Seized!!

[RedMick]

Riding around in Northumberland yesterday, when I heard a thump from the back of the bike, I thought it was a stone or something, but the bike suddenly lost power before handling got difficult.
When I stopped, I struggled to back it onto the centre stand, then realised that I couldn't turn the back wheel
The engine ran OK, the chain wasn't tight, the small amount of rotation available seemed to be in the cush drive, brakes OK.

Call out the RAC, he diagnosed what I thought, seized rear wheel bearings. The thought that this could have happened at the speeds earlier was very sobering let me tell you, remember Bob Dylan?

Trailered the bike home last night, the dealer says he can't even get it into his workshop to store, let alone look at before Monday.

What I thought I'd do is get DAS breakdown to come to mine and diagnose it on the Homestart deal, then, hopefully they'll ship it to the Triumph dealer. This, if diagnosed correctly, should be a warranty job, as it's not yet one year old, even with 10,500 miles on the clock.

Not a happy bunny right now, although thanking St. Christopher for the timing of the breakdown

[Beach]

Good to hear it was a low speed incident and you're ok and the bike stayed upright.

I know one unfortunate bloke that had his rear wheel bearings seize twice on his 2001 ST. Both times his girl was with him. The first occasion they were hooking through a sweeping left hander and it gave no warning. They were both injured, but recovered ok. The bike was repaired under warranty. The second time was a few months later, at low speed going straight so no damage, but very disconcerting.

My dealer makes a point of greasing the rear wheel bearings at every service. They also get in there as part of the pre delivery as the factory has a tendency to be light on the lubrication.

I've heard of a few 99 - 04 ST's that have had rear wheel bearing seize, but this is the first of the current series.

I'm paranoid now. Maybe I'll do it myself when I get home today...

Brett.

[Stlakid]

I think your dealer isn't being quite truthful with you. Now I understand that I have a DSSA and yours is a SSSA, but I just had both my wheels apart to have them powder coated and I can tell you for certain Triumph wheel bearings are 'Sealed bearings' in every location on both wheels on my bike. I did change all of they anyway! :wink:

[Beach]

mmmmm......thats an interesting observation.

I will have to investigate that one further.

[BigVinny]

Seem like this is another one of Triumph's recall issues:

http://www.sprint-st.org/recalls.html

and

http://injury.findlaw.com/defective-...0/pr66-02.html

The issue seems to be about bearing manufacturer not state of lubrication and is supposed to affect only about 1500 or so bikes produced between 2001-2002 from VIN numbers 132693 - 161257.

I checked on this as most of my riding is done on a Motorway (Freeway).

It is therefore a big surprise to hear about this happening on a 2005/6 model !!!!

[Stlakid]

The issue seems to be about bearing manufacturer not state of lubrication and is supposed to affect only about 1500 or so bikes produced between 2001-2002 from VIN numbers 132693 - 161257.

Hmmm, I'm pretty sure mine fall in that range too. I had one bearing that needed changing in the rear hub assembly. I found a place that has bearings VERY reasonably priced (read CHEAP actually) so I just replaced them all. You can't get them out without beating the hell out of them anyway as access is tight. Going in is easy. My bearings were from all over the world too One from Germany two from France, and the other two were either from the US or GB. I suspect the French stuff! :lgh:

Joined so I could specifically reply to RedMick. Sorry to hear of your incident but it just struck a bit of a chord.

Five or six weeks ago I picked up a new 06 Sprint ST here in the UK and had been confidently lobbing it around ever since.

However, two days ago I was turning right on a roundabout coming out of my estate, only doing about 10mph or so when the back wheel seemed to suddenly freeze. This ended with the bike on its side and a totally knackered fairing (plus an 8-inch chunk missing from the side of the back wheel).

The main difference between my case and yours is that once upright I was able to roll the bike back home again, no locked back wheel.

I am not a new rider, but am quite happy to admit when I have been an idiot, but for the life of me I cannot think of what I could have done to cause it.

What also made me think is that a very similar accident occurred to my brother in law a few weeks after receiving his 05 Sprint ST (October 05 ish I think). In fact when he heard I was thinking of getting one too he came round to tell me to think again.

Don't get me wrong, I think the bike is great. Just makes you think thats all...

As I say, I have no problem in accepting I have messed up. However if I have, I like to know what it is so I don't do it again.

If anyone has any comments at all I would be grateful to hear them.

Just got to wait for it to come back from the repairers now. Bit of a pisser all in all.

[iceman]

Nomis - you are very vulnerable when doing a slow tight turn with a cold motor - as if it coughs or splutters at a critical moment it can all go pear shaped very quickly.

My last bike was a carburretored 1200 4 cylinder that was cold blooded and took a couple of km to warm up and I needed to be careful especially in low speed tight turns - like what you describe.I had to slip the clutch a bit in that situation to keep the revs up a bit.

Havent had that problem with the Sprint though.

If this is what happened to you and it hesitates when cold then it may need checking by the dealer.
Or you may have had it 2nd rather than 1st gear?It sounds like you checked that you didnt hit a slippery patch?

Grant

I'm glad it didn't throw you when it seized...

[iceman]

On 2006-06-03 15:47, Nomis wrote:
(plus an 8-inch chunk missing from the side of the back wheel).


If anyone has any comments at all I would be grateful to hear them.

sorry - forgot to comment on the piece missing out of the back wheel.If this means a piece of the alloy rim broken off thens its difficult to imagine that happening from a simple low speed drop.

Perhaps something else has happened previously to damage the rim or it could have been faulty?Either way - if a chunk like that came off and hit the swing arm on the way through it could cause a momentary 'seizure' and your off.