From: "CDA BITUBO" <bitubo@bitubo.com>
To: <remus11gs@hotmail.com>
Subject: Problems with Bitubo shocks
Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 14:12:59 0100
Dear Mr. Remus,
first of all, we must apologize for a delay in getting in touch with you
after Mr. Wagner had forwarded your letter of complaint to us last
month.
You know that in Italy most companies are closed for summer holidays,
and so were we.
We are very sorry about how you feel because of what happened during
your trip to South America. It was not easy for us to understand why you were
facing all these problems with the shock absorbers, and we thought that
by replacing the 'faulty' shocks the problems would be solved. But, it
seems you had problems with the replaced shocks too, am I right?
So, after having analysed the case (from the correspondence with Max
Moto and then from the shocks returned to us for inspection), we came to a
conclusion that the problems were not caused by faulty shocks but by a
different use, i.e. extreme riding conditions.
We know that about 90% of the BMW 1150 GS riders ride their bikes on the
road and only occasionaly go for an off road ride and we can assure you
that we have never ever had such claims before. The performance of the
BITUBO shocks is definitely higher than that of the original shocks and
they are especially made to give more comfort for the road use. However,
they are not meant to be used exclusively off-road and definitely not in
the extreme road conditions as you described them.
We inspected the shocks that Max Moto sent back to us and here are the
results:
the rear shock with the broken shaft: on the lower fork attachment of
the
shock the marks of the screw and the bushing can be clearly seen, the
marks
they left because they were not fixed (so they went up and down) - see
the
two photos attached. We suppose that the lower fixing screw of the shock
(the one fixing the shock to the bike) broke or loosened which caused
the breaking of the shaft. As this is definitely not a fault caused by us
but is the responsibility of the person who fitted the shock to the bike,
normally this kind of repair would not be accepted as warranty case and
we should charge the costs of transport as well as of the repair. But, in
your case in particular, as the circumstances were not clear from the very
beginning and we thought there was some kind of misunderstanding, we
decided to accept them as warranty repairs.
the second rear shock which came back to us is another proof of the
extreme use of the shock absorbers: the oil leakage and the rubber
stroke end pads on the body of the shock were melted (we have never seen such a
thing before!!!), as well as the paint on the spring near the hydrauic
preload tank. These are very clear signs that the shock was much overheated
because such things can happen only in extreme conditions when the shocks
remain for a long time at the temperature over 100 °C.
as for the front shock, we didn't discover any faults. It was tested
on the Damper Test Machine and it resulted in accordance with our technical
documentation.
We are sorry if it was due to a lack of information from the side of the
dealer or ourselves that you purchased the shocks you thought were meant
exclusively for the off-road use in extreme conditions. We never said
they were and we did not know they were meant for someone who was going on
such a trip.
*However, right now, as we cannot go back (unfortunatley), the only thing
we can do is to send you back your shocks we overhauled and repaired in
warranty.
We remain awaiting your communication on the matter and are at your
disposal for any further information or explanation. Pls. do not
hesitate
to contact us!
Best regards,
Ivana Berkovic
CDA BITUBO snc
www.bitubo.com
bitubo@bitubo.com
http://www.bitubo.com/html/home_en.html
tel: 39.049.9903475
fax: 39.049.9903447
