I'll try to get this right the first time out because I still am barred from editing my posts:
If that's what you think, then you are indeed misguided. I have it on EXCELLENT authority that what drove the NHTSA to consider the problem at all was Transport Canada. There was a high level teleconference a few weeks ago between the agencies.
Chalking up negative votes to my posts isn't going to change the fact that what those two did could well have been done three years ago - but it wasn't and that's because no one in the US bureaucracy was interested - and they weren't until TC upgraded the issue to a level-3 problem and then got the NHTSA involved.
Now I am not minimising that ionbeam and bkrk12 made a bang-up and organised presentation to whomever they did, but it would not have happened without intervention from the Canadians
Oh - and I've not ever attacked Yamaha directly except to decry their complete denial of the problem in every manner possible - and then only Yamaha Canada, who spent altogether too much energy trying to prove that the issue didn't exist, but that if it did, then it must be our Farkles (wink-wink, nudge-nudge).
As to the change in part numbers; The 2008 harness is also different from the 2006 - and all Gen-IIs have spiders.
Dude. You're an ***.
I have no idea what point you are trying to make, but why are your panties in such a wad? No slight was meant toward you at any time.
???
Of course you don't. Because I was quoting Ignacio's post and included yours to keep it in context - but of course you only saw what you wanted to see. And naturally, as I predicted in the post, the requisite negative votes were clicked. Truly mature behaviour.
I started the campaign to deal with what became known as the 'spider' issue just over two years ago because, with my engineering background and career involvement with life-safety issues my sensibilities were offended by Yamaha's 'head in the sand' approach to what was clearly a design defect.
That campaign took the form of a thread to convince people who suffered the problem to file formal complaints with the NHTSA - I spent time getting those who suffered the issue to file reports and exhorting members here to respond to the poll in order to try and determine what the underlying causal element might be. I also corresponded with various people about possible solutions and such and that thread is now some 28 pages long and has had more than 31,000 views (
if you can believe what the board reports), more than any of the FJRF threads except the ignition failure one.
It has served as the information central for the problem and contains RZ350's load reports, key photos and a lot more.
Until my own machine was impacted I never contacted Yamaha Corporate in either country and said nothing negative about them here beyond the fact that I was totally amazed that they could ignore a problem that has affected something on the order of 15% of the rolling fleet and was a serious life safety issue. And even then, my posts took the form of factual reports and observations only.
Having spent 25 years in mission critical communications I am very familiar with the concept of how a failure can cost a life - I also appreciate that there are corporate liabilities,
but there are also corporate responsibilities. When riders reported Yamaha's complete denial of the issue, yet gave detailed instructions to dealers and replaced wiring harnesses on out of warranty machines at the same time, I may have commented on the board, but beyond strongly soliciting a US-based champion step up for the cause (
because the NHTSA would not listen to a Canadian riding a Canadian machine) I have had NO interaction with Yamaha or the authorities in the US on this matter.
And who stepped up to push the issue? Did you? Did anyone? NO ONE DID.
More amazing to me was the fact that the NHTSA actively declined to investigate the problem even though there were 23 filed complaints on their web site out of a population of likely fewer than 10,000 machines in total.
But that was the extent of my involvement until MY bike was bitten and I contacted Transport Canada in May of 2010.
I immediately started an exchange with the lead defect investigator and we are now friends.
My comment to the original thread was really no different than that which I predicted (and was told would likely never come to pass by those who supposedly know better: That there would never be a recall) . . . I wrote (
and fulfilled my statement) that if they DID announce a recall I would NOT applaud them, because they did NOT step up, but rather were forced through the efforts of others to make good on a serious shortcoming (
which it now seems has permeated other machines they make) - so I said I would write that it was about time. I did that and I meant it.
Cypress had to know about the issue because it was that far back that were were told that a certain dealer in Atlanta was seeing quite a few of the Gen-II machines come though with spider bites. Clearly his could not have been the only one. Yamaha HAD to have been notified since many of the machines were under warranty. We also knew that they were telling customers that theirs was 'the first' and that they had 'never heard of the problem', yet their dealers were being told exactly where to look and what to fix - a conundrum that can only be explained by way of a form of duplicity. Why? Because many of the riders were speaking with Yamaha support techs, the same people that interact with dealers. Make all the excuses you like. The reality is that this has been reported here by others as recently as last week.
Now, I'm not quite sure just what kind of vinegar (
as Ignacio has called it) I am supposed to have been using in my 'fight' with Yamaha . . . . . I am not having a fight with anyone. I am simply trying to prevent people from being killed. My own machine has been patched, since Yamaha's original 'it is fine' inspection of last year resulted in my almost being run down last month. There is nothing 'in it' for me to get Yamaha to fix the issue because MY bike will not melt down again since I soldered in my jumpers to alleviate the load on the spider web.
When Yamaha Canada called and started lying to me I was offended. Yet I was accused of being pissy. Hey. Newsflash: They have my e-mails. They have the board posts. They knew that I knew that they weren't going to do anything without a firm push from behind yet that told me that
they had 'invited' the inspector from TC to be present at an inspection they wanted to perform of my bike (
after having already inspected it the year before?). I KNEW, having been told by TC that the inspector was pushing Yamaha to get this resolved. It was in e-mails between my dealer and me that I was told by my dealer were forwarded to Yamaha. I was unhappy at the lady's arrogant and condescending attitude. I did not respond in kind. I just reported it and was rewarded by a couple of negative votes.
So with all respect sir, I am NOT an ***, but perhaps the person Gen-II owners should be thanking. Because if my bike hadn't shut down when I was merging on to the Trans-Canada Highway in Montreal when it failed the second time and if I didn't have the relationship with the defect investigator Transport Canada would not have elevated the issue to level-3 and there would likely not have been a director-level telecon with the NHTSA a few weeks ago which is what probably resulted in the assignment of Bob Young to investigate the problem.
And yes, Kudos to Ionbeam and bkrk12 for their work in preparing for and handling the meeting that they had with the NHTSA (
note that Yamaha was not reported to have been present - still want to applaud Cypress for 'stepping up'?), but my 'vinegar' is what fueled the journey to that point. And my comment about 3 years related to the fact that no one in authority has been listening and no one else has been actively soliciting information or pressing the matter. Their meeting was a reaction, rather than having been proactive.
The good news is that there are enough members of this board who respect me for my knowledge, my persistence and my willingness to help without expectation of reward. The bad news is that it takes just a few to spoil the goodwill.
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