I have, in the past, dealt with a number of complaints for shoddy workmanship. This is governed by the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Put simply, the mechanic needs to carry out work with reasonable care and skill. This is precisely why you pay him. If he fails to re-fit the caliper assembly and you ride away and fall off, he is liable to you for damages. The cause of action will be the failure to carry out the work with reasonable care and skill and the breach of contract. I have had this happen to me on a CBR600RR. Those who know the bike will know the rear caliper assembly slides onto the rear swinging arm. If you fail to slide it on, the caliper will move with the disc and spray brake fluid all over the rear tyre as the hoses come loose. As I found out. Thankfully, I didn’t fall off and the bike was fixed immediately, at no cost to myself. The dealer is my local, trusted outfit and no further action was taken. I have been asked again and again ‘but you could have been killed’. Yes, potentially but the law does not deal with ‘what ifs’ it deals with known facts. So, in my case, the defective work was corrected and no other damage or loss suffered. Therefore, I would only be entitled to a price reduction or a repeat performance. In this case the latter solved the problem.
In a more serious case, a client sent his sports bike to be fitted with ASV shorty levers. This seems like an easy enough job, but the instructions clearly stated these levers will NOT work with the factory standard master cylinder. The mechanic worked for a large and well-known UK dealer. They missed the fact the master cylinder needed changing and fitted the levers. No doubt due to being a busy dealership and needing to get the job finished and out of the door. My client collects this bike, got a mile down the road when the front wheel locked up at 60mph. He fell from the machine, suffering serious injuries. Numerous witnesses to the accident commented on white smoke pouring from the front tyre as he struggled to control the machine. One of the first things I did was to recover the motorcycle. It was kept as evidence in the claim where it became apparent the failure was due to the fitting of the shorty levers using standard master cylinders. If the bike had been recovered to the garage who did the work, there was a risk they would ‘fix’ the problem, not necessarily through any dishonest practice on their part but it would mean the evidence had disappeared and it would be much harder to prove the claim. As it was, they admitted blame outright and my client was properly compensated.
A more recent case was a client who took a R1250GSA out for a test ride. During that ride, the machine developed a fault resulting in the rear wheel locking up. The rider left a large skid down the road, probably not just from the rear tyre. The dealer was very apologetic and recovered the machine and corrected the defect. The client was uninjured but clearly shaken up. He wanted to sue the dealer for £19,990.00 which just so happened to be the cost of a new R1250GSA. He was clearly enamoured with this brilliant bike but as he had suffered no injury or loss, he had no claim against the dealer.
Gavin Grewal
TVAM Slipstream
