I have zero interest in being 'fair' to them, too often the user is used as the beta tester and ends up massively out of pocket and/or goes through a miserable warranty battle. Product should be fit for purpose. Completion (top trumps) between manufactures is producing high performance (on paper) but flakey products.
There is / was a good article from Seton on youtube in which he covered the so called issues on the early bikes. Yes sure there was some failures but no more than on other bikes and also could be linked to other work done . The real bad press came from some bloke spouting off in America saying blah blah blah.
I'm not sure that the theory in that video was ever deemed conclusive. They were still having issues on the 16 onwards bikes with the crankshaft thrust bearing installed. There were other theories about aggressive flipper maps causing the engines to over speed on downshifts, there's been allegations that the crankcases are flexing. I don't think anyone apart from Yamaha really know what the cause was. The crankshafts were changed in 2016 as well. What I found strange on my bike was that the main bearings were worn on the outer edges and if you look at the width of the 2020 onwards mains, you'll see that they're wider than the earlier bearings. Very strange for a plain bearing like that to wear on the outer edges. I've heard that it's possible to install the new wider bearings on the earlier engines. I believe that if they're refreshed within a proper time frame they're as reliable as anything else.
TBH I wouldn't believe ANYTHING Seton put out... maybe a little harsh but they are generally known for being rather stretching with their truth.... yesterday they were posting a R1 apparently in stock cam form making 217HP on the dyno with their 'super Evo+100%4million Gen 92' mapping... I love R1's but there is NO WAY they can make 217hp, PCR etc are regularly posting more like 195-199hp mapped, which is about right because the R1 is about 10hp down on S1000rr's. The two moments I decided they are full of crap, was A) when I saw that on his test bike he's got stuck on Aero wings, sorry but that's a red flag, and B) He posted a whole video from spain of the 'brake testing' he was doing, and you could clearly see in the vids that the master cylinder to resevoir brake hose was bent back so that it had crimped, which is just sloppy.. I know they don't seem big things but it's a combination of a lot of little 'oddities' that people discuss.
Same in Porsche world. Over 250k 996 model made, a few (mostly 2000-2005 as they changed the bearing from the early ones to save money…) had ims bearing failure which causes catastrophic engine failure, apparently. Listening to Hartech, you’d think 20% plus have it and every car will failed eventually. Of course, they make most of their money rebuilding 911 engines, many as pre-emotive measures in case the IMs goes bang….. a guy on in a FB group before Xmas spent 6k on having his IMS changed, it’s needs engine out and you may as well do clutch while there. Nothing was broken, just ‘for peace of mind’ Mental
I recall this from my porka ownship....Had owners buying extended warranties in their droves...Conspiracy...hmmm? If you were VERY lucky porsche would offer a part goodwill payment toward your £10k engine....W@nkers!
Interesting, and everyone has an opinion and having been burned big time by a different certain OW01 ' specialist ' i'm always open to other peoples opinions and thoughts.
I have a mate who does a bit of work with mcams engine builder, and he reckons seton Dyno is miles out
Valid point, consumer shouldn't be left exposed to under developed products and anything that comes to market should be fit for purpose. I've no exposure to new bikes so I don't know the scale of the problem to be fair. I guess I was more just reflecting on how much performance is currently available, I'm pretty amazed by it.
This is the general view yeah, the absolutely stupid thing is that it's just not a big enough world to get away with it for too long.. The only customer that would then choose to go there, is the one who ONLY cares about a dyno print out with a number, maybe there are more of those tw*ts out there than I thought.
