Sinnis announces seven-year warranty

Long-term warranties are commonplace in the four-wheeled world. Bodywork guarantees up to 10 or even 12 years are commonplace, and firms like Kia offer full seven-year/100,000mile guarantees that cover the whole car.

But the bike world has been much less generous – until now. Chinese bike maker Sinnis has announced a new seven-year parts warranty on its bikes, which it claims to be a UK first. The eye-catching deal is part of an overall package, which gives a one-year labour warranty and oneyear breakdown cover on new bikes and aims to provide added confidence in the build quality and reliability of the brand. Launched on March 1, 2023, it applies to all Euro 5 Sinnis models sold through official dealerships.

BDN spoke to Sinnis brand manager Drew Irvine about the new warranty and asked him how it would work. “Since Sinnis was established more than 15 years ago, we have consistently worked to develop the quality of our products, working with our manufacturing partners to elevate towards European and Japanese quality levels while maintaining affordable pricing. The seven-year warranty is our latest commitment to that quality assurance and development. We believe that our products will continue to rival the quality levels of our much larger competitors, and we want to stand by this for the long term.

“It wasn’t something that was being asked for; however, we have received a lot of feedback from our dealers and customers that they are highly impressed with the quality and longevity they have seen with Sinnis products, especially compared to our competitors. Rather than stall on this progress, we wanted to reward the commitment shown in supporting our development over the last 15 years by committing to providing support for the longer term to our dealers and customers.”

Has the initiative come from the UK operation, or has it been driven by the factory? “This is a UK initiative in which we have had extensive talks with our manufacturing partners. We’ve worked to forecast our current platforms’ lifespan and model year updates to ensure that we have strong future cross-compatibility and hold the right amount of parts stock”.

Irvine also clarified that the warranty could transfer to new owners of a bike, provided servicing is kept up to date and paperwork retained. The seven-year warranty has extensive terms and conditions, with some exclusions from cover. Some are obvious, normal wear and tear, damage caused by poor servicing or abuse and aftermarket modifications using non-approved Sinnis parts. Consumable parts like clutch, brake pads, chain and sprockets and other ‘service’ parts are also excluded.

There are also some surprising exemptions, from seat foam and seat covers, wheel bearings, bushing and suspension parts being covered by a ‘limited’ warranty, where Sinnis might judge the ‘normal useful life’ has expired.

Small print aside, the seven-year parts guarantee looks like a great initiative from Sinnis and should have some far larger firms looking to their laurels. More info: www.sinnismotorcycles.com

Short Cuts

DANE CLOTHING

DANISH BRAND DANE

Clothing is returning to the UK after signing up to a new deal with DOT 4 Distribution. The kit firm, set up in Denmark in 1995, claims to be one of the first to use Gore-Tex breathable waterproof membranes in a motorcycle riding product, starting out with a bespoke textile suit for the Danish market. It went on to help develop other bike kit innovations, including waterproof vent zips, stretch materials and special storm cuff designs. The brand is now Dutch-owned, and centres on high-end performance products such as the £1130 Nimbus 2 jacket. More information at: www.dot4distribution.com

PIAGGIO

THE PIAGGIO GROUP HAS APPOINTED THE Completely Motoring Group (CMG) to represent the Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Piaggio and Vespa brands across South Wales. Thunder Road Motorcycles, based in Bridgend and purchased by CMG in late 2022, will have stock and demo bikes available this month. www.completelymotorbikes.co.uk/ thunder-road-motorcycles

PYRAMID PLASTICS

BRITISH BODYWORK maker Pyramid Plastics is branching out, and has taken on two new product lines, covering oil and bolton parts. The oil offering comes from the new British brand Syntol Lubricants, and covers the full Syntol range of lubes and oils. Pyramid has also taken on the American MachineartMoto range, which specialises in plastic add-ons for BMW bikes, including mudguard extenders and engine protectors. www.pyramid-plastics.co.uk