Triumphrat

kj6tk

Driving South on the 405 Freeway in Irvine California at about 70 MPH traffic started to slow, I stood up on the pegs to look for an opening ahead and bang!! My right foot was standing on nothing the left foot-peg fell off onto the freeway and I lost control of the bike.

It took a huge effort to keep my foot from hitting the ground at 70MPH and keeping the bike upright. I swerved across a few lanes before I could regain control and slow down and stop safely. Went back and retrieved the foot-peg from the roadway.


The bolt had sheared off right at the point where it extends from the clevis into the bike. There was no reason for it. Never dropped the bike, no sign of rust on the bolt, I did not hit a bump or jump up suddenly just stood up gradually like I usually do to look ahead when approaching slower traffic. I weigh less than 250 pounds. There was no reason other than a manufacturing failure. The sheared bolt is clean and shiny it just broke for no reason.

If I had not recovered from the bolt failure crashed and died the authorities would say another biker just went down on his own and overlooked the sheared off foot-peg as a symptom not the cause of the crash.

Dang, Triumph what kind of steel are you using for critical parts? There is no SAE stamp on the bolt, it may not be hardened or conform to any standard. This is a real issue for us riders and a liability issue for Triumph. I am going to contact Triumph what they say about the failure of this critical component. It should have been tested by Triumph prior to me riding on the freeway with my less than 3 year old bike. I will post the response on this site if I get any.

Speedycaptain

JEESIS, I am so glad you are OK. Triumph ought to be kissing your a$$!

Antiquar

Wow, that's shocking. I'm glad you recovered and didn't go down!

Let us know what Triumph says about this.

steelwheels

wow ! Thankfully you are a good rider with great reflexes. Sue the pants off Triumph !

Jihema

Mate that's scary.

Out of curiosity, could you post a close-up picture of the broken bolt?

Forchetto

The drawing below is for the rear footpegs but it'll do for this question.

Did item 11 really shear off or did it come adrift from the "U" shaped bit?:



When I replaced my pegs for Oberons, I did find that the circlips the factory had fitted (item 6) were not tempered, just hardened. When I tried to replace them, one just shattered into 3 pieces...

See last photo on this post:

http://www.triumphrat.net/twins-tech...eville-se.html

Here's another near-identical case where the bolt has broken, worth reading Prop's advice on post 6:

http://www.triumphrat.net/twins-talk...e-footpeg.html

We've also had a fair few snapped the footpegs themselves, not surprising as they're made of some sort of monkey metal.

WTBScrambler

Not good

jphickory

Wow - I'm also interested in seeing detailed pictures of the failed hardware. If you could post these it would be much appreciated. Great job in recovering control of your bike.
Glad you are ok.

klem

kj6tk
Thanks for sharing, im glad you were able to stay upright it could have easily ended up as a sad story. These sort of things are a concern for everybody. Cutting corners and putting peoples lives at risk for the sake of money is a problem with todays mind set, give them a stir for us all.
Cheers Klem

Forchetto

Seeing as I also have a 09 SE like the original poster, and I'm also in the habit of standing on the pegs (not at 70 mph like him though...) when travelling over humps or rough ground, I got a bit worried.

I've had a look at the footpegs fixings and, although they're not the world's finest, I can't see how a shear load sufficiently strong to break the stud can be applied.

The peg is held to the frame with an M8 stud and self-locking nut. The stud is welded by 3 spot welds to the U bracket. Shear loads should be taken care of by the two stamped 5mm dowels and the friction created by the tight stud on the two contact surfaces (0.81 sq Inch in area). The stud should be free from these shear forces unless the nut is loose and the stud threads have to bear the brunt of the riders weight.

Before this happens the rider with a bit of sensibility would notice the wobbly footpeg I would have thought, but you never know.

I'm including a couple of photos to encourage others to give us their opinions on this. They're for the passenger pegs, but the fixing method is the same.