[Seeker]

Putting Up With S***.

I remember, back in the day, when you bought any electrical appliance you had to buy a plug and fit it yourself. I think an electrical device fitted with a plug finally began to appear in the 80s despite BS1363 (square pin plug/socket) being introduced in 1947. I put it down to the British problem of PUWS. After living in the US for a while, I had my PUWS partially removed.

I bought some Yamaha-Gilles rearsets for the XSR. As previously stated, I'm a cynical and I expect things to go awry. Knowing this, I asked Yamaha Customer service in advance if they would fit the 2022 model. They said to contact a dealer (in fact I think this is their answer to everything). I contacted Padgetts of Batley and was told they would fit. So I paid my £270.

There's a problem. Yamaha changed the brakelight switch bracket sometime between 2019 and 2022, the new bracket holds the switch 10mm further away from the pedal, so the Y-Gilles spring supplied is too short.

I contacted Yamaha C/S. who told me: contact dealer (of course they did). I contacted Gilles and Padgetts.- Padgetts didn't know about the issue and by this time I could quote part numbers (with pictures), prices and locations of said parts - they said they'd ask Yamaha (good luck with that, I told them).

Meanwhile the UK Gilles agent contacted me for more information but explained that Gilles make their own rearsets for the XSR (upto 2021 models only) but the Yamaha-Gilles rearsets are unique to Yamaha and he has no information on them. Aargh!

I spent a while tracking down a longer spring (several hours later: the Honda Monkey bike spring is 75mm long which would probably fit). Then I bumped into my resistance to PUWS.

Why am I spending this time and effort on a problem which is plainly Yamaha's? So, unless Yamaha (suprisingly) take ownership of their problem I'm planning on returning the rearsets and getting a refund for the sake of a £2 spring.

Rant over.