WARNING about Tracetec

I picked this one up from the Cape Town club forum and it is a possible bad pitfall if your Tracetec is older than 3 years.

Tracetec - A new pitfall to beware of
Submitted by Millroy on 17 September 2009 - 11:18am.

I have just upgraded my Rt and asked for my Tracetec unit to be moved to the new bike. Tracetec have advised me that it cannot be moved as the warranty on the unit is only three years and I must buy a new one.

When I asked Margeret Williams at Tracetec what would have happened if I did not upgrade and my old bike was stolen. She confirmed that I might not have been covered and the insurance might not have paid out. We all know that insurance companies always give the client the benefit of the doubt. How is that for peace of mind ?

She claims that they have been sending out SMS messages every month but I never got one. Did you?

Please check the date your Tracetec was fitted and if three years have passed, get a new one fitted (R 449.00). Nobody is going to remind you.

Something that i will definitely take up with Bavaria as my insurance is through Bavaria and their insurance brokers - have another year to go - nevertheless - would rather not wait till then.

I think it has a lot to do with the battery life. I also have just had this debate. I took the unit out of my Sprint and fitted it to my Tiger and then wanted them to note the new vehicle details and they had a hissy fit. Told me that I should have left the old unit in the old bike and bought a new one for R 449.00. I also have one year to go and then will replace it. To their credit when my son moved his unit from his bike to his car and it was found to be broken they replaced it free of charge under the three year warranty. The battery life on these units is about 36 months and because it is a sealed unit they cannot replace the battery so the whole unit is replaced. I was in the tracking game for three years and must admit I would not like to be the admin manager trying to keep track of what unit is fitted where.

This seems to be a great business to be in. You get monthly payments from clients and every third year you sell another unit to them.

Money for jam

My experience with Tracetec:

When I bought my first RT in 2006 at East London a unit was fitted - I believe. I paid my dues every month.

When I traded it in on the newer model I asked Bavarian to transplant the Tracetec to the new bike. They couldn't find it! It must've got lost.

But Tracetec never let me know that...(my bike is now parked permanently on the side of a road)? And I kept on paying not knowing.

The new bike has a Tracetec unit too. About 4 months ago I received an SMS stating that the signal is poor and I have to have it checked. Bavarian did it at the last service and replaced the unit F.O.C.

More and more it sounds like a lekker scam - at the least they should have informed the user when his unit was lost - one should actually claim that part back from them.