Thanks for all feed back guys.
I will do a formal complaint to the board members of BMW as soon as I get to Buenos Aires and find a decent cybercafe that does not crash on me when I´ve just finished a long email!!!!!! Complaints to customers services would be a waste of time!
I will make sure to copy this link! There is weight in numbers !

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Maria

www.franglais-riders.com

And while you're complaining to them Maria, please ask them to ensure that they don't start making their motorcycles in China. That would really be a bit too much!!

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Just Ride!
www.rocktravels.blogspot.com

My wife and I did tons of research before buying our riding gear and came up with what we think is the best stuff out there. It easily exceeds Aerostitch beacuse of rain worthiness and hot weather riding.

MotoPort

It is made in the USA, has the strongest seams I have ever seen and the outer mesh shell is made with Kevlar. We have ridden in the cold, rain and heat and the clothing performs perfectly. It is a triple layer system. Outer Kevlar lined mesh contains the new soft padding that hardens on impact and is lined, so you can ride in just the shell in the heat. Inside that is a fantastic rain suit that breathes, then the third, optional piece is the long sleeved quilted liner (top only) We are in the Utra II suits.

Our boots are Sidi Canyons. They have also performed well, kept our feet dry in all-day rain.

Sidi Canyon Gore-Tex Boots @ Extreme Supply!

Steep

Jep the famous "german build quality" is no longer there.

even the germans themselfs say so.
i prever italian "quality" these day's, fiat build the machines the germans used in the eighties to build bikes and cars.

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I’m not afraid to go fast, it’s the crash and burn part that sucks.

I two have the Airmesh Ultra 2 Jacket (winter liner & water proof liner) and find it to be the perfect compromise. They are expensive for Australians to buy as our dollar is RS to the green back, but it is worth every cent.

I have ridden in snow in North America and 40oC heat in outback Australia all without drama. I recently purchased a pair of Kevlar jeans for Motoport, the only downside is that the Kevlar mesh is that abrasive that it is damaging the paint on both sides of the tank.

Please note that ordering from a supplier in another country does not always run smoothly as you can't just walk up the road to return clothing. I will be sure to make my requirements a lot clearer next time. I forgive you Wayne.

It is good gear and all made in the States to order not China.



Most of the stuff available locally is Cordura crap made in China. I had a Dririder jacket that lasted all of 2 weeks and 5000km before most of the important stitching and zips gave way. It was returned to place of purchase and a full refund given.

It seems that if the Chinese used a better thread that most of us would find the overall quality bearable.

Glen

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Feb 2014, currently travelling the America's on a Tiger 800XC

Live every day like it's your last, one day you'll get it right!!!

Sorry to hear about your problems with your BMW gear. I too have seen a decline in quality of certain BMW articles (including bikes) but the Rally Pro 2 I have is fortunately not one of them. FWIW the jacket is from Kroatia and the pants from China. I had a get-off last year when I dropped my bike on me and the suit was fine. The seams are all good and so is the Gore-Tex liner. I have 45K miles on this suit and so far it is holding up very well.
I hope that BMW comes through for you as some dealers and regional managers for BMW are idiots. It is rare a dealer will stick his neck out as corporate BMW seems to think their poo doesn't smell. If enough customers complain I am sure the bosses in Munich have to wake up some day.
Unfortunately Germans are very stuborn and don't admit to mistakes easily. If their bottom line drops however they may change their tune somewhat.( I hope)
Good luck!!!

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Ride Safe!!

Hey Loxsmith,

How long has it been since you checked the exchange rates?? I am paid in US and now I am actually loosing money given that it is over 90 cents!

Therefore, buying gear direct from the US is cheap for us now if your paid in Oz$! Buy up big mate, we never knoow whats going to happen to it.

I have some BMW gear which is made in China, Portugal, etc and most is ok, but I do have several items that are rubbish, ie: gloves, helmets, visors. I had 2 x system3, 2 xSystem 4 helmments and the foam inside used to deterioate if not used for a time. BMW said that there was nothing wrong with it but then I see that the next model helmet came out with detachable washable lining! A coincidence???

Cheers

Todays exchange rate is
1 Australian dollar is worth 88 US cents. I has, and always will be dearer for us to buy US products.

Mollydog and I both seem to agree that the Motoport gear is well worth it

__________________
Feb 2014, currently travelling the America's on a Tiger 800XC

Live every day like it's your last, one day you'll get it right!!!

