Too many gadgets in new vehicles?

Had a Triumph Bonneville 2018 model a few years back ......... the most up-to date bike I`vs owned so far .......... Even bought an OBD2 reader for it , just in case ......
The bike left me stranded a couple of months after buying it ..... ( 18 months old with 3500 miles on the clock ) ....... instrument lights flashing away , but no starter circuit .
ABS pump / splitter failure ...... All sorted eventually , still had the warranty in place thank goodness ........ Looking back just removing the ABS fuse might have got me going again ( maybe ) , but the pump would still have had to be replaced ........

Lost faith in it a bit after , and p/x -ed for another bike .... ( 1998 so pre-gizmo ) ......... Anyone want an OBD2 reader ? .............

One thing about the Triumph ( and all modern bikes and cars I suppose ) , is that the ECU once fitted to the bike has to " learn " to make it compatible with the vagaries and characteristics of your particular bike ......... running the bike for ten minutes at tick over does the trick apparently , and this routine can be repeated in any future fault finding exercise .......... Or something like that , don`t really care any more now .............


My go-to chip shop in Bristol is run by a guy who owns two Mercedes ......... ( Where did I go wrong , I sometimes think to myself ) ........

Both rag-tops , and whilst waiting for the pies to warm up , he tells me about the troubles he`s been having recently with the older ( 2009 ) car ........

Something about the car having two batteries , and it going into sleep mode if left for a few weeks ........ and then the top failing to open and close because of the four hydraulic pumps and battery which power it have gone AWOL ........

He goes onto YouTube and finds out to sort it himself ........ the local Mercedes Benz dealer estimated four grand to fix it ......... He managed to fix it by swopping a fuse and going through a re-set routine , so he reckons ...............

Then again , relating to the roof ....... there`s a routine to re-set things by running the engine for a few minutes , switching off ....... opening the windows , pressing a button on the dash ....... restarting the engine , closing the windows ......... and then counting to ten in German ..........

All this resets the roof operation ........... I may not have got the above quite correct , or in the right order , but you get the general idea ..............


With a 1960`s MG Midget , you just pull the top up by hand , and clip it into place .............


PS .......... Talking about safety aids and gadgets ......... Was at my local back street dealer not so long ago for an MOT test when a punter was about to leave on his Triumph Tiger 800 Sport .......... Clicks into gear and rides off with the side stand still down ..........

Shouts of " Whoa mate, Stop Stop " brings him to a halt , and he retracts the stand and sets safely off again ..........

I say to Stan ..... ( shop owner with forty years of experience , and the opinions to back it up ) ........ " I thought there should be a safety cut out switch to stop that happening ..... " ......... Stan replies " Yeah , but Triumphs are shit , aren`t they ? " ........

So now you know ......... :) ..............
 
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I started a new job a couple of weeks ago. Loaded up the Renault Master (RM) van and headed off, ready for my first day

RM came up with an engine fault on the dash, which turned to an injection error, which put RM into a limp mode, which turned into a STOP mode.

I had to abandon RM and Ubered to work. Our version of RAA arranged to have RM towed, until ……. “sorry sir, we can’t tow your vehicle because it’s no longer registered” 😳

I checked online and I’d been driving RM unregistered, unbeknownst to me, for two months 😳😡

Numerous phone calls later and RM got piggybacked on a private tilt tray to a French vehicle mechanic.

Seems RM’s diesel primer pump… thingy, needed replacing.

So now RM has been towed home and I have to go through the whole shebang of getting her registered, again. How I missed paying RM’s rego has me scratching my head.

Thankfully RM wasn’t involved in an accident, nor the ignorant driver fined, while she was running around in registrate undress.
 
The Manx system of reminders is pretty crap. It relies on the system being fault free, which it is anything but. If someone in the system forgets to update the system with your renewal details when you renew then the following year you don’t get sent a reminder and you don’t know that until after you have forgotten the renewal date and are late in renewing. How do I know that? As it just happened to me. Right PITA.
 
We used to have stickers with dates on them that you would apply to your vehicle.; that's not a thing now. Now you get the document a month before in the post. The stick that reminds you is the more that $1000 fine you get if you get caught after forgetting. That's the same fine if you get caught riding your historic regoed bike without a logbook entry on a non-club ride.
 
I write everything I need to remember on a sheet of A4 ............ medical appointments , things that should be arriving in the post , renewals of subscriptions bills and tariffs ............. and dates when each vehicle tax , insurance and mot test is due ...........

All I have to do is glance at that sheet of A4 every couple of days and everything`s fine ............
 
rocketonarail said:
I write everything I need to remember on a sheet of A4 ............ medical appointments , things that should be arriving in the post , renewals of subscriptions bills and tariffs ............. and dates when each vehicle tax , insurance and mot test is due ...........

All I have to do is glance at that sheet of A4 every couple of days and everything`s fine ............
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Because I work away from home and odd hours, about 5 years ago I set up a bills bank account. Suitable funds are automatically paid into the account from my main account weekly.

Bills like rates, electricity, insurance etc are automatically paid fortnightly (annual amount, plus a bit more devided by 26). Most are in credit by the time they are due, which is an added bonus, and I don’t have to bother about paying lump sums as the bills come in and I don’t have to rob Paul to pay Peter.

But ….. registrations come out in said lump sums, if there’s not enough $ in the bills account they are declined and an email comes telling me and I pay accordingly……. if I read them 🙄
 
chrisk said:
So now RM has been towed home and I have to go through the whole shebang of getting her registered, again. How I missed paying RM’s rego has me scratching my head.
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Not sure about New South, Chris, but in Vic you can keep your plates and get rego up-to-date by paying the outstanding for up to 3 months after it's expired. Rego is backdated to when you should have paid it.
 
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