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Key or Fob?

Do you like a key or a fob better?

  • Key

    Votes: 33 78.6%
  • Fob

    Votes: 9 21.4%

  • Total voters
    42
I would like some type of fob on the scooter. Making deliveries, I remove the key at maybe 50% of the stops. It is just another step that gets old after a while.
 
Key.

This whole keyless thing, car and bike, is a solution in search of a problem. Why carry a fob in your pocket that is bigger than the key?

The only solution that really makes sense to me, if you want to move away from a key, is the "credit card" key with a proximity sensor carried in your wallet.

Fobs are needless bulk.
 
Another small PITA with the keyless system, at least on a Ducati MTS, is that unlike BMW, the luggage is only locked when closed. You cannot latch it closed without it also being locked.

Have to dig out the fob every time you need to open the side cases/top box. Small point, but a dumb, poorly thought out design.

None of my current bikes have a fob. When I take the key out, it gets clipped to an S-Biner that lives on my jacket. No muss, no fuss.



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2004 KTM 400 EXC never had a key, and I never thought twice about it.

While I am sure it is perception, I think there is more to go wrong with a FOB.
 
My wife's Xmax has the keyless fob - love it! She wasn't sold on it at first, but quickly learned the advantages; just put the key in your pocket, and you have access to all the things you'd normally need a key for: starting the bike, getting under the seat, opening the fuel filler door. You never have to mess with the key during your ride. I find it VERY handy.

I wish my Vespa (has a fob, but only opens the seat) and motorcycle had keyless.
 
I like the simplicity of a key and the fact that there is no question where it is. My wife and I do this routine where we drive to the store together, I let her out, and she walks off with the fob in her purse.
One of our cars just lets it happen, the other starts chirping at us and she has to come back, dig the key out of her purse, coat, shoe, bonnet, or where ever its currently hidden and hand it to me, while we're blocking traffic.

When my cars are in the garage, I tend to leave the key or fob in them. With the fob vehicles, sometimes it was in my pocket, and it went into the house with me by accident, so next day, shit, no fob as I'm trying to leave for work.

I'm in the "solution to a problem that doesn't exist, or more like creates a new problem that never existed" camp.
 
Bike fob is handy. I leave it in the dash compartment or handlebar bag. The car fob is great and smaller than the door remote/key combo I’d carried for years. If you had to have a key, the older Lexus keys were pretty slick with small buttons right on the key.
 
The only solution that really makes sense to me, if you want to move away from a key, is the "credit card" key with a proximity sensor carried in your wallet.
Mazda had a credit card size/shaped fob for the RX8 IIRC.
I wonder why that didn't continue.
 
I don't know what will happen when the bike is 10 years old, for now I prefer the fob. Never have to take the gloves off because I forgot to put the key in the ignition before putting them on. Never break the key in the ignition. Never forget to remove the key from the bike when I park it. The key just sits in the pocket of my jacket and it all works without issues.
 
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When a FOB is lost does the bike still need to go to the dealer to program a new one?

Does a FOB still need a battery every year? I have metal keys that are decades old and still work fine.

Are there still problems with thieves hacking the so called keyless systems? And for semantics, isn't the FOB really an electronic key?

Can suckers that use a FOB buy a generic on Amazon or EBAY?

For the slow witted that last question might give you a clue as to how I feel about them. And I have owned bikes with the electronic keys. Fortunately I got rid of them.
 
When a FOB is lost does the bike still need to go to the dealer to program a new one?

Does a FOB still need a battery every year? I have metal keys that are decades old and still work fine.

Are there still problems with thieves hacking the so called keyless systems? And for semantics, isn't the FOB really an electronic key?

Can suckers that use a FOB buy a generic on Amazon or EBAY?

For the slow witted that last question might give you a clue as to how I feel about them. And I have owned bikes with the electronic keys. Fortunately I got rid of them.

Doesn't matter because anymore even the keys have the exact type of RFID chips in them, and if you don't get them programmed (yes at the dealer) the key won't work anyway.....and there are failures that make the ECU loose the key encoding so you have to start over.

So the key is just an added step to starting the bike. That is if you want to ride bikes made after 2005 or so.
 
The fob on my Kymco AK550 is, admittedly, smaller than a bread basket but way too big for a pants pocket so it resides on a clip hanging off a belt loop.
Actually, this one is a replacement €1,000 replacement for the original I lost.

Oh, I'd prefer a key or, at least, a sensible fob.
 
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