Actualy they do have plans to make the engines of the new 650 series in China and the new G450X will be build by Kymco in Taiwan............ Just read it in a bike magazine here in Holland. No use in buying European anymore. :-(

__________________
Jan Krijtenburg

My bikes are a Honda GoldWing GL1200 and a Harley-Davidson FXD Dyna Super Glide

My personal homepage with trip reports: https://www.krijtenburg.nl/
YouTube channel (that I do together with one of my sons): motormobilist.nl

A joke that, as ever with these things, contains some truth therein:
Sorry about the font; it doesn't seem to want to change!!

Finally, here is a definition of globalization
I can understand and to which
I can relate

Question:What is the truest definition of Globalization?


Answer: Princess

Diana's death.


Question: How come?


Answer:

An English princesswith

an Egyptian boyfriend

crashes in a French

tunnel,driving a

German car

with a Dutch engine,

driven by a Belgian

who was drunk

on Scottish whisky,

(check the bottle before you change the spelling),

followed closely by

Italian Paparazzi,

on Japanese motorcycles;

treated by an American doctor,using

Brazilian medicines.


This is sent to you by

a Canadian,

using Bill Gates's technology,

and you're probably reading this on your computer,

that uses Taiwanese

chips,and a

Korean monitor,

assembled by

Bangladeshi workers

in a Singapore plant,

transported by Indian

lorry-drivers,

hijacked by Indonesians,

unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen,

and trucked to you by Mexican illegals.....



That, my friends, is Globalization!

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Dave

Most cars have all the forged parts, even the BMW, Mack trucks, Mercedes....name it and its most probably forged by Bharat Forge in India but the prices have not dropped for the customers.
Even the latest Chevrolet is a KIA made in Korea

So it comes as no surprise to find the new enfields have nicasyl barrels, which has confused some new owners as it takes 6-10K miles to run them in.

Well this is the email I finally sent to various board members of BMW and the DG of BMW Mottorad. Maybe I will get a reply! we live in hope!


Sirs,

This is to make 2 formal complaints.

One regarding the DANGEROUS incompetence of Porto Alegre - Brazil workshop, and second regarding the appalling customer services treatment regarding faulty and /or low quality rider equipment.

To put things in context, we are motorcycling on 2 BMW F650s all around South America and have been on the road for 6 months now.


1/ Porto Alegre - Brazil workshop.

After the theft of my motorbike in Brazil, and subsequent find by the police, I had it transported to BMW Motorrad Porto Alegre (Brazil), and asked them to check the bike as it had been stolen. We had a translator with us so they understood the situation and what I asked them to do.

When I picked the bike up few days later, I was charged over 1000 USD for the transport of my bike to the workshop (200kms) and the only work done was fitting a non-BMW ignition key. The forks where mis-aligned and the handlebar was bent in 2 places! As a result, the throttle would be "sticky"and would not close on its own, I would have to close it up or it would stay open. I was absolutely horrified that this was not repaired! I rode the bike out without saying a word and took it immediately to a different workshop to get the bike repaired. As it was, the bike was dangerous to ride, and I am absolutely horrified that BMW let me leave their workshop riding a dangerous bike!

2/ BMW Rider equipement

We bought 2 Santiago suits and a pair of Savannah boots in London for our trip.
The Santiago suits started desintagrating within weeks of buying them. Some seams are so badly done that they are coming apart. Especially the lining of the jackets and trousers where many of the seams are coming apart. It makes you wonder what would happen if we were to come off the bike! The response from BMW customer services: they will examine them at our return in the UK!!!! Not much use out here in South America.

But the worse are the Savannah boots, allegedly Gore-tex lined! They take so much water every time it rains that my left foot is totally soaked within minutes.The response we had on the boots from the customer services was to BUY a new pair in Porto Alegre (for about 1000USD, thanks to import tax) while a committee takes few weeks to decide if my boots are faulty! No doubt considering our experience with this dealership, we would never see our money again! This is totally unacceptable! I was not asking for a free gift, only to get replaced faulty equipment!

BMW motorrad market adventure motorcycling but do not deliver the quality and the support that you market! It is a great shame that you let down the very same people that get in the front line, riding around the world, using your bikes and gear, and discover ashaming BMW pratices and quality! You claim that BMW is a global brand and can provide support anywhere. Well in my experience, you can certainly try to rip off your customers even further but that´s about all!

