Ducati 2007 Sales

[seruzawa]

Originally Posted by sarnali2

I have to agree with Ken, my '84 1100 Sabre and my '97 VFR when they ran were absolute screamers, more fun than a pillow case full of puppies. Specially the gear drive cams on the VFR, winding that up with the D&D can on it was raw sex on wheels.

For the life of me I can't figure out why Honda can't make a decent charging system, between the V4's and Goldwings it just cant be that difficult to come up with a workable rotor-stator-regulator-rectifier system that don't melt down every 15K, hell everyone else can do it...

Early 80's Suzuki's with the oilbath alternator in the crankcase used to melt down too, so what did they do? They moved the dam* thing outside the case and solved the problem! It's just more proof thet Suzuki is a purist motorcycle company, the Japanese version of Ducati while Honda is just another car company that "dabbles in motorcycles"...

Soiciro must be spinning in his grave......

... on the charging thing. I used to engineer power supplies and such. It's not difficult at all. Charging systems are dirt simple. It's just corporate inertia and an arrogant refusal to admit that something is wrong. I'd bet that simply putting a better heat sink on the regulator would have easily solved the VFR problem.

I remember proposing a change on a power supply once that involved changing one diode. The increased cost would have been 10 cents per unit. Units I modified and tested no longer had an appreciable failure rate. I got turned down because:

A- The company liked having all the maintenance income from replacing blown supplies.

B- It was too much administrative paper work to make the change.

Honda in a nutshell.

[Kenneth_Moore]

Originally Posted by longride

Not sure what happened with this Ducati thing with them selling all those bikes. I heard from an expert source that the V-Twin was dead, and the V-Four was replacing it as the new standard. Something has to be wrong here! Can anyone explain this to me?

Just to toss another chip in the nacho pile, I'll point out that Mr. Stoner (no relation) did pretty well with his V-4 in '07.

[seruzawa]

Originally Posted by Kenneth_Moore

Just to toss another chip in the nacho pile, I'll point out that Mr. Stoner (no relation) did pretty well with his V-4 in '07.

Jeez. Give it a rest, Ken. No one said that V-4s were inherently bad. Just because a design might be better for racing doesn't mean that the same design can be profitable in the consumer market. They just cost too much to produce for negligible gains. The market has spoken.

It also didn't help that the first 2-3 years of Honda V-4 production was plagued by broken trannys and blown top ends.

[sarnali2]

Originally Posted by seruzawa

...
I remember proposing a change on a power supply once that involved changing one diode. The increased cost would have been 10 cents per unit. Units I modified and tested no longer had an appreciable failure rate. I got turned down because:

A- The company liked having all the maintenance income from replacing blown supplies.

B- It was too much administrative paper work to make the change.

Honda in a nutshell.

That's one of the things I love about my job, for such a large corporation I have carte blanche on boiler modifications and repairs. I just placed work orders for over $57k on repairs and control upgrades and the only thing I need to justify is why I went sole source instead of competitive bid. Since there's only one or two companies here that have the appropriate pressure vessel certifications it's just a formality. As long as I have a valid business case for the work I just get an estimate, put in a w/o and call up our buyer and get on the spot approval.

It's nice not having to struggle through layers of middle managers like Cook to get anything done.

[seruzawa]

Originally Posted by sarnali2

That's one of the things I love about my job, for such a large corporation I have carte blanche on boiler modifications and repairs. I just placed work orders for over $57k on repairs and control upgrades and the only thing I need to justify is why I went sole source instead of competitive bid. Since there's only one or two companies here that have the appropriate pressure vessel certifications it's just a formality. As long as I have a valid business case for the work I just get an estimate, put in a w/o and call up our buyer and get on the spot approval.

It's nice not having to struggle through layers of middle managers like Cook to get anything done.

The difference is that everybody around you doesn't think they know all about boilers.

Too many people think they know everything about every aspect of electronics because they can turn on a light switch.

Just like some people think they know all about motorcycles because they rode a Ninja once.

[Kenneth_Moore]

Originally Posted by seruzawa

The difference is that everybody around you doesn't think they know all about boilers.

Too many people think they know everything about every aspect of electronics because they can turn on a light switch.

Just like some people think they know all about motorcycles because they rode a Ninja once.

Jeez, give it rest, Zawa. Nobody said that they think they know everything about electronics.

[sarnali2]

Originally Posted by seruzawa

The difference is that everybody around you doesn't think they know all about boilers.

That's true, everytime there's a boiler incident involving significant propertry damage or loss of life in the US I get a copy of the ASME report, State Inspectors and the insurance co. findings and foreward them to our Plant Managers and Mechanical Engineering staff, "FYI"......

Tends to keep them out of our hair so to speak LOL..

[Buzglyd]

Originally Posted by sarnali2

That's true, everytime there's a boiler incident involving significant propertry damage or loss of life in the US I get a copy of the ASME report, State Inspectors and the insurance co. findings and foreward them to our Plant Managers and Mechanical Engineering staff, "FYI"......

Tends to keep them out of our hair so to speak LOL..

You forgot to mention you get to wear that cool puffy hat!

[seruzawa]

Originally Posted by Kenneth_Moore

Jeez, give it rest, Zawa. Nobody said that they think they know everything about electronics.

You've never been to my workplace!