Deanna sent a message to Takuya Nakata President and Representative Director, Yamaha Corporation that said:
My Mother always taught me you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar so I'm going to start out sweet. Deanna, mother of 2 beautiful boys 17 and 20. My husband and I spent our savings 2000.00, on a 2002 yamaha vstar 650A. 7 weeks into a fun filled riding summer in Cincinnati Ohio, our final drive failed causing us to loose control of the gears on the bike. This is the first time in my 37 years I have ever been on a motorcycle due to all the scary stories you here. But our marriage needed something.....so we bought a bike. Thanks to the great WORLD WIDE WEB I have discovered that you mr Tak are responsible for thousands of near fatal accidents involving specifically your VSTAR650 final drive spline failure. Owners manual does not specify regularly scheduled maintenance on the drive. Also you do not offer to sell the pinion gear separate to at least make this a semi affordable repair to your consumers. Instead you sell every other component of the gear case assembly except for the one yamaha claims "was designed to fail for safety reasons" not disclosed by yamaha but I'm assuming so back tire still rolls and doesn't lock up going 70 in fifth gear on a 5 lane highway as your surrounded by semis. My question to you before I take further action is? What are you, as President of Yamaha going to do not only to keep my family safe but 100s of thousands worldwide regarding your gear case assembly
