OK, These Plastic Tabs have officially pi$$ed me off...

[skibumwi]

I'm not sure it applies to other BMW motorcycles, but I suspect it does...

These plastic tabs on the trim pieces for my '16 RT are really making me wonder if I should do any work on my bike. I KNOW where they are, I am VERY careful about working with them - but they still snap off!! Finished putting some LED lights on the bike, got it all buttoned up and then , Horror upon Horrors, I see a small piece plastic painted in my bikes color laying on the ground! ARRRGGGHHH.

I have now broken two of them but at least I found the pieces. Thank you JB Weld for making such a a fine adhesive.

Please BMW - Stop using these tabs or find a way to reinforce them!!

I don't expect to find such shoddy design on a motorcycle of this quality.


Ski

 

[motodan]

I'm not sure it applies to other BMW motorcycles, but I suspect it does...

These plastic tabs on the trim pieces for my '16 RT are really making me wonder if I should do any work on my bike. I KNOW where they are, I am VERY careful about working with them - but they still snap off!! Finished putting some LED lights on the bike, got it all buttoned up and then , Horror upon Horrors, I see a small piece plastic painted in my bikes color laying on the ground! ARRRGGGHHH.

I have now broken two of them but at least I found the pieces. Thank you JB Weld for making such a a fine adhesive.

Please BMW - Stop using these tabs or find a way to reinforce them!!

I don't expect to find such shoddy design on a motorcycle of this quality.


Ski

That is the quality on the motorcycle of this quality...sad to say. And odds are (if past experience is of any note) it won't be changed until a totally updated model is put out.

 

[stevenrankin]

Reality

Put them together cheap, fast and sell them for a premium. Why should BMW be different than another manufacturing company? St.

 

[Omega Man]

I look at these “problems” a little different. Let the designer/engineer work on what they designed and see if they are still impressed with themselves.

OM

 

[stevenrankin]

That will never happen

I look at these “problems” a little different. Let the designer/engineer work on what they designed and see if they are still impressed with themselves.


I agree, but it will never happen. I watched a documentary about the Berlin plant. They can put together a bike in about 40 minutes or something like that. So many bikes per day. We all know how long it takes to take apart and repair a bike. Where is the money? Fast to put together is good for the manufacturer, added labor to work on it is money for the Dealer. It is the consumer who pays the price. This holds true for every item made now.

Oh yes, to add to the point of cheap plastic tabs, the fact that when enough tabs break off and can't be bonded back together, you now have to pay Bite My Wallet prices for a replacement from BMW or a used parts dealer.

I looked at a new BMW car one time. I ended up with a Mazda. Same bells and whistles but 20K less money. The fit and finish on the Mazda is danged near or as good as the BMW.

BMW Motorrad lost me as customer when they went to the BMW boutique experience. Not only did that cover the dealerships but the bikes as well. I feel they have priced themselves way too high for the quality of the product. Just look at one of the other threads in the forum about fellows buying brand new bikes and having the fail at 4K only to wait for weeks for repair. Should NOT happen. St.

 

[azgman]

The tabs are much better on the GS model...

 

[powwow]

What's amazing to me is, what can be any simpler to engineer than a body panel attachment system that's easy to use and durable? BMW can engineer bikes with sophisticated engine management systems, adjustable suspension, etc., but can't finish the job with a simple way to install a body panel. That project must be given to the oldest, nastiest most disgruntled engineer on the project (the youngest engineer would likely have more pride in their work).

 

[pglaves]

BMW ought to rehire the guy who designed the setup on the R1100RS. Three dzus fasteners and two (yes, count them) screws on the panels on each side. That was when the design was, for lack of a better word, sleek. Today's style can best be described as "layered" which makes thing way more complicated. Lots of screws of several different lengths, some with shoulders and some without. I don't get it at all.

 

[179212]

First Time

BMW ought to rehire the guy who designed the setup on the R1100RS. Three dzus fasteners and two (yes, count them) screws on the panels on each side. That was when the design was, for lack of a better word, sleek. Today's style can best be described as "layered" which makes thing way more complicated. Lots of screws of several different lengths, some with shoulders and some without. I don't get it at all.

That memorable first time with the dzus fasteners “ just push it in and done “ wow better than ...

 

[6322]

What's amazing to me is, what can be any simpler to engineer than a body panel attachment system that's easy to use and durable? BMW can engineer bikes with sophisticated engine management systems, adjustable suspension, etc., but can't finish the job with a simple way to install a body panel. That project must be given to the oldest, nastiest most disgruntled engineer on the project (the youngest engineer would likely have more pride in their work).

When I worked as a mechanic at a BMW dealership, for an old German, we joked about a guy named Fritz, working at the factory, and every time something showed up poorly designed, we attributed to Fritz. Back in the days of flip up airhead sidestands, we claimed that Fritz must be working in the sidestand shop. We claimed Fritz designed the new airhead receeding valves and valve seats. When a strange paint color showed up on the new model year bikes, we figured they must have moved Fritz to the paint shop. My experience with BMW and BMWs since '71, is that they would never in a million years admit that they could have made a mistake or poorly design something. Not much has changed.

 

[AKsuited]

The tabs are much better on the GS model...

