Page 14 - RidingOn156 SPRING 2022

IS SMALL BATCH

MANUFACTURING

THE IDEAL?

craftsmen hand-forging the parts. So BMW
stamps them out in a giant factory. I’m not
suggesting for a moment that BMW would
use inferior parts just because they need a lot
of them, but those parts would be made to a
price because the entire bike needs to be made
to a price.

Inevitably, some buyers out there will want,
It’s well made, it fits perfectly, and it works. All you need to do say, an engine protection – “bash” - plate that isn’t made to a
is pay for it.
price, but to a quality standard – a higher one. Once again, I’m
There is nothing wrong, as such, with products made in China. certainly not saying that BMW makes poor products that don’t
But you do need to keep your eyes on the process, and the meet its own standards, but you can always make something
input. Some years ago I was sitting next to David Robb, BMW better.
Motorrad’s Chief Designer from 1993 to 2012. During the course The trouble is that nowhere near all of the 51,000 bike buyers
of the evening’s conversation, I asked him how BMW could – I will want that better bash plate. There might be 500 who want
believe I used the words “get away with” – having engines built one and are prepared to pay for it. Inevitably, the plate will be
in China.
relatively expensive: partly because a part made in a production
“It’s simple,” he replied in more or less these words: “You run of 500 will cost more than one made 51,000 times. You
check. You check the incoming material, you watch the build can’t even use the same process. Wunderlich, for example,
and you check the final product. We have German engineers in the German firm that makes “proper components (Anständige
the Loncin factory doing that every day.” Komponenten) to complete your BMW”, uses hydroforming to
make its high-quality bash plates after a CAD process.
I can back him up; I had a BMW G 650 XCountry for a while
and rode it halfway around Australia. Its Loncin-built engine What it amounts to is that Wunderlich’s products are designed
looked good and never missed a beat. using the latest technology and then made by craftsmen in
small batches. If you have the appropriate technology, this is
Neither is there anything wrong, as such, with mass probably the best way to make anything mechanical. You get
manufacturing. We can all vouch for that because the vast bulk personal, skilled attention for each part, and the advantage
of the things we use every day – like the computer on which of experience with it. Wunderlich has the technology, and the
I’m typing this - are mass-produced. Large-scale manufacturing craftsmen to apply it.
makes sense for almost all of these things… but not quite all.
Even if we aren’t always prepared to pay for it, let’s be grateful
In 2018, BMW Motorrad made more than 51,000 of the R that small batch manufacturing makes quality products
1200/1250 GS and GS Adventure range, its best-sellers. That’s available.
small potatoes when you compare it to, say, the VW Golf with
production around a million annually, but still. You can’t have Peter “The Bear” Thoeming #675

NEW IN THE SHOPS

Okay, none of these things are available in any bricks-and-mortar shops, but that’s all right these days because the interwebs is as
good a shop as any. Better, in some ways, although very much worse in others. The main “worse” way for me is that it’s so easy to
order stuff. But enough of stuff, and let’s get onto the delightful news I have for you.

RIDING ON 14