Quality and quality assurance

QA is a phillosphy on a motivational poster.

Engineering is what makes something work.
Testing backs up the design.
Stuff slips through- on all fronts and makes.

the problem aint husky.

PDI? it's the dealer's service staff (not all but in large part) with ALL brands. bike has very little to do with it barring glaring defects and known product problems. stuff falling off or coming loose is the OWNERS problem- how is that the bikes fault? dirt bikes are NOT made to the same safety standards street bikes are and do not go through the same process. also takes a whopping 5 mins to hit every bolt on a dirt bike with a spanner or t-handle, literally- i do it after each ride, dirty or clean. and yer riskin' it with a new DB if ya dont tear it ALL down and service it first. that's been standard practice since before suspension and they raced on board tracks. ive yet to see dealer burn a customer on seomthing they forgot to do, be it service or PDI. ever. if they screw up the last thing they want is that WOM getting out. i've witnessed tech's getting canned for it. Husky QA?
ever fillet a new asian mx bike? they wave the grease can over the bearings on the line- they are DRY, all of them. ive even gotten some with NO oil in the trans and 6psi in the tires. lamo at ALL big 4 dealers and those "zero defect" asian factories. them dood's couldnt open an umbrella.

as far as dealers? ive yet to see ANY dealer prep a bike better than a Husky dealer. ever. my 09 WR125 was RACE ready sans jetting (CARB makes em sell it lean and the jets were in the box)- how do i know? I took it apart when i got home, and, all the PUD's receipts were handed to me before i loaded it up, along with spares and all the goodies. my 07 TC? same way. all i had to do was peek at stuff, put it back together and go.
honda, yamaha, et al? total fillet and service- hours of work and my materials.

reliable? find something more bullet proof than a husky. ask ajaxauto how many THOUSANDS of race miles he has on an orriginal 125 bottom end. more than most folk have under their belts.

i could fill a boneyard with all the bikes ive had since 1975. none of them would have lasted more than a couple of hard rides w/o a lot of post and pre-ride attention. not to mention the rash of PUD and recalls the asians have had since the 80's and even still today! ask me how i know. (cabniets FULL)

regardless of the badge. stuff busts. it's what happens AFTER the sale that has sealed my husky deals for over 3 decades. ever call KTM with a problem on a NEW bike?
gooooooood luck with that. lmao!!! asians come with ZERO wrty on race bikes. compare that to a street-legal TE, these things rip balls and have a warranty! then there's the $ ya save, cost of ownership et al.

best advertising for husky? race results. argue with that. and, it's user base- we aint sheeple and play different and know the REAL score on a lot of fronts. and, know that every brand's come in on the stiff rope. not just the H.

so- bash away all you interweb haters...but, bash them all, not just husky. and kindly stay the hell out of my way on the trail when my little red n' white rocket comes a whippin buy.

I am always amazed when I am out beating on my bike in the roughest conditions you can imagine, and it comes home in one piece. I always think, what an awesome piece of machinery. I understand that things are going to vibrate loose and you need to keep an eye on nuts, bolts, spokes, ect. However I don't give any manufacturer a pass for not properly packing a bearing with grease. Any half-wit on the first day of his first job should know that bearings need to be full of grease to work properly, yet I have never seen a new Husky with all the bearings properly packed. It seems like it is usually a steering bearing or a swingarm bearing that is severely undergreased, but trust me, it is there. If it is not, that is a rare exception in my book.

PS; The only thing that amazes me more than how good the husky holds together, is how much abuse the tires take and how rarely I have to fix one on the trail. It may not seem that amazing to some of you, but if you could see some of the ridiculous lines I pick (or don't pick) I think it would amaze you. Sometimes while riding I just LMAO after a particularly numbskull line.

PVduke is essentially spot on - you are the guy holding the bars and so its down to you. The thing is just because you can do something should it really mean you have to? Event prep is paramout and given we all spend a bunch of money doing events then its folly not to look closely at your bike.

The thing is that it should be expected that there is some basic level of assembly competence. If this is not to be the case then deliver the bike as a box of bits and I'll assemble it. I'll make a damn sight better job of it!!

There's no excuse for any manufacturer to assemble it's products poorly. Moreover, if consumers start accepting this situation then it will become the norm (as it already has in other areas of our throwaway society).