+1

Works for me.

Harry

 

[Wkoppa]

My experience with BMW and BMWs since '71, is that they would never in a million years admit that they could have made a mistake or poorly design something. Not much has changed.

John Penton (won't explain who he is but has extensive experience with this problem) used to joke that if a German engineer's watch stopped working they would go outside to see if the sun and the planets were still moving because it couldn't be the engineering behind the watch.

John Penton won the 1966 Jack Pine Enduro on a BMW.

Wayne Koppa
Grayling, MI
#71,449

 

[stevenrankin]

Cruel remarks

My friend and I burst into "mine prosit". drinking song whenever we encounter BMW "engineering" problems.

I sometimes get nastier with the comment "This is vhat you get for winning the war".

All snarky quips and jokes aside, I restate; build them fast, cheap, sell for the most money.

1/8" plastic costs less than 1/4" when spread out over 1000 bikes. Okay, the thinner plastic might break easier but the customer doesn't care about that when he or she buys the bike. It only becomes a problem when there is a problem, by that time the bike is sold and BMW will make money on the replacement parts or the dealer will make a few dollars in extra labor.

As I said in my earlier reply to this thread, I found my Mazda CX 5 to be as well built as the BMW X3 and the Mazda cost me 20K less for comparable features. As long as people buy BMW because it is a BMW, nothing will change.

No major manufacturing company has any different a philosophy. Add to the build em fast and cheap thinking is the life span. Build em so they fall apart or break down in ten years.

Okay some things are better on the new bikes, I have in other posts praised the elimination of point ignition systems. Don't beat me up in that regard there has been positive progress but, it is tempered with all of the stuff I am saying. St.

 

[ncpbmw1953]

I don't expect to find such shoddy design on a motorcycle of this quality.
Ski

There are at least two examples of shoddy design, however both are easily adapted to IF you understand fully how they work. Having heard in this forum about these plastic tabs I decided before i ever touch it I will ask the shop tech if he mind if I watch him remove the side panels at the 600m initial service. This also was on a '16 RT, my newly custom ordered one. I stood by and watched him re-install the removed panel and watched in horror as he actually took his fist and hammered the top back into place, as if its design demanded this. He literally snapped off the tab with that one idiotic strike. Unfricking believable! Well I learned what not to do and who knows how many other tabs were broken by this fellow, who sadly, was the chief master tech there. And I know him he is very technically savvy. Anyway, I've R&R'd them many times and they are absolutely sufficient to do what they are intended to do provided you FIRST hang the panel carefully after slipping the tab into its receiving slot, then push in bottom into its receiving pushpin hole and that's all there is to it. The master tech did this by first pushing the bottom into its pushpin hole, then hit the side of the panel immediately opposite the tab trying to snap it into place. Clearly it's not intuitive and therefore prone to being snapped off by the unawares.

The 2nd bizarre design is retention spring design in the head lamps. Oh I know it's always been done more or less this way. Once you understand it it's not too hard to do but I have to think there are more clever ways of holding the bulb in place that could be accomplished more easily manually in that cramped, blind location. Fortunately for me in 42,500m now I've not had one bulb blow except a non OEM one I installed at 14K miles just to learn how to do it before a road trip I thought I should learn it before being on the road, so i took out the original bulb which had not burned out at 14K miles, putting in a PIAA H7 and it lasted 4K miles, so I installed a new long life OEM H7 from BMW at 18K miles, and it's still not burned out at 42.5K miles. I've always adhered to internet rumor to allow the bike the electronics to fully initialize before hitting the start button and so far so good.

Outside of that ever other thing on this machine is outstanding!

 

[ebell]

Along with the tabs breaking, and a headlight bulb that usually has to be replaced in a NAPA parking lot miles from home... The work involved with changing the air filter on my 2016 RT is a little excessive.

 

[36654]

BMW ought to rehire the guy who designed the setup on the R1100RS. Three dzus fasteners and two (yes, count them) screws on the panels on each side. That was when the design was, for lack of a better word, sleek. Today's style can best be described as "layered" which makes thing way more complicated. Lots of screws of several different lengths, some with shoulders and some without. I don't get it at all.

I wasn't a fan of those industrial velro patches. The 1/4 turn screw things were fine, but industrial velcro patches didn't do much on my R11RS

 

[pglaves]

I wasn't a fan of those industrial velro patches. The 1/4 turn screw things were fine, but industrial velcro patches didn't do much on my R11RS

Well, I still prefer that to 29 screws of three lengths, some with shoulders and some without. YMMV

 

[dpmonk]

excessive work?

Along with the tabs breaking, and a headlight bulb that usually has to be replaced in a NAPA parking lot miles from home... The work involved with changing the air filter on my 2016 RT is a little excessive.

You should change the filter on a HGW. I sold mine when it was time to replace.

 

[36654]

Well, I still prefer that to 29 screws of three lengths, some with shoulders and some without. YMMV

The 29-screws are a challenge that Lee's color coded Tupperware containers can address. The tongue in slot attachments require divine patience and a very light touch to avoid disaster.

 

[lee]

The 29-screws are a challenge that Lee's color coded Tupperware containers can address. .

I'm not so OCD that I color code, but I like that idea