Re: [ST] Re:Manual

[Marlin Jones <marlinj@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Howdy:

It's sad to say, but $100 for a factory manual is not out of line these
days.  I paid that much for my Jeep manuals in '95 and '96.  And BMW car
manuals are even more, when/if you can find one.  I expec that BMW bikes
may be similar...

A factory manual is pretty expensive to do - lots of specs that have to
be defined and re-checked, tons of photos and drawings to do, and of
course you have to completely strip a bike down to the bones in the
process.  Given what it takes to write manuals where I work (computer
R&D) in engineering time I expect that $100 (given how much it costs to
produce a manual and how relatively few are sold) does not make much
money (if any!) for Triumph.

Sure, Clymer/Haynes/etc. are much cheaper.  But they're much weaker
manuals, and I've always had a suspicion that they copy big chunks of
the factory manuals...

mj

PS.  What I'd really like to see is the part fiches on-line like
Kawasaki has.  That'd save me lots of time and trips.


Paul Fox wrote:
> 
>  > However since I know it doesn't cost them anything close to $100 to print
>  > the book, it seems that they would sell a lot more of them at a more
>  > realistic price and probably make just as much money. Not to mention
> 
> i guess my real point is that if they have to charge $100 because they're
> not actually in the book business, and because the distribution is really
> quite expensive, then they're using the wrong distribution mechanism.  on
> the other hand, if the book _doesn't_ cost them anything like $100, then
> they're ripping us off.  i haven't bought the book yet, and won't, until
> i'm positive i need it.  and i'm someone who would have said he'd _always_
> own the service manual for his bike.  so they've lost at least one
> sale due to their pricing.
> 
> paul
> =---------------------
>  paul fox, pgf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (arlington, ma, where it's 74.7 degrees)
>  'oh-oh Sprint RS, '91 VX800, DoD #1462, AMA #545601
> 
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