I am continuing my trip, with leaking boots, and will curse BMW everytime it rains. As far as my husband and myself are concerned, you´ve lost 2 customers. I intend, at our return to Europe, to do presentations on our trip. I´m afraid I will be less than complimentary when BMW is concerned.
You can also see from these forums that I am not the only disatisfied customer.

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...quipment-30324

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...und-the-world/

Sirs,

I do not salute you!

Maria Robinson

PS this is an open letter and any response (or lack of it) will be published and discussed in various motorcycle forums)

index

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Maria

www.franglais-riders.com

How to win friends and influence people!

Personally I would have started the first letter at least along the lines of

Dear Sir,

As a long time and generally satisfied customer of BMW I would like to bring to your attention two unfortunate experiences I have had recently with an official BMW workshop and with some 'mission-critical' BMW rider equipment I am using for an around the world tour (please see my link www.XXXX.XXX.XXX)

....just a thought but going to DefCon 4 immediately doesn't leave you much to work with if their initial response is unsatisfactory!

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Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietam servitutem

I see the stereotypes are spreading, especially from people who very probably never owned or worn one

Years back when Ewan and Charley weren't even heard of, I used to think about the same - they're expensive, too "stilysh" (everybody wear dominant black clothing on the street - why I shouldn't?) ...until I got to try one. Especially after a nightmare with my cheap "conventional" clothing in Iran.

Aside from Maria's, who hasn't had any extensive MC travel experiences before and her clearly winded-up story about their equipment reliability thinking about the expensive clothing should do wonders, I'd like to add my own, balancing views. Previous post was about the parts of the world they've been done, but I haven't really shared my views about their functionality.

I don't know much about Santiago, but my better half has worn the previous version of Santiago called Savannah II that has a women-cut sizes and she only is saying good words about it after extensive use.

Seen and worn most of riding equipment, from very expensive till the very cheap I'd say BMW Rallye equipment is one of the very best currently available for serious adventure-traveling use. In fact most of other makes are just copycating the original BMW Rallye concept, and ironically, none of them has really surpassed the R2 in terms of it's original concept, a fact which itself says alot about it, IMHO anyways.

- Advanced ventilation
- Robust
- Light-visible colors
- Lot of pockets

Would be the keywords here. Previously you only saw a pitch black Sun-sucking clothing, made to ride -10C weather, with limited vents that would make you sweat to death in the +45C Iran traffic and be unseen in the traffic in your black clothing. "Adventure travel" style of clothing stared with the original Rallye 1 that changed that by making clothes light and highly ventilating, instead of the common outer waterproofness (that would make it poor-ventilating cloth) they put Gore-TEX inner waterproof suit.

With R2 I've ridden +40C heat madness in Syria, with all the vents open and -10C here in Estonia all the vents closed combined with goretex insert and I find it hard to find any similar purpose clothing capable of that wide range of temperatures and conditions. That's exacly what got me hooked with the BMW stuff that I hated at that time. I've been looking into (even more expensive than BMW) Rukkas and couldn't find a model that does it better.

If you take a close look at the Rev'It the first thing you'll notice it's a clear BMW Rallye 2 copycat, and you see the quality of the materials and seams are inferior (hence the price difference). Reading reviews Cayenne leaks after some relatively short time use - my R2 is now 3 seasons old and over 50,000km ridden never leaked a drop. It's worn, burnt by the sun (red colour is fading), it's dirty as hell, but it still goes strong - seams are strong, ALL the zips work and the goretex inner holds me dry.

BMW equipment expensive? OK, UK is long been known as a rippoff country... We've got ours half of the EURO list price brand new, who buys their stuff with the list prices anyway?

So while guys bash BMW clothing coz of Ewan and Charley et al. jelousy vs media stunts (never cared about this game anyway), it hasn't made the clothing any worse for me. So while I hate the "BMW lifestyle" ideology etc, in my humble opinion, (both R1&R2 and Savanna 1&2) are among the best clothing I can find for my traveling purpose.

Maybe BMW clothing build quality has gone down with the new models of Santiago and Rallye 2 Pro...

But I wouldn't knock one until I've tried one.

I've never owned a Gucci handbag either, but I'll still stick to my Macpac rucksack thanks!

Matt

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http://adventure-writing.blogspot.com

http://scotlandnepal.blogspot.com/

*Disclaimer* - I am not saying my bike is better than your bike. I am not saying my way is better than your way. I am not mocking your religion/politics/other belief system. When reading my post imagine me sitting behind a frothing pint of ale, smiling and offering you a bag of peanuts. This is the sentiment in which my post is made. Please accept it as such!