Separate Forums for Vertical Singles and Twins

Obviously the marketing department of BMW was on a month long bender when they renamed the F-bikes as G-bikes and recycled the F-bike name to a totally different vehicle.
(Never mind that the same overly-inebriated crew decided to market a detuned 800cc motor as a 650. "The same fuel economy and weight of an 800 but with the POWER of a 650!")

Instead of having one F&G tech forum, I propose TWO forums, one for F-Twins and the other for F&G-Singles. Since the twins and singles share no motor parts and no body parts in common, does this not make sense? The fact that BMW marketing is doing something every bit as stupid as New Coke doesn't mean that the BMW MOA needs to follow in their tracks.

My alternate suggestion is that if F and G bikes are to occupy ONE tech forum, even though NONE of the parts interchange between the singles and the twins, then I propose that K and R bikes be combined to occupy ONE forum, for the same stupid reason that there is only one F&G Tech forum. (Note: I have NO idea what that stupid reason is, but I have faith that someone will enlighten us.)

flash412 said:

Obviously the marketing department of BMW was on a month long bender when they renamed the F-bikes as G-bikes and recycled the F-bike name to a totally different vehicle.
(Never mind that the same overly-inebriated crew decided to market a detuned 800cc motor as a 650. "The same fuel economy and weight of an 800 but with the POWER of a 650!")

Instead of having one F&G tech forum, I propose TWO forums, one for F-Twins and the other for F&G-Singles. Since the twins and singles share no motor parts and no body parts in common, does this not make sense? The fact that BMW marketing is doing something every bit as stupid as New Coke doesn't mean that the BMW MOA needs to follow in their tracks.

My alternate suggestion is that if F and G bikes are to occupy ONE tech forum, even though NONE of the parts interchange between the singles and the twins, then I propose that K and R bikes be combined to occupy ONE forum, for the same stupid reason that there is only one F&G Tech forum. (Note: I have NO idea what that stupid reason is, but I have faith that someone will enlighten us.)

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Flash, your warm and fuzzy charcterization of the intelligence of the folks responsible for the forum groupings goes a long way in getting someone to make the changes you are suggesting.

SIBUD said:

Flash, your warm and fuzzy charcterization of the intelligence of the folks responsible for the forum groupings goes a long way in getting someone to make the changes you are suggesting.

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That's quite an interesting comment. I thought these forums were run by members of the BMWMOA, not BMW NA nor BMW AG. While many have long suspected that the BMWMOA is controlled by the BMW marketing department, nobody has ever confirmed it until now. That explains a lot. Thank you. Clearly nothing will change on the forums before the BMW marketing department completes rehab.


A history lesson for those not paying attention.
BMW purchased F-bikes with ONE cylinder from Aprilia.
BMW MOA created an F-bike forum
BMW redesigned the F-bikes and started producing the F-bikes in Germany.
The BMW marketing department went on a six month drunk and determined that in order to screw up the product identification and loyal following of many F-bike fans, they would change the model line name to G-bike.
BMW MOA changed the name to the F&G bike forum.
In a move rivaling New Coke, BMW then came out with a product line based on an entirely different engine, a parallel twin, and called it the F-bike.
BMW MOA tech forums take no notice of this fact other than to make the sleepy observation that "F-bikes" have a tech forum.

The emporer is naked.
The trainman is asleep at the switch.
Pick your metaphor.

Parallel twins and vertical singles have less technically in common with each other than Airheads and Oil Heads have in common with each other.

Perhaps an investigation should be launched into the logistics and cost of creating and maintaining a new tech forum for the models based on this ENTIRELY NEW AND DIFFERENT ENGINE CONFIGURATION on this php forum. (That's a joke. It would take an administrator about a minute to create it.) Permission and approval from BMW NA and BMW AG must be sought before creating a new forum on the BMW MOA website. (I can only HOPE that was a joke, too.)

It takes a grain of sand to encourage an oyster to produce a pearl. Today, I am that grain of sand.

I agree about the forums. An F650 single sure as hell aint no F800 twin.

flash,

i LOVE your critical eye. i love that you do not accept the status quo. i love that you constantly challenge the club to be better. please strive to be less caustic when you communicate.

here is how you could have posted:

I do not understand why, but it seems to me that BMW renamed the F-bikes as G-bikes and recycled the F-bike name to a totally different vehicle.

Instead of having one F&G tech forum, I propose TWO forums, one for F-Twins and the other for F&G-Singles. Since the twins and singles share no motor parts and no body parts in common, does this not make sense?

and then i could have simply replied,


this makes good sense. while we probably won't make the change as fast as possible, we will look at it. we're examining the forums and sub forums and their structure right now in fact. please forgive our slowness, and understand that while it takes only a few minutes to click a mouse and create a new sub forum, we err on the side of being deliberate and having a relatively stable list of forums.

and that is my reply.

knary said:

I agree about the forums. An F650 single sure as hell aint no F800 twin.

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A truly ODD thing is, an F650GS twin IS an F800 twin, when the F650GS has two cylinders, not one.

Sadly, thanks to a BRILLIANT (not!) marketing move by BMW, an F650GS sure as hell ain't no F650GS.

Hey, BMW Marketing Department, step AWAY from the crack pipe.

username said:

please strive to be less caustic when you communicate.

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Thank you for posting your personal note to me in the public forum.

Please strive not to delete my posts without notifying me. Some people earn respect. Others earn scorn. The fact that moderators here, as a group, have not yet fessed up which one BROKE THE RULES HERE certainly earns scorn, not respect. I don't know that it was you. I don't know that it was not. I do know that I deserve a public apology for that action. If the BMW MOA moderators, as a group, want to behave in an insulting fashion toward me by deleting my legitimate posts without notification (per the alleged "rules" of this place), then you should not be surprised when I behave in a similarly insulting fashion toward you. You earned it.

Q: What is the penalty or censure for moderators who break the "rules" here?
A: None.

For those who choose to close ranks behind such a person, karma is a bitch.

'Tis a yin-yang world in which we live. Some might believe that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. But then, why would anyone want to CATCH flies? You can kill more flies with a $2 Harbor Freight electric flyswatter than just about anything else.

Being as calm, friendly, funny and nice as possible works well with airline customer service reps when your flight has been cancelled. In fact, that demeanor in such a situation has netted me a first class seat on more than one occasion. Being as unpleasant as humanly possible with insurance adjusters (NOT your agent) who refuse your counter-valuation will always get a bigger settlement.

People who prefer the status quo are loathe to change it. I have learned that when dealing with certain "officials" with whom there is no leverage, embarrassment and irritation are two very useful tools which can actually stimulate action.

So... will the mods ever fess up who it was that deleted my two nearly identical posts from the election forum without notifying me or does the group continue to earn my scorn and loathing? No, I will not simply forget. And before the rogue moderator mashes the DELETE key, yes, I have a screen-grab of this post.

I agree with flash that the sub forum should be split.

Why no form for BMW singles (the real ones not the Funduro type)

I have to agree with this idea of splitting the forums. It was done for the Hex-heads and Oil-Heads, and those machines are much more similar than the singles and verticle twins are to each other. Having one of each in the garage now, it would make it easier to find the relevant information to each if it were seperated.

BlueSeal

I took the time to master this forum chat site to get some feed back on my 07
f800st and was surprised how hard it was to find info specific to the bike.
This bike has some warts but I believe it is an engineering marvel.

Cast my vote to be site specific fot the 800 Twins.

I agree

I agree.

I suggest this be done before the further release of the newest twins, the F800GS and F650GS, because BMW has (foolishly) carried over the same model name of the F650GS, and confusion between the F650GS and the F650GS will result within the same forum.

Based on the date of the first post of this thread, it looks as though there is little sympathy for this suggestion. So here is the forum to go for F800/F650 twin series BMWs: http://f800riders.org/forum/forum_home.php

Fred
'09 F650GS
'07 R1200R

"Loose Cannon" Hmmmm . . . aren't they usually noisy and known to consistently miss their mark?

I think seperate forums for the two bikes would be beneficial to all concerned.

Not rocket science here

So simple to do, I would think. Two bikes of, nothing at all similar, should be separated here too. BMW and their labeling of the bikes is something of wonder also. Marketing? Does BMW have one of these departments? Couldn't prove it by me, with 40 years riding BMW's. Of course I have seen them at National Rallies, etcetc, but one pretty much has to go out of his/her way and play groupie with them at their sites. When will they come to us and ride, camp and play like the rest of us and really learn what the riding public is about. Just show up, folks, when least expected and be normal. A lot to ask of BMW. F650GS, a fine tradition and motorbike and now the new F650GS, not even close to similar. Maybe a fine ride too, no doubts as yet, but WHO thought this up at BMW should be questioned for his/her knowledge of anything bikes! Proves a point about the marketing department, don't it? Lets call the new Chevy's, VW's ,etcetc...Extreme, maybe! Happy Trails, Randy"Polarbear"