commitments is that they service the bikes before sale: when I got both bikes home and checked them over, I found they'd actually greased the suspension linkages and changed the brake fluid in addition to the oil / filter change. Not many dealers would do that.