Randy Kahn
Active member
My 2014 R9T would start in neutral without the clutch being in....which is why it never occurred to me. And the salesman at the dealership told me, "You have an R9T, this R18 operates the same way, didn't show me jack....Took me a minute to get use to that also I have had too many instances with this R18 that make me feel NEW to bikes, although I have been riding since 1987.
I was a in the car business 100 years ago, ran car dealerships. Even when I was there (20 years worth) customer satisfaction from the factory was becoming fanatical....which is not necessarily a bad thing. Dealerships were awarded cars they wanted based on travel rate and CSI. Customer satisfaction index. Even in service their yearly bonuses were attached to that. I mention this because as interested as BMW the parent company is with that index, Motorrad seems to not care so much if at all which is very surprising. I worked for BMW and owned probably 10 or more over the years. But I hear stories of them blowing off customer complaints.
Back in my day, the salesman would go though every product we sold, period, no exceptions. IF the salersman had taken just two minutes to show me the bike I never would have gone through that hassle of not being able to start it.
But this is somewhat indicitive of the times we live in, it's not instilled in people to do theur job with excellence, to the best of their bility. To take pride in being a professional, wether your parking cars or a surgeon.