Fremont Cycle Salvage & Accessories

They, either didn’t want to be at work to help my out as a customer, or they don’t like the fact that I was Asian looking. I asked for a couple of items and they tell me they don’t have that part and I see a shelf full of the part I asked for. The San Jose location is the same way

So after a failed mission to another cycle salvage location, I came here.
The guy in the used parts department is rude.
We were looking for a chain guard for a bike.
His answer to that was «oh we used to have a ton of those and we threw them all out. No one uses them anyway»
Very disappointed in the service. He seemed almost irritated about the part we were looking for.
This location was out of my way anyway so I doubt I’ll ever be back.

I intend for this to be the MOST HELPFUL review.
Today I went to this place and got a mirror and a windscreen for $ 10. What people need to understand is the following:
Fleabay has changed everything. Almost every single individual part for any bike can be found on fleabay. There are some salvage places that catalog every single item, nut, bolt. Fremont Cycle Salvage is not like that. I don’t know the history, I don’t know why, but know in advance that they don’t have the space nor organization to carry tons of everything. Rather, what you’re going to find here are items such as gas tanks, bodywork, turn signals, mirrors, ecu’s, wheels, tires, sprockets. The inventory is actually quite minimal. The gentleman I dealt with today, Mike, lamented to me about how the salvage part of the business there has been moved/​minimized, several times.
Which is why, if you need something, give a call. I did and was given enough of an answer in advance to know what I might/​most likely wouldn’t find.
Yes, this is an odd place. It is within the Fremont Cycles dealership but operates almost separately from it. It has different hours from the dealership (today dealer opened at 9 and Salvage opened at 10). When you call you reach the dealership, and they don’t have a direct extension for the salvage but instead need to page someone from the salvage area to get on the line.
So, what is this place good for? In my case I was able to find parts that were not particular to my bike that would fit. You can’t do that with online shopping. Plus, Mike charged me way less than what I would’ve paid, online.
So, summary: yes, this place seems like it’s in decline (as compared to a «thriving junkyard,» yes, give a call, beforehand, yes, please realize that if they don’t have it you can most likely find it on fleabay. And, be patient. This place runs at a slower pace, so if you want to rummage among the stuff give yourself time to do so.

This place left a very bad taste in my mouth. I’ve worked retail before, so I’m usually not a very stingy person when employees might be busy, etc. Decided to come here after reading some of the poor reviews. Terrible decision.
The hours for this place are until 5:00 PM. I make arrangements to leave work early and get here about 4:30 to find out they were closed that day due to «short staffing». Keep in mind that nobody will ever pick up a phone call here nor return a call, so don’t expect to know ahead of time if they are closed.
Anyways, when I get here, I was redirected to an employee to tell him what parts I was looking for. The man did not look at me a single time while he was arranging jackets and mumbled to me that the part I was looking for was not worth opening up the shop. He then tells me to try buying the part elsewhere.

This place is awesome. If you need any parts you’ll probably be able to find them here & at a good price too! The really helpful here, and answer any questions you may have.

Riders are historically rugged individualists, and so are salvage yard proprietors, and these types of personalities can be interpreted as indifferent, even abrasive to some. Personally, I don’t mind that, and it typically adds up to efficient interactions, if not overly friendly or helpful. But efficient and effective they were in my three or four transactions with them – worthy of three stars easily – and the reports I’ve gotten back from friends and customers I have referred there for hard-​to-​find parts have all been positive.
What more can a rugged individualist ask for?

I called this place 5 times because their antique phone system kept telling me what option number to push, only to be told that whatever number i chose was an incorrect entry. I finally get a «human» on the other end only to be further frustrated at the fact that they seem to carry NOTHING! Of the three items i was looking for all i got was a lazy «yea, we don’t have that» or «yea, we don’t get much call for that» and the final straw was when i asked «what do you have»? and the drone on the other end replied. «whatever comes through the door» so, you don’t have any real inventory, just whatever some hobo drags in? how the hell do you guys stay in business?!
Anybody who gives this place five stars is either lying or dating the slacker that runs this place.

How about ¼ star? No one picks up the phone. No returned calls when you leave a message. Email box full.
Evidently they have a fat daddy taking care of them.
Glad I didn’t drive the 45 minutes each way to find they are as non-​responsive as they appear.

Not really a store front anymore as they share the space behind Fremont Honda/​Kawasaki. Keep this in mind and your expectations should be set that this is really a Motorcycle junkyard now and there is nothing wrong with that.
I recently had a very positive experience at their new location. Was looking at the Kawasaki parts counter for some special wellnuts for my ZX14. They didn’t have any in stock so I went around back to Cycle Salvage. The crew there looked at what I was trying to find and they dug up some new replacements that were not exact, close, but would work fine for a ride to Reno this weekend.
Best part was the price… FREE. Now don’t expect free parts here but the fact they were more concerned in getting me back as a customer than charging a few bucks each for these new parts will bring me back. It’s a junkyard but they fill a valuable need just behind the dealership, bailed me out and could not have been nicer.
Hopefully your experience will be as good as mine!

First off, this place is BEHIND the Honda and Kawasaki dealership!!!
I originally called to see if they had the part I needed, the guy answered and i told him specifically what it was. There was a long silent paused for whatever reason, then he responded «possibly, come down and check» the whole reason i called is not to waste my time, he refused to check for me.
I ended up driving 30 mins to their shop, just to be confused as to where the hell they were located. Once I found the shop, I asked for the part I needed, he stood up casually an pointed to where they all were.
Customer Service does not exist here.

My bike broke down on the way to work, had it towed here just because I knew it existed and I broke down close by on 880. I don’t think they were technically open yet but Ian came out to talk to me and see what was up. He was incredibly friendly, helpful, and encouraging. It turns out I was out of gas (my fuel gauge is broken) — he helped me identify that was the problem instead of just signing me up and telling me to wait. He put some gas in the bike and I was good to go; he told me what I should check to try to fix my fuel gauge.
My front wheel has also been making some noise and I asked him what he thought, he spent a bit of time looking at it and told me what he thought I should try to fix it up. He then gave me some tips on riding visibly (I’m a new rider) and taking care of my bike.
I left without having to pay a cent and they actually didn’t need to fix anything… but I’m giving 5 stars for how helpful and friendly Ian was.

We typically go to a shop farther away but wanted to find a place more locally. YOWZA did we step in a fire ant hill?!
Every time we turned around there was another issues they had to call about. Terrible service department! They forgot to order a part, then they forgot to order the CORRECT part, then they took two weeks instead of the two days they originally quoted, then they forgot to order ANOTHER correct part, then they didn’t both to wash the bike down, the price was outrageous compared to the same fix at the dealer we typically go to, then they offered to give us a 15% discount on our NEXT visit for the trouble.
WHAT NEXT VISIT?!
I would give them a negative star, but at least one of the sales men was super friendly. The rest stared at us blankly for 30 minutes, even when we were obviously trying to find someone to answer a question. So we will add ‘sexist’ as the cherry on top.

These guys were completely honest with me when I went in to look for my bike. I’m a total newb and made them aware of that and expressed my wishes of looking for a good reliable bike that wouldnt take a lot to get it going. The owner said: «to be honest, nothing here thats gonna do it for you», and walked me to the dealership. I appreciated that honesty.
I’ll be coming back for parts, but will definitely do my HW first.

I busted my reservoir coolant tank on one of my bikes a couple years ago, and these guys had the part I was looking for & it only cost me $ 15, way better than buying a new one for $ 60+ online.
All the guys here are cool & laid back. I recommend bringing in the piece/​part that you’re looking for to compare it to all the ones they have laying around, definitely makes things easier & faster for you.
This is also a good spot if you’re looking for a project bike or fixer-​upper for cheap, they’ve got a good variety of bikes some new, some old. In the future, I plan on picking up a salvaged bike here & getting it up to code strictly for track days.

What happened to this place! it blows now. This use to be a cool funky little shop next to a car wash, now it is an angry guy in a box with a cash register. I use to get all my tires there and other things but not anymore. Now you have to go next door to Honda-​Kawasaki and order anything you want because you can be sure that it will not be in stock. Even though they are a little more expensive and don’t have free tire mounting I go to Cycle Gear in Hayward now… sucks
Too bad…

First experience: Emailed them using their web form. It’s months later and still haven’t heard back.
Second experience: Grumpy dude at counter complaining ’bout how the internet is stealing all his business. No help, grumpy.
There won’t be a third experience.

So, this store… isn’t really a store. Maybe the old location was but they’ve moved and now, it’s a guy at a desk and a room with some old bikes…
If you need anything from them, he said you should bring the part in and then you go through barrels of stuff that is unlabled and compare things to the ones you brought to see if it’s a match… really?
For now, I’ll rate them 3-​star for offering cheap salvage parts and having used beater bikes to buy, which is great for beginners but, I think I’ll try their internet search for any items I’d need. Bringing my parts and eyeing them to see if they might match a buncha stuff in boxes doesn’t seem so great to me. Why don’t they label parts when they take em off the bike?
I hope I can come back with a glowing review.
Might see ya there!

I saw a CB550 on Craigslist and had e-​mailed about it. Some woman named Andrea replied and told me to call the manager, I guess she’s their internet correspondent or whatever. I replied to her requesting more pictures, she never e-​mailed me back. Whatever.
I called and spoke with Mike he gave me the story about how it was only running on two cylinders, needed some work, etc. I actually asked him the physical condition of the bike, and then he started telling me if this is my first bike, it’s not a good idea yadda yadda, this is an enthusiast’s bike, etc. Frankly I didn’t ask for his opinion of who is the target buyer, or tell him anything about myself, and I wasn’t really concerned about why he thinks I fall under his assumed stereotype.
I drove down there from SF, showed up at like 9AM. My girlfriend and I stood outside the front door while they were moving their inventory outside and we didn’t want to get in the way. I saw a CB550 on the lot, looked it over, saw a bunch of rusting I didn’t like and decided that I didn’t want it. At this point I was already predetermined that I would not be purchasing this particular CB550.
We still waited around for the guys to finish so I could look for Mike and verify that the rusting blue CB550 was indeed the one for sale. We waited next to the front doors for like 10 minutes and the whole time the staff were walking in and out, not a single Hello, Good Morning, How’s it going, Wanna spend some money here, Hi, or anything! GREAT MANNERS GUYS!
So after a while, they flipped the closed sign to open, and a bunch of the guys walked down the street to get some coffee or something. I walked in and there’s this tall older guy behind the counter.
«Hi, I’m looking for Mike.»
«You are?»
«My name is Dong, I spoke with him briefly on the phone the other day regarding a CB550.»
«Oh the blue one out there? It ended up having an aftermarket ignition, yadda yadda, so we got it running. This is really an enthusiast’s bike, so if this is going to be your first bike, «_​_​_​_​something else I don’t remember_​_​_​_​yadda yadda (I had channeled out at this point).
«Thanks for your time.»
Jeebus these guys must have a really well-​running business or something, because obviously they are making so much money that they don’t need mine. Here’s a breakdown of why I love these guys:
–NONE of the staff greeted us
–NONE of the staff offered to help us while we were snooping around
–The tall older man behind the counter didn’t take the time to properly introduce himself
–Tall older man had already prejudged that I knew nothing about motorcycles, that this was going to be my first, and I don’t fall under the enthusiast category
–Poor e-​mail correspondence
Where I come from, simple manners and common courtesy go a long way, so when I come across guys like these they have a tendency to really grind my gears.
With that said, I did see several other potential fixer upper vehicles on the lot, and some of them looked like deals if you were willing to throw in some blood, sweat, and $$$. Regardless, I won’t be returning to buy anything since I prefer establishments with actual customer service.

My brother cross threaded a bolt in his bike. He went a couple places and tried a few options, the impact wrench one broke the bolt off, the EZ Out approach would have just made things worse. After an unsuccessful stop at Parts House (They wanted him to disassemble the bike to bring the affected part onto the bench) we saw folks in front of Fremont Cycle Salvage gathered around a bike on a trailer. The shop was closed but we decided to whip on over and see what was up. There was a fellow there, Ian was his name. He said bring it by tomorrow and we’ll see what we can do.
My brother brought it by the next day and after some trials and tribulations (Ian broke some drill bits doing the work.) the bolt was drilled out –AND– the frame part was undamaged. When asked what was owed, the answer was ‘nothing’. My bro gave Ian $ 20 to recoup the cost of the bits which Ian said really amounted to ‘around $ 12’
I’ve just moved to Fremont, a half mile from my brothers house and about as far from your shop. We both owe you a business visit. What kind of cold beverage does Ian prefer?
Thanks!

I love coming to this place since it’s so conveniently in Fremont and is about 2 miles from my house. I don’t have to travel far to get items for monthly maintenance.
Great shop if you’re looking to pick up a project bike or a fixer-​uppper.