Harley's Police ABS recall question????

[motorman587]

If you have been keep up with my other police motorcycle thread you know that my city had a police motorcycle rodeo. Harley had their police motorcycle demo, truck/trailer, very nice. They did a sale pitch to my fleet heads. One statement the Harley police rep. made was that in their fist police motorcycle ABS, they had only one brake failure, he stated they sent down engineers and they found the brake lines to have been switched. He stated he did not know if this was factory, or a joke from one of his buddies. Sound likes attempte murder to me. He said after that HD recalled 1500 units to check the lines. Anyway, wew, the question.

 

Why would it take one brake failure, and get a recall, but spine failures and LT rearend failurs do not get recalled? Who does a recall? The manufacture or the goverment???

[BULLman]

Why would it take one brake failure, and get a recall, but spine failures and LT rearend failurs do not get recalled? Who does a recall? The manufacture or the goverment???

 

Both.

 

Manufacturer looks at % of failures on X many units. If cost of possilbe letigation is less than recalling all the units they won't do the recall voluntarily.

 

If on the other hand, there are numberous deaths and/or bad press - and the units are truly unsafe, the goverment can step in.

 

BTW, how was the rodeo?

[DogGone]

If you have been keep up with my other police motorcycle thread you know that my city had a police motorcycle rodeo. Harley had their police motorcycle demo, truck/trailer, very nice. They did a sale pitch to my fleet heads. One statement the Harley police rep. made was that in their fist police motorcycle ABS, they had only one brake failure, he stated they sent down engineers and they found the brake lines to have been switched. He stated he did not know if this was factory, or a joke from one of his buddies. Sound likes attempte murder to me. He said after that HD recalled 1500 units to check the lines. Anyway, wew, the question.

 

Why would it take one brake failure, and get a recall, but spine failures and LT rearend failurs do not get recalled? Who does a recall? The manufacture or the goverment???

 

John, I don't want to shock you, but people sometimes lie. Salesmen always lie, or, more accurately, they give you every opportunity to misinterpret an intentionally vague statement.

 

I spent way too much of my adult life as an independant consultant advising clients what equipment would best suit their needs. Just like a casino magician, the factory reps distract you with a slick presentation and all the buzzwords that middle management like to hear.

 

From what you've said, your sergeant isn't interested in your input so I just hope that someone checks every number or claim that the rep makes. There are enough police agencies using both types of bikes that you should be able to get some unbiased data from fellow officers concerning cost, reliability, suitability, etc.

 

Contact some other police agencies that are similar to your's in size, mission, maintenance facilities, etc. and ask them for the cold hard numbers.

 

pete

 

...and three years ago this advice would have cost you about seven grand, twelve if i had to put the info together for you

[bimmers]

Partially to your other post as well. Here in Atlanta I was just told one officer brageed about having caught a violently speeding Corvette, don't know how safe it was but with an HD I doubt it would have happened, ABS or not.

 

Recalls are initiated as said two ways. 1. The manufacturer does a voluntary recall which is based on them fixing something before a dangerous situation gets out of hand or before their reputation is gone (Audi in the 70/80's is a poor example, actually more on the PR side) or 2. a government mandated one which is based on fatalities or severe risk factors being ignored by the manufacturer.

The RT recall for the clutch is an example of BMW wanting to contain the damage by immediately recalling and fixing it, based on probably a bad quality part from a subsupplier.

 

Switching of brakelines cannot pass quality inspection at any manufacturer. If that is the reason for a recall I would be extremely weary of getting on a bike of that brand. How can they assure that it does not happen more often if it got passed both manufacturer and dealer inspection ...... STay clear of those Hogs they may be unstoppable.

[David]

Why would it take one brake failure, and get a recall, but spine failures and LT rearend failurs do not get recalled? Who does a recall? The manufacture or the goverment???

 

Since we probably don't need yet one more Harley thread on the same subject, and since this is really about oilhead era splines and why they aren't recalled, it was moved here.

[steveknapp]

As far as the recall. Not all are mandated by the feds. So if H-D thought the situation was bad enought they can do the recall themselves rather than wait for the feds to get involved. The cost might even have been passed onto the supplier if their component was found at fault.

 

Plus brakes are a safety thing, where the splines could be viewed as a "wear item".

[upflying]

I thought this was another Harley bashing thread but I commend John for trying to be fair and balanced.

Brakes are important to safety, spline failures are not.

[SageRider]

...important to safety, spline failures are not.

Until drive is lost crossing in front of oncoming traffic, or drive is lost pulling out of a tight hairpin, or drive is lost when max power is needed in an avoidance manuever, or.....

[DogGone]

A turn signal bulb failing can also be a life threatening event.

 

Or a mirror malfunction, horn failure...

 

pete

[Pilgrim]

Why would it take one brake failure, and get a recall, but spine failures and LT rearend failurs do not get recalled? Who does a recall? The manufacture or the goverment???

 

John, at least since 1984, Harley has been very good about getting engineers to the field to examine observed problems, and they have also not hesitated to do recalls to check for problems confirmed by field visits.

 

As to this tale - well, I doubt it, but maybe.

 

Pilgrim

[SageRider]

A turn signal bulb failing can also be a life threatening event.

 

Or a mirror malfunction, horn failure...

 

pete

Gosh Pete, do you really have problems with the above???

Here's to hoping you never have a turn signal bulb failure. Hopefully I can speak for all here that we'd hate to lose you that way!