[ST] RE: The Seat of Daphne's pants

["Bill Findiesen" <billfindiesen@xxxxxxxx>]

"I wholeheartedly recommend Triumph. But not unconditionally. Having the
right expectations is crucial. Expecting Triumph to have the same efficiency
as Honda, is a path to being an unhappy Triumph owner. And when that
happens, everyone loses.
Daphne"

I understand your perspective, especially since you are one of the lucky
ones to have had some mechanical difficulty. I even understand the
admiration of Honda, as they do have a sense of quality in manufacturing and
generally do have quality in design. If I were to buy a Japanese bike, it
may well be a Honda (I do believe the other Japanese manufacturers have
caught up to them to a large extent though). This said, I did not buy a
Honda or Kawasaki (et al) for a couple of reasons. First, when I looked in
the paper there are always scads of them available. Second, although the
build quality was good, they do build for price and manufacture and have a
mass-produced feel to them. In this respect, I feel Triumph's quality is
just as good or better. Where Triumph are experiencing difficulties are in
some ways design related - initial problems with fuel mapping, lower
fairings getting burned by the exhaust header - and in some ways
manufacturing related. Electrical problems such as the burned grounding pin
in the electrical harness are a combination of both - manufacturing quality
in the corroded pins, or design quality in the fact that the grounding pin
burns in one connector (must be a weak ground somewhere seeking a path which
means this failure mode may not have been anticipated with a fuse). THAT
SAID, Honda has the same issues (and so do Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha):
quality of design, quality of manufacture. If there is a difference in
either quality, I think it more perceived than real. If Phycho World or
Motorphsychoist truck out the VFR as a sport touring bike one more time I
will go kick my dog (like that would ever happen). Dave Edwards did his
whole editorial this month on bikes with cargo carrying capability and
mentions theVFR, the ST1100, the ST4, the FJR1300 and BMW's but there is no
mention of the Sprint ST or the Tiger or the Trophy. It shows you what they
are thinking about. As far as the path to being an unhappy Triumph owner, I
don't quite agree as I have experience the same aggravation and had friends
with the same on those other brands. Owners tend to get their problems
sorted with their bikes in batches - you go for a while with problems, sort
them out and go for a long period before the next problem to sort out. If
you and in the mode of dealing with a problem, the world is a different
place!

Bill


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