Can anyone imagine doing the same for a car made in the last 10 years - apart from the tyre weld maybe? Maybe we are to pessimistic?
R
Nope, bikes are just **** for the simple reason they are designed as leisure products.
In 15 years, 75,000 miles i've had a bike that stopped with a water pump failure, a bike that wouldn't run in the rain because the coil is mounted where the horn couldn't really live, snapped clutch cables and various blown gaskets and minor bits that fall off (OK I owned a Ural, but that never went for long enough to get in the stats!). I've spent a fortune on anti-corrosion gunk and 1000/4000/6000 mile oil changes. I've repainted whole engines that were simply desolving.
In the same 15 years and probably 300,000 miles of driving various company hacks i've nver had one that didn't make it home. Said company cars live outside, recieve no TLC in terms of anti-corrosion gunk and are barely serviced (company adds 10% to the service intervals!). When they hit 100,000 miles they still look pretty good and with new front seats and a full valet are auctioned off at about 25% of the new value.
I've worked with trucks, JCB's etc. that are treated even worse and it's not so hard to make them live. Open engine parts on tractors survive salt spray tests that would turn even a BMW or Honda into a stain on the test cell floor!
The bike manufacturers should IMHO be ashamed of themselves, but so long so many riders do 2000 dry miles a year and buy a new bike every 3 years they'll get away with it. The whole mainsteam culture seems actively set against reliability and longevity. Fit a stainless exhaust and the comic (MCN) will give it ten words. Add 2 kg and they devote pages to how "Lardy" it is.
Wow, that turned into a nice little rant! Think it's time for a cuppa ;-))
Andy
