ugh....

Yesterday I had my local bike shop put on a 520 kit and some race DOTs. As my mechanic was tightening up the left side front wheel axle pinch bolts I heard him say, "the fork broke!". I thought he was kidding but the other mechanics came up and then I knew he was serious. This was what happened w/ 15 ft. lbs. of torque on the bike's first tire change: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/zxc1974/YAMAHA%20R1/IMG_4407.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/zxc1974/YAMAHA%20R1/IMG_4408.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/zxc1974/YAMAHA%20R1/IMG_4409.jpg Now the bike's at the dealership getting an assessment for warranty repair. A little over 300 miles on smooth asphalt, no wheelies and this happens :banghead:

Damn dude, that blows hope you get this all taken car of ASAP w/o having to pay for it.

Damn dude, that blows hope you get this all taken car of ASAP w/o having to pay for it. Seriously. As far as I'm concerned this is a manufacturing defect that could have caused me to get severely injured or worse...Yamaha should replace the entire left fork in my opinion, or at the very least replace the stantion and fork tube.

I wouldnt be hoping they would replace it I would already have a lawyer and in be so far up there ass they would be giving me a few new bikes and hopin that I was satisfied!

Wow, yamaha quality, wow.

That's "concerning" to me.....time to start inspecting......

wtf.. yes.. got me worried now.. mhhhh.

I think I might be checking mine very shortly then as it has felt a little loose in the turns the last couple of days

I've changed my front wheel plenty of times on my '09 and have had no problems. I betcha it's the mechanics error. No way 15 ft lbs will break the fork if done properly. those bolts are suppose to tighten in a 1-2-1 order if not, i could probably see this happen or maybe he tightened these first and then tightened the main axle?

I've changed my front wheel plenty of times on my '09 and have had no problems. I betcha it's the mechanics error. No way 15 ft lbs will break the fork if done properly. those bolts are suppose to tighten in a 1-2-1 order if not, i could probably see this happen or maybe he tightened these first and then tightened the main axle? No, wasn't mechanic's error. I saw him tighten up everything in the right order. He knew what he was doing.

every aluminum parts is ray-x checked before assembled, so i think it's very difficult it could be a defective part, specially when talking about fork...something went wrong!

Can u say recall ???? If the part was torqued correctly then I would say the aluminum was too hard & that wont be the only bike this happens to .

If they were tightened in proper order like you say and it was only 15 lbs then perhaps they were cross threaded :dunno Sucks that it happened but at least it was a dealer and not you, or worse yet it didn't break while out riding. Since we haven't see alot of this happening I wouldn't jump straight to saying it is a defect or poor workmanship on Yamaha part.

This looks almost like the BMW fork failures a few years ago. Crap material/design. BMW never admitted it (they never do) but the design did change magically.

This looks almost like the BMW fork failures a few years ago. Crap material/design. BMW never admitted it (they never do) but the design did change magically. Yeah. Or the GSXR1000 frame recalls a couple years ago that were cracking. X-rayed or not, inconsistencies come up in the real world that can't be replicated during factory manufacturing/testing.

wow that's surprising. Between this and the possible clip on snaps, this is interesting to say the least. So what is this proper 1-2-1 tightening order? Tighten the pinch bolts first, then axle or axle then pinch bolts? Never came across that before with a wheel change, I know for sprockets and rotors they recommend you tighten in a star pattern. Usually I get everything mostly hand tight then I hit em with the torque wrench for proper setting, and I usually do the axle bolt first then the pinch bolts (on my 6r).

wow that's surprising. Between this and the possible clip on snaps, this is interesting to say the least. So what is this proper 1-2-1 tightening order? Tighten the pinch bolts first, then axle or axle then pinch bolts? Never came across that before with a wheel change, I know for sprockets and rotors they recommend you tighten in a star pattern. Usually I get everything mostly hand tight then I hit em with the torque wrench for proper setting, and I usually do the axle bolt first then the pinch bolts (on my 6r). 1-2-1 is referring to proper tightening of the front pinch bolts. You want to tighten the first bolt slightly then go to 2nd bolt and tighten slightly and then go back to the 1st bolt and tighten slightly again, then repeat, hence 1-2-1. You do this as many times until their snug. Then you get your torque wrench, preferably the shortest 3/8 inch drive torque wrench and then apply final torque to manufacturer's specs again following the 1-2-1 order until you reach the desired torque. So if you do this without the 1-2-1 sequence and both bolts are threaded in, and if you tighten just one bolt all the way, you will not bring in the fork bottom together evenly and will stress the fork bottom. And of course this is done after tightening the axle bolt. Hopefully this makes sense to you.

wow that's surprising. Between this and the possible clip on snaps, this is interesting to say the least. So what is this proper 1-2-1 tightening order? Tighten the pinch bolts first, then axle or axle then pinch bolts? Never came across that before with a wheel change, I know for sprockets and rotors they recommend you tighten in a star pattern. Usually I get everything mostly hand tight then I hit em with the torque wrench for proper setting, and I usually do the axle bolt first then the pinch bolts (on my 6r). You should really open your owner's manual every once in a blue moon!:)

You should really open your owner's manual every once in a blue moon!:) or just have some common sense

every aluminum parts is ray-x checked before assembled, so i think it's very difficult it could be a defective part, specially when talking about fork...something went wrong! They don't x-ray every alloy part if they did your bike would cost a fortune, that part is a cast alloy not billet & probably had a fault in the casting itself. The Gixxer frame problem is due to design problem with stress loading & weld penetration. The bmw fork problem was another design problem with stress loading axle mount as axle was mounted to the front of fork leg which on a off road bike equals poor design. The only good thing about that failure is you wont lose your axle mount & have wheel kick sideways like the bmw did. There are such things as manufacturing defects & this is probably just the case & not a major problem with the 09 R1.

This is a pretty good advertisement for the old walkaround before each ride, eh?

They don't x-ray every alloy part if they did your bike would cost a fortune, that part is a cast alloy not billet & probably had a fault in the casting itself. The Gixxer frame problem is due to design problem with stress loading & weld penetration. