Hello lads,

 

So I thought I would start this thread to let those that don't know, just how little care is given to our rides from the factory.

Today I finished putting my new raked trees on and was quite shocked at what I found.

 

There was NO loctite on a ANY of the bolts I took out.  That included the bolst that held teh fender on, the brake caliper and the axle nut.  Strange thing is, if you read the manual, it will tell you how important loctite is when assembling.

 

The biggest shock for me was how little grease was in the stearing head.  There bearings had very little grease on them, and the neck itself was empty.  This bike was returned to the dealer for its first 2 services and they obvioulsy didn't grease the neck.

 

None the less, my bearings have a lot more grease on them ( I didnt fill the neck - thats stupid) and all the bolts that came out, now have loctite. 

 

Cheers

Mongrel

I've heard the same thing said by the local shop I use that the factory does not grease the neck bearings properly.   Pretty crap really, how hard is it to grease something properly.

Believe it or not, one of the biggest causes of bearing failure is overgreasing.
The more grease you push through a bearing, the bigger chance of pushing crap through the bearing also.

Having a large amount of grease stored in the neck is really not a good thing. Over time the clay in the stored grease hardens which can cause failure.

Just my 2 cents

Most front fender bolts I've seen use crimped metal lock nuts.
I dont think the service manual asks for Loctite on the axle nut or Caliper mounting bolts ?

Strangely, most bike manufacturers are the same, and dont put enough grease on bearings or pivot points.

That Quote went out in the 1990's,
Macka unfortunatelly the world economy
has created a Heinz Variety from the
once Famous "AMERICAN FACTORY"......

I fitted mufflers to a 48 last night that had 2000ish k's on it, the guy asked me if i had time to fit his new pegs as well, sure thing; i went to remove the c clip and noticed the peg mount that bolts to the frame was about to fall off (left side), one bolt had 2 threads left in it the other had 4, no loctite on them at all! Its kinda worrying what could have happened if i didnt notice it...
Regards Andrew - T1

My Ultra came in to australia brand new, then converted to trike in Blacktown. What I didn't know -- till it blew underneath me and caught on fire -- was that the emission control flap and wire were broken!! That thing was so hot it burnt my bad leg several times while I was touring the states.

 so far on my bike (6 months old brand new from factory) I've had the sissy bar (3/4 bolts), a rear fender bolt, pillion footrest bolt and both tail lights all come loose or fall off completely. No loctite  on any of it, pretty sure the tail lights weren't even put together properly from the beginning (after reclocation for sissy bar/bags. It's bloody shocking, before i go on a ride i give my bike a good look over to see if anything has come loose, I've put loctite and a few scewdrivers in a tool roll for anything that comes off out on the road (I almost lost my sissy bar + bag 50kms out of orange a few weeks ago).

 

I gotta say, less than impressed, sure as shit won't take the bike back to them for service that's for sure.