1050 Rubber breakdown

[RCR001]

Anyone else noticed the Rubber on the 1050's is junk? I have had the bike less then a year, heated garage all winter, and the rubber mounting boots on the relay switches is cracking.Those are the 8 or so relays that go up the frame on the right side under the fairing.....I'm a little concerned about the rest of the bike and will try to post a pic. The boots dont look like there gonna last to much longer....... RCR

[samet]

My dealer noticed this issue on their own last spring on my 05. They had them replaced under warranty. While not good, but at least I was well taken care of. I have not looked this year yet to see how it is now.

[chisel]

Ya, it's been an issue. The battery strap is the other item that seems to go pretty fast. Triumph is replacing these under warranty. I haven't heard if the replacements are any better.

[flyingbiker]

Confirmed - I took the RH lower fairing off a couple of weekends ago and two of the six relays immediately fell down; all the holders had split. Triumph replaced these and the battery strap under warranty (fitted yesterday) with no issues (although fwiw the first dealer I asked to get these replaced said none of the rubber parts were covered under warranty - hence I went elsewhere). Not sure if it was BS but the dealer that fitted them said they soaked the replacements for a couple of hours in something that would prevent the dry rot.

[BazzaST]

My battery strap finally broke in half, to make the relays stay in place put cable ties around them.

Bike goes in for drag link recall this week, seeing as the ST will 2 years in June ordered new strap for battery and rubber holder for the relays.

Barry

[steventhechef]

It is no better in the 03's, so the quality control hasn't deteriorated at least !!!

[ricster]

The rubber is tooo soft and he excessive heat basically melts the rubber. I must say its a stupid design, they should have used hard plastic instead of rubber. Honestly I almost didn't buy the bike because of these small things but that ***** triple motor is too sweet not to buy it :razz:

[RCR001]

Thanks for all the feedback, the bike is going in to the dealer for the drag link recall and I'll be giving them the heads up for the rubber pieces. I'm wondering if there is a natural product to help the breakdown from happening again. I'll do some research!

[JasonS]

An aside...

elastomers ( rubber ) can be ( and is ) made to stand very high temperatures and maintain structural integrity and more importantly their flexibility. Plastics come in ThermoSET and ThermoPLASTIC... Once thermoSET is given a shape, it retains that shape and will not melt. Thermo plastic can be melted down and turned into the goo it came from. Set are great because they retain shape, but the also are more brittle and do not take some stresses well... there are other thermo sets that are so hard you can't cut them with a razor knife. Plastic that are flexible don;t have good memory, so they make poor choices form hold down straps.

Elastomers are synthetic rubbers. There are many types and each has its own strong points. Some of the best heat resistant elastomers are lousy with exposure to other petrochemicals and break down quickly. Ones with great oil resistance and moderate on heat and not so good on UV... ones for UV are not so good on oil but better on heat and around we go.

Triumph (or rather their vendor) uses cheap runner compounds . The strap that holds the manuals in place under the seat was rotted out before I even bought the bike in the summer of 04. The boot that covers the rear brake switch has rotted out twice.

It is STUPID for Triumph to get a bad rap over a piece of rubber that costs $.03, when the better material would cost $.05.

Stupid. Are you listening Triumph?? There is no reason on Earth to allow these cheap substandard materials to be use don the bike. Just like using uncoated pistons has resulted in massive bad rap on the triumph braking systems... come on... what would it cost to use a coated VS a non-coated piston setup?

harrumph...