Scientific proof (well, sort of...) as to who are the best/worst bike makers

[black-k1]

Whilst a VERY limited sample, I though the results were interesting ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GAUo8eUXeU

[richtea]

Excellent!
BMW not too bad either.

[TomL]

It never entered my mind that the first oil change would be to clean the dirt out from a dirty engine build. I always thought that it was to clear out the muck from the engine bedding in.

[Swindon Andy]

Me too. The first oil out of my lawnmower looked like suspended glitter.

[armstrongracer]

Worked for one of the manufacturers included in the video and have built racing engines in the past.  If you could trust garages and punters to stick to the running in rules a manufacturer would probably run a high detergent mineral oil in the first fill. Its what I did on racing engines after a full re-build. It got dumped fairly quickly and replaced with full synth. Produced more power that way too, synthetic isn't very good for bedding a motor in. First oil and filter change on a new bike is really critical for long life, as is proper running in.

[Phmode]

With reports from two owners of brand new Honda CRF250L Rallys of atrocious handling on a) the 160 mile ride home from the selling dealer and b) to the gas station across the street from the selling dealer, I was intrigued. Then they told me that bike 'a' had no (an in zero) air in the tyres other than normal atmospheric and bike 'b' was about 4 psi.

An even smaller sample of bikes but sheesh, US dealers, come on.

If that's what manufacturers do with things that could kill you on the forecourt, what do they care about something you may never see?

[armstrongracer]

They care about warranty claims cos it hits them in the wallet. Having said that KTM must have very fat wallets or a brass neck and just ignore issues.

[Matt]

I've been looking forward to that video since it plopped, and was not disappointed!

Attaching the same tiny sample size caveat as in the video, the following are my thoughts:
Japan turned up and copied British bikes, then surpassed. I thought China would do that, and I expect eventually they will, but then bam, India jumped in. Or rather Royal Enfield did.

I did also wonder if Royal Enfields all being low stress low output engines helps. Bit of blutac in there? Never mind! But the rest have many bikes so we don't know. The BMW could have been a scumbag 800cc, or a lovely boxer :p. I suppose stats say it's more likely to be a GS ey.

Harley was as I expected. I assume that being recent it's a sample from their "hey we just realised how to make bikes!" new lineup.

Anyway I'm not buying a ducati. Unless it's reaaaally old.