Then to add insult to injury the service manager who has always been good to me , calls me to politely say that I have VOIDED my warranty because of the pipes & PCIII and will take care of it this time, but in the future I either have to put the stock stuff back on or I'm basically on my own. Bottom line I believe, is that there just scared to death of re-procutions from either EPA or MOCO I'm not really sure.
This time around it is not just being scared. It is a real concern for their business and investment.
When the EPA finally got serious about car emissions and cracked down it basically shut down mods by dealers.
We deal with this everyday in the auto industry, if a car is modified in a way that alters the emissions we won't/can't work on it. It even goes beyond the owner, manager as the law will strike down to the individual technician personally as well.
The fact is that if a technician works on the altered vehicle, he is liable.
It really is a line that seems to be drawn in black and white on the '07 products. I know there are shops that are still grey on this and the MoCo hasn't necessarily been out to all dealers and whacked them.....YET. But they (MoCo) and the dealers really are in a no win position on this and if they are caught breaking the law, they're screwed.
So if we look at the reality of the situation, it is tough to argue with the dealer whose hands are literally tied. If they work on the bikes they are liable, period.
It should make for the independents growth. Unfortunately, the independent is just as liable, but in most cases doesn't have a $5mil investment to lose.
Bottom line the customers need to ride a stock bike or figure your warranty isn't any good when we make mods. If we are fortunate the dealers will look the other way on mods that don't impact the specific failure, if not we're on our own.