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Would an equivalent bike with the extra features cost the same or more? Am curious if turning off the features makes it less expensive to get started with a bas

Would an equivalent bike with the extra features cost the same or more? Am curious if turning off the features makes it less expensive to get started with a basic bike.

digdugdirk 4y ago
It would cost the exact same. The majority of these features require hardware aspects (the quickshifter needs to interact with throttle/fuel/ignition, traction control systems require sensors to monitor wheelslip and engine conditions) that come installed from the factory. The subscription service just turns the features on/off. To make a computer analogy - imagine if the every MacBook in the lineup was shipped with 32gb of ram soldered in as standard, and then Apple disabled 28gb of that via software. Sure, they could sell you the "flexibility" to upgrade at any time (maybe even on an hourly basis in case you need some extra oomph to finish up your compiling!) but we'd all know that the reality is they're holding the product that you already purchased hostage in exchange for a recurring source of revenue.
- pedrocr 4y ago
  That computer analogy is exactly how IBM runs their mainframe hardware. Over-provision the hardware and then unlock it as you pay up. It's a delivery model that didn't use to make sense in consumer devices because the manufacturer would have to pay for all the hardware even if they weren't selling the feature. It seems lately it has become profitable to do it. I guess it means you have to deal with less SKUs and thus saves enough money in manufacturing to compensate for the extra parts/complexity. Probably because a lot of the complexity has moved to software so the hardware is the same anyway.
  - teddyh 4y ago
    “CAUTION. Do not remove the wire from pin 4AB to 7FL in the CPU enclosure. This wire is located approximately 7 inches up from the bottom of the backplane in bay 2 and should not be removed by using a GE 112-3 wire unwrapping tool, first not removing the wrapping from 4AB, then pulling the wire from under the other wiring to its bound end at 7FL, followed by not unwrapping the bound end from 7FL. Not removing this wire will result in the normal clockspeed which is 1.6 times slower than with the wire removed and will not cause corresponding increases in system throughput.” — https://www.cs.earlham.edu/~skylar/humor/Unix/computer.folklore.from.net.rumors.html https://www.cs.earlham.edu/~skylar/humor/Unix/computer.folkl...
- taylodl 4y ago
  You realize IBM does exactly this and has been doing it for decades? You call them up and request more memory and/or CPU and presto bingo! It's enabled.

Would an equivalent bike with the extra features cost the same or more? Am curious if turning off the features makes it less expensive to get started with a basic bike.

digdugdirk 4y ago

It would cost the exact same. The majority of these features require hardware aspects (the quickshifter needs to interact with throttle/fuel/ignition, traction control systems require sensors to monitor wheelslip and engine conditions) that come installed from the factory. The subscription service just turns the features on/off. To make a computer analogy - imagine if the every MacBook in the lineup was shipped with 32gb of ram soldered in as standard, and then Apple disabled 28gb of that via software. Sure, they could sell you the "flexibility" to upgrade at any time (maybe even on an hourly basis in case you need some extra oomph to finish up your compiling!) but we'd all know that the reality is they're holding the product that you already purchased hostage in exchange for a recurring source of revenue.

pedrocr 4y ago
That computer analogy is exactly how IBM runs their mainframe hardware. Over-provision the hardware and then unlock it as you pay up. It's a delivery model that didn't use to make sense in consumer devices because the manufacturer would have to pay for all the hardware even if they weren't selling the feature. It seems lately it has become profitable to do it. I guess it means you have to deal with less SKUs and thus saves enough money in manufacturing to compensate for the extra parts/complexity. Probably because a lot of the complexity has moved to software so the hardware is the same anyway.
- teddyh 4y ago
  “CAUTION. Do not remove the wire from pin 4AB to 7FL in the CPU enclosure. This wire is located approximately 7 inches up from the bottom of the backplane in bay 2 and should not be removed by using a GE 112-3 wire unwrapping tool, first not removing the wrapping from 4AB, then pulling the wire from under the other wiring to its bound end at 7FL, followed by not unwrapping the bound end from 7FL. Not removing this wire will result in the normal clockspeed which is 1.6 times slower than with the wire removed and will not cause corresponding increases in system throughput.” — https://www.cs.earlham.edu/~skylar/humor/Unix/computer.folklore.from.net.rumors.html https://www.cs.earlham.edu/~skylar/humor/Unix/computer.folkl...
taylodl 4y ago
You realize IBM does exactly this and has been doing it for decades? You call them up and request more memory and/or CPU and presto bingo! It's enabled.