If dirt bike manufacturers (and none of the one's I've experienced are guilt free) can't be bothered to apply a half-decent coat of paint to a frame, or route electrics so they aren't sawn through by adjacent components, or smear a bit of grease about during assembly then how can we be sure that said manufacturer is building it's crankshafts straight, checking the quality of items from subcontractors properly and all the other whatnot that we take for granted.

The idea of buying a bike as a self-assembly kit might seem appealing to some, but it doesn't bear close analysis. It still relies on individual components and assemblies being manufactured properly. The wiring loom will still be made of cheese. The plating on the fasteners and bracketry will still evaporate after a week. The piston / bore clearance will still be out of spec. The factory has all the jigs and tooling to aid assembly. It doubtless has employees with the training and experience to do the job. It will also have quality control procedures and hardware to ensure that it's output is of the required standard. All we have to do as consumers / dealers / blog writers / forum goers etc. is let them know that they only have one chance to get it right. All those lawyers, dentists and retired cops scudding round on their Caprino Ossolano 1000RRR's wouldn't stand for having to perform a ground-up rebuild when they take delivery of their new bike. Nor would they put up with problems caused by poor design, development and manufacture.

I guess that some of us old-timers still think that modern dirtbikes will behave like the worn out two strokes that we hacked about on as kids - random seizures, cracked frames, parts falling off left and right. Not so. Remember also that a lot of the failures that we hear about aren't down to competition bikes being used and abused. A lot of these problem bikes have been obsessively maintained by caring owners who use them well within their performance envelopes. The new Yamaha R1's have a mean piston speed that gives me the shivers, but I know that I'd have to be very unlucky or very stupid to break one (I know several R1 pilots!). Modern roadbikes are also stuffed with state of the art materials, but we don't expect their major engine components to have lives rated in mere hours. Dirt bikes in comparison to high performance road bikes just tend to suffer from a lack of development, refinement and build quality, but when one bursts people use the excuse "It's a competition bike." Sorry, but that doesn't make it ok.

I'll step away from the soapbox now.

I have taken delivery of a MOLEX connector catalogue as I intend to rewire my 450 to something that is reasonably robust.
The funny thing is that in that catalogue there is an IP67 range of connectors. Husky do NOT use them.

As luck would have I went to a mates house to help him with setup on his new KTM 2012 KTM 250 XC-F. What do I find; the bike is covered in IP67 MOLEX connectors. So, no electrical problems for him then

I know that there are a load of people dead against the KTM (I'm not to keen on them myself) but the quality of their manufacture is obvious.

For info to those that are unaware (and sorry if I'm being obvious to those that do) the IP classification is a dust and water ingress rating. It is usually applied to electrical enclosures. In this case IP 67 indicates very good resistance to dust ingress and complete resistance to a directed spray - ie jet wash. The quality of the connectors is very high and this is indicated by use of a recognised specification for their connections.

Husky - not the people of the forum, we are the users and have to sort your shortcommings - do something about the quality of the manufacturing for bike we love to ride. It cant be that expensive to buy and use quality kit in the manufacturing process - especially with your supply chain.

Interesting point.
But working for a maker I can safely say- bikes are built as cheaply as possible. That's why Asian's don't grease bearings- it's an additional opperation and materials- every nickel saved add's up- literally. And, if these connectors were made water proof then the rest of the bike would need to follow suit (bearings, air filter et al). They hedge their comeback ratio bet's against the average user not using a pressure washer (says not to in most OM's) and the bike being used in a dry climate. Like here. IF the scoot don't get dunked/pressure washed/flooded there's rarely any connector issues. I look at all mine every season or more if it's a wet one. Yet to see a factory MC meter that don't wonk out when it gets wet.

Side note- was servicing my steering bearings this week on the 125- a roller fell out of the bottom one, race was pretty ugly too. I grease them twice a year. Cause near as I can figure was the seal puking on my aux tank on a 5 hour death march last year, hosing it down and me not catching it in time. Nice bearing too. I just popped the roller back in the cage, cleaned up the race w/ #600 and put it back together till new parts come in. No biggy- this stuff a consumeable like all bearings fluids and filters are to me. Husky puts some nice bits on their bikes as well, esp for what they charge for left-over units it's a steal...wheels, controls etc.

Asian wheels, hubs, bearigs clamps and controls are freakin' flimsy. Until recently they charged top dollar for MX bikes with cheesey carbon-steel bars!