If there were more (any) questions relating to this topic you'd ace the UK citizenship exam!
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- Thread starter turpin
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If there were more (any) questions relating to this topic you'd ace the UK citizenship exam!
Allow me to disagree with you point of view.
I don't think BMW puts inferior parts in their bikes (or cars) merely to save money.
BMW and a couple of other brands are in the fore front when it comes to apply new technology. They do put in lots of efforts on testing prior to allowing the bikes to enter the market, and most of the time it works out, while some times it does not. But i firmly belive their primary goal is to improve the product they are selling.
One example is the handlebar switches.
In order to manage to fit more switches to the handlebare controls without bloating the switchgear they left their traditional way of building the switchgear with traditional microswitches and in stead went for integrated switch like the kind you find on keyboards and lots of other stuff. In stead of laying wires between each switch the made the internal housing out as a circular printed circuit-board. So far so good. All of it is well known and proven technology.
What their testing did not reveal was the strong heat the switches where exposed to, and even in the Nordic countries it got too much. In hinsight we can say that they should have foreseen this issue, but evidently that was not the case. But they stayed with the idea, and it did take a while before they understood that the problem was expanding plastic that cracked the tracks between the switches. They eventually solved the problem by adding the switches and tracks to a separate film. And by sticking to their idea they now have a clean looking and fairly compact switchgear that has room for Lin-bus electronics that allows the same cable harness to be used for several configurations.
Of course, some of the switches might be a tad tiny, so if you wear large gloves and have big hands, that might be an issue, but for most of the riders they now have a switchgear that is both compact and reliable.
It did probably cost them a lot to get there, but they never gave up and returned to their prior design. And I don't think for a minute that money saving was the objective.
As for trying to get the production as cheap as possible, yes of course. Who doesn't.
Back to the brakes, I have personally limited experience with the new brakes. But what experienced was that the brakes was an improvement compared to the Brembos on my -15 GSA. While a short ride limits all aspects, at least it gave me absolutely no urge to replace them with Brembos. When I get my own bike I will of course build up more experience, but to pass judgment based on the label only is just silly. I will have to agree that replacing the R locking pin with a C-ring initially is not so attractive, and Hays has bolted the two halves together with 3 bolts rather than 2, and that means sliding the brake pads in from below rather than from the top. But lots of bikes have the same type of design. Frankly, it has never been a problem, so why now. And when you exchange the brakepads, get a new C ring, so who cares if the old one disappear.
When the bike has been a while in my ownership I will decide if Hays calipers is a good or bad idea, but as for now I see no problem to accept the bike with the chosen brakes.
Good review and he mentions the crap brakes
But he says they are brilliant, but what would he know, not as much as the technical team on here obviously.
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