Rear Suspension Failure

[Waders]

Just bought a mint condition 06 speed tripple, been waiting quite a while to get one. Unfortunatly, took it out for the first ride and bottom suspension arm disintegrated . I am not a small bloke about 108 Kg (238 lb) but it should never have broken. Luckliy i was only doing about 25 mph over some speed control humps when it failed. Fortunatly, bike is still under warrenty so dealer is repairing.

Have found out that Triumph have had this link failed before and Hinkley have stated to me personally that the link is tested to well over 250 kg. As such, Hinkley have call for all of the rear suspension parts to be returned to them for testing.

Q. Has any body experianced this problem or heard of this problem?

[ruscook]

Not on a speed triple I haven't. And I did 40000km in 13 months on my 07 with no problems.

It did happen on my 05/06 Sprint. Lucky me was one of the first in the world, 3 1/2 months later they did a worldwide recall.

The suspension is slightly different between the Sprint and Speedy so I wouldn't have expected this.

Good luck with your repair, and glad you weren't hurt.
Russ

[jaket]

holy smoke! that lowest arm is metal(steel), how can that fail.? it looks very stong compared to other bikes, bikes like 636 has aluminium dog bones and even those can handle rear suspension usage.

[Waders]

Responce to Jaket: Link not steel on mine, Aluminium casting. Bottom section looks to thin around bearing race. See attached photo of busted link.

Bike still in dealers, hoping to get it back this week. Will keep you updated of Triumphs official responce.

[NinjaRAT]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there a recall on the '07 S3s for something like this? I recall bringing mine in on a recall notice, but then again, it might have been the bolt that passes through the lower dogbone and the shock.

[jaket]

yes, the other link(lowest) in the pic is steel. the one that broke is aluminium.

I have to check mine.

EDIT: jep, my link looked fine, the loop is maybe ~4mm thick, also the part is cast aluminium and the seam of the cast is in the middle, actually at the point where that link broke. you can see the seam also in the upper edge of the link.

all the bikes weight comes over that link basicly, and because swing arm is long the forces are even greater than at the wheel axl.

JT

[Waders]

Just got bike back from dealers. Must say they have done a fantastic job in repairing bike. Replaced every single part that was damaged including rear tyre. No hassle from them. Performance Triumph in Cheltenham, Glos, England.

Also checked out the 08 bike whilst i was there, the bottom link seems much beefer on them. I wonder why. Still waiting for official responce from triumph as to reason for failure. Will let you know outcome.

[TRISPEED]

Thanks for the info. Please keep us informed. Glad to hear your dealer took good care of you and you were not hurt.

[SafetyHelmet]

Yikes. Did they replace it with an identical aluminum piece, or was it beefed up / a different material?

[S3Junkie]

Official Reason from Triumph: "Sir, would you kindly lose weight."