I think it only fair to point out that if your mates bike was out of warranty then the failed FD would have been replaced under BMW's goodwill parameters and not under the 'manufacturers warranty'
A Pedant
I think the "goodwill" dries up the minute you take it to a non-franchised dealer for servicing.
I am not going to start over again on why I bought a BMW, suffice it to say I love riding the bike, distrust stealers (especially main stealers, and even more so the huge faceless ones that BMW love so much)
Also many people judge good service by friendly staff who smile at them whilst failing to do the job properly, this does not make the service good.
On Yer Bike were always very friendly, but told me a warranty claim had been refused by Kawasaki when they did not bother to even phone them and ask (I did and got the work approved myself) Also the nut left in the airbox was discovered by myself, had I not phoned Kawasaki about the warranty "rejection" or looked in the airbox myself I could well be singing their praise.
On the ZZR14's I know four owners who have checked shims themselves early (all around 15k instead of recommended 26k) and they have all needed at least 8 swapping out. One chap recently had a stealer service and was charged for a 26k service including shim check and told none needed adjusting.
He was saying how great the service was, however I suspect they never bothered doing the shims and just billed him an extra couple of hours labour and not bothered checking them.
In my daysin the industry (at a very good Honda dealer) we knew of a official Honda "Gold" dealer who did not even have the special tools for doing the V4 valve checks, did not stop them charging for work we knew they were not capable of doing!
I prefer dealers with either open plan service areas or a viewing area, although I would not spend 4 hours with my nose up against the window, the fact they are happy to be observed gives me a lot more confidence in the work they do.