Wrong tyres on Yamaha?

A Polish friend of mine has recently bought a new Yamaha 125. Last
week she had a bit of an accident, damaging her foot quite nastily but
the bike seemed ok.
She took the bike back to the shop she bought it from just to get it
checked over.

Anyway - the bike is ok but they told her that she had the wrong
tyres on it!! And they sold it like that.

Apparently they were synthetic and not rubber and didn't give much
grip. Being Polish she didn't feel that she was able to argue it too
well - but they never told her this when it was sold to her - and she
wouldn't have bought it with tyres that weren't appropriate.

Doesn't seem right that a bike could legally be sold like that.

Any suggestions what she should do?

Thanks
Frank

 

Tyres only really have to grip as much as the law (should there be one
in Poland) says they have to grip.

Buy new tyres. Or ask the shop how much the tyres should cost. Ask
Yamaha which tyres should be sold with her 125 in Poland, and compare
it to the tyres that she has.

 

She's not in Poland she's in London.

the point is that the shop sold her the bike knowing the tyres were
wrong but never told her

 

If the bike was new, out of the box, I would suggest contacting Yamaha
and asking which tyres should have been on there, and asking why she
had different ones.

When she bought the bike, was it sold 'as seen' without warranty?

Did she check that the tyres were okay before she rode off in the
morning?

If I was in her position, I would ask them to replace the tyres free
of charge. But that's just my point of view.

 

Suggestion #1 - wen answering, try to keep some of the post you are
replyinmg to in the message too or, after a while it gets very complicated.
Also post below the orginal text like wot I am doing and BGN did.
Suggestion #2 - Most, if not all, modern tyres are synthetic these days,
sothey'retrying techno-babble to confuse her/you
Suggestion #3 - Like Nick said you should check that the tyres were the
correct size/rating for the bike and are road-legal (if they're not they
will say 'Not for Road Use' or similar on the sidewall)
Suggestion #4 - Check with Yamaha uk to see what their opinion is of these
tyres being fitted to said bike (i.e. are they standard or have the bike
shop taken the standard tyres and slapped on a pair of £10 Cheng Shins to
sell off the OE fitments separately)
Suggestion #5 - Depending on the results of you investigations above,
consider a stiffly worded letter to the shop and a conversation with Trading
Standards and you freind's InsCos personal injury lawyers.

Dave

 

Are they? I was under the impression that whilst my current set of
Bridgestone's certainly have some extras in them, there is still a fair old
bit of some sort of rubber in there.

My understanding of synthetic is one's made of nylon - like you get on
bicycles (and 125 motorcycles).

 

According to the Dunlop guys who were running the Ultimate Biker thingy me
and Nidge were in, tyres don't contain 'rubber' anymore, they consist of
'synthetic rubber'. Of course it's all in semantics, innit, but even if it
looks, feels and smells like rubber it isn't 'cos it is made from oil and
loads of chemical processes.

So, like I said, I reckon the shop is stating this like it is some rare
phenomenon when, in fact, what we call 'rubber' is a synthetic compound,
just to sound superior and confuse the complainant.

Dave

 

wrote

Go see a brief and start adding up the money she is going to make when
she sues the bollox off them for selling her unsafe goods knowing they
was unsafe.

 

Tell her to **** off and stop trying to pin the blame for her
incompetence on others.

Either that, or tell her to find an ambulance chasing lawyer.

She's on a hiding to nothing. Lots of tyres use synthetic or
part-synthetic rubber. Some tyres are better than others. Some are
cheaper than others. Some grip better than others.....

Sheesh.

 

"I know I normally buy Michelin's, but as money is a bit tight this
month I'll just have whatever's cheapest. After all, they all have to
pass the same tyre gripping tests, don't they?" - Four days before
'RIP Vauxhall Vectra' in unfortunate lack of traction issue.

 

Almost certainly complete and utter bollocks.

 

Well that just proves there's some good in everything . . .

 

But from the way he described the return visit to the shop it is possible
that I would be very suss of their behaviour/comments with regard to the
tyres.....

The tyres in themselves may not be 'wrong' and she may have, as you so
eloquently put it, just fallen off through inexperience, but why would the
shop then start sucking through their teeth and muttering about 'wrong
tyres'? I'd expect them to say "Must've been inexperience, miss, as there's
nothing wrong with the bike we sold you. How's about we sort everything back
to standard for just £ridiculous - look you can even have the work done on
HP" or similar.....

There would seem to be something wrong with their attitude if nothing else.

Dave

 

Why do you say that when you don't know the story. A van pulled out of
a side road forcing her to lay the bike down. What would you do?

If you buy something you don't expect to be told later by the vendor
that you didn't buy the right thing in the first place. They're the
experts.

I asked on here as I thought there'd be a lot of information, knowledge
and hopefully some helpful answers - that's what these forums are for.

Tosser

 

Yes, I got a bike afterwards and have never looked back.

 

sorry - that last reply was intended for TOG@toil
chateau.murray@btinternet­.com

 

Yes, agree utterly. Sounds like a crap shop to me, too, but "the wrong
tyres" excuse, whoever it comes from is still almost certainly
bollocks.

I just get wound up when twonks prang through nobody's fault but their
own, and immediately start looking for someone else to blame.

 

I think we'd all kind of guessed that....

Now read the first line of my (first)reply again, eh?

Dave

 

I think Frank's getting wound up when people assume that she fell off on her
own accord and start blaming his friend.....

Dave

 

Not lay the bike down. Rubber's much more grippy than the sticky out
bits of bikes.

John