Triumphrat

Anchorbend

This is long but I need to vent my frustration with Triumph America. I was replacing my front brake pads about 5 weeks ago and bent the little tab on what is a tin colored retainer. This part is a spacer between the upper part of the caliper and the front of the brake pads. Bending it back it broke off. My fault. This is about a five dollar part. Ordered it through my local Triumph dealer and received the bottom spring which I already had. It was ordered again and the same wrong part was sent. I also ordered the same part from another dealer out of town explaining exactly what was happening and they assured me that according to the diagram they could get the right part. They sent me the same wrong part. Apparently there is no part number for the retainer. My dealer again spoke to Triumph Parts and they said the part was not available. Even suggested that they try "aftermarket" whatever that meant. He was very frustrated. They are a very responsive dealer. Asked my dealer if I should call Triumph and see what is going on. Twice waited on hold for 20 minutes to talk to their customer noservice guru and once left a message to call me about a problem I was having. No return calls. I finally called again and was told customer noservice guru was not there and I could leave a message. I told the operator I had tried this route before with no call back and asked to speak to the CEO. I was told they currently didn't have one. I pressed the issue and told her I wanted to talk to somebody in upper management. I got the Dealer Development Specialist who listened to me. He e-mailed me the exploded view of the caliper and I indicated the part I was trying to obtain. He said he would respond to me with a solution. The following are e-mails in the order they were sent following my discussion with the Dealer Development Specialist who I think made an honest effort to help. I think their parts department was just plain LAZY and not willing to track down the part.


"I did some research and found that the reason you’re not able to find this spring is because the spring has been made obsolete. The piece that you are referring too is the piece that you need. This particular part has gone from a two-piece set with a spring in the middle to one piece with no spring required. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Best regards,

Michael Lashley

Dealer Development Specialist

Triumph Motorcycles (America), Ltd.


"OK, now just what does that mean? What is the part I need and what is the number? In addition, I have spent more time and money on this than should be necessary. Why don't you just go ahead and ship me the Part. Thank you."


I apologize if the message wasn’t clear enough. You have already ordered the part you need, it just doesn’t appear to be the part because the spring is no longer with it. This part no longer requires the spring that you’re missing. Therefore, the dealer was correct in ordering the part labeled #7. Also, we cannot just ship you the part, your dealer has to order it and it has to be shipped to the dealer. If the dealer still has questions, please have him contact Triumph and speak to one of our techs. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.


Best regards,

Michael Lashley

Dealer Development Specialist

I think Mr. Lashley was just repeating what his parts department told him.

I thought this response was strange since the new Triumph Bonneville's come with this part, how could it be obsolete? Coincidently while looking at a friend's new Honda 1300 and also a 750 Shadow the Calipers looked very familiar. I went to the local Honda dealer looked at the exploded diagram and ordered the part. Here in 3 days.

Basically I was told to ride the bike without the part in question by Triumph America. My local mechanic suggested that this would not be a good idea. I didn't like riding the bike with a part missing on the front brake. It might have been OK to do so but I didn't feel like being the lab rat.

You can draw your own conclusions but mine is that while Triumph is pushing hard to increase its presence in the motorcycle world Triumph America is failing to provide customer support. It cost me loss of riding time, time and money. They need to be more responsive to their dealers and customers or they will once again become a dinosaur,

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You've never rode until you've been throwed.

monkeyboy

Call corp Triumph and let them know.

In England, not here.

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2006 Thruxton

JG

Wow, I am sorry to hear that. This type of thing is one of fears I had about getting a Triumph.

Parts availability/pricing.

I like to work on my own bikes. With my Hondas, it is great. All I had to do was spend a few bucks on a microfiche parts catalog for the entire bike. Then, armed with the correct Honda part number for every single part of the bike, I can search online for the OEM part from several different shops/parts sellers (some of which also have a decent online version of the microfiche parts catalog) and sometimes get up to 30% or 40% off retail price. I have seen quite a few posts on these forums where people asked if there were any such web sites for buying Triumph parts, but from the lack of responses, I assume that no such options exist for us. Maybe in another 5 to 10 years when the new Triumphs have been around longer and their production volume goes up?

But I got the Triumph anyways because it was just too cool not to get. I hope it never breaks (or that I never break it) :hammer:

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2005 Thruxton

vol245

Wow that is scary. Why are Triumph and other obscure brands all that I am interested in? A Honda 919 is sounding better all the time.

[ This message was edited by: vol245 on 2006-06-02 18:07 ]

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John

DanR

I had a similar problem trying to order a part for the brake caliper. The item did show up as an item that could be ordered seperately on the Triumph parts list.
They said that I would have to order the entire caliper to get the part that I needed. Yea right. I went to the local Honda dealer. I found a bike on the floor that had the same brake caliper as the Bonneville. He said you could order just about every single part that's on a Honda. Many Hondas use Nissin brakes. I ordered the part and it came in in about 3 days. The Honda parts person took his time and found the part I needed for a Triumph. The part cost about $3.00.
Thankfully Triumph uses some Honda parts.

DanR

Sorry, the second sentence should have said the part was "Not" one that could be ordered seperately from Triumph.
It's getting too late for me to to post tonight.

Anchorbend

DanR, my dealer was was told the same thing, order the whole caliper which they thought was downright stupid. I think the problem is that Triumph failed to give the part a Triumph number and it automatically becomes "obsolete". There is no excuse for this kind of indifference on the part of Triumph America. It was the same Nissin brake caliper.

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You've never rode until you've been throwed.

Normandy

vol245

A couple weeks ago I put Thruxton needles in the Bonnie. It only took a few days for the dealer to get those and I was happy with that. Well before I got the carbs back together I stepped on the big spring and flattened it . I ordered another and it has been over two weeks and no spring yet. ***?

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John

Anchorbend

Vol245, try going to Japanese bike dealership. Some of them use the Keihin carbs. Good luck.I guess Triumph owners need to very resourceful in obtaining parts.Strange part is that getting parts for vintage Triumphs seems easier than for the Hinckleys.

__________________
You've never rode until you've been throwed.