09-09-15, 06:46 AM
(09-09-15, 02:14 AM)joebloggs link Wrote: I've been thinking about stuck fast nuts and bolts on my Fazer and I've come up with a theory. The bike was marketed as a beginers bike and many of its first owners would have been just that, and of course the problem with new riders is that they're not used to servicing, struggling with seized fastners etc etc. They think copper slip is some sort of correctional porn and providing its reliable the bike won't have any work done on it between services.
Dealers, or more to the point, salesmen, could be selling washing machines and have no real interest in motorcycling, only hitting sales targets and giving customers what they want.
Years ago your local dealer would discuss every aspect of maintaining your bike, shame those days have gone.
Time to go back to basics me thinks
years ago anyone buying a bike would expect to be doing maintenance jobs on a regular basis. Even oil change intervals were frequent by modern standards.Most owners would be familiar with their toolkits(through necessity not choice).
Cars & bikes have become far more complex-eg electronics,fuel systems & dont lend themselves to "amateur tinkering".
Think its wrong to generalise about bike salesmen-some are good & enthusiastic about the products they sell.
i recently changed my car & the whole experience was very much like you describe-they might have been selling me white goods or a TV set.
My experience with bike buying has mostly been very positive.
Another factor of course is that the present(new) generation of owners/riders mostly grows up not knowing one end of a spanner from a screwdriver because nowadays things are replaced rather than repaired.
When a guy/girl buys a new bike they are not thinking about future owners 10-15 years down the road which is the age-category of most Fazers now.
Manufacturers dont even bother greasing headstock/swingarm bearings properly at the factory and they would be quite happy to see the life of their product reduced to say 5-7 years. So with modern design & engineering most car/bike engines will run(properly treated) to 100000-150000 miles but it will usually be corrosion issues that cause said vehicle to enter gates of vehicle dismantlers.
People on this & similar forum are the exceptions to the average in tht we mostly are interested in keeing our truty teeds running/improving where necessary & enjoying the ownership experience. As you probably realise I grew up at a time when ever rider carried plenty of tools :lol