All I need is a quarter of an inch!

[Itsme]

Hi Thumperteers

There are three things to mention before the meat of this post.

1. Fear not gentle reader it is neither rude nor salacious.
2. It is not a rant it is more of an observation.
3. No I won't convert a quarter of an inch into metric.

I had reason to remove the petrol tank from the 250 Suzuki Inazuma, aka Newzuki, recently which of course is fuel injected rather than good, old gravity fed carburreted like the Mighty Midget GN250. This meant raising the tank to get access to the fuel hose and it's quick coupler, the electric plug and two breather hoses. At this point I remembered similar struggles with my SR400 where if the manufacturer had made all of the hoses, cables etc just a quarter of an inch or so longer the job would have been so much easier. I can only imagine that a quarter of an inch extra hose etc on millions of bikes must add up o a significant sum of money which made the production accountant panic. Whatever the reason it is jolly annoying.

Mind you so are my arms which too are a quarter inch too short to reach any bolt or tool I drop whilst doing the job! Must have a word with God about that one day.

Ian

[iansoady]

Many years ago I worked designing computer systems for the then Austin Rover company. Despite lots of bad publicity, their products were in fact well designed and generally of build quality at least equal to their continental competitors. However they were notoriously penny-pinching.

I had the privilege(?) of what was known as the Management Car Plan which in return for a nominal sum gave me a new car every 6 months, so offering the opportunity to try different models without committing myself. One such was the Rover 200 coupé (Tomcat) of which I had a couple. The first had a nice little light surrounding the ignition lock which was great when trying to insert the key on a dark night - for instance when I had to go to Longbridge at 2 am to reboot the production line system. The second, which I had a year or so later, didn't have this light despite being otherwise identical. I quizzed the production people and was told that they actually saved less than a pound per car by deleting the feature. I did point out that it was little touches like that which encouraged people to buy the products but was met with blank stares and told how much each small saving added to profits.

Shortly afterwards the company went bust........

[Steve Lake]

how strange!... my arms are also 0.25 of an inch too short ... which i declare as an asset ! .... as it does mean that i can't reach the money at the bottom of my pockets thus it is difficult for me to pay when it is my turn to buy the round 

[Moto63]

how strange!... my arms are also 0.25 of an inch too short ... which i declare as an asset ! .... as it does mean that i can't reach the money at the bottom of my pockets thus it is difficult for me to pay when it is my turn to buy the round 

Spoken like a true Yorkshire man. You are from Yorkshire I assume given that last post 😉😁
Name withheld to protect an adopted lancasterian

[Itsme]

Thank you gentlemen and your replies prove you have to love production accountants for being so focused and yet missing the point, people who know how to hang on to their money and yes Michael even Lancastrians!

Ian

[Steve Lake]

Spoken like a true Yorkshire man. You are from Yorkshire I assume given that last post 😉😁
Name withheld to protect an adopted lancasterian
[/quote]

  i'm an adopted norfolk boy .... you can tell a lad from norfolk.... but you can't tell him much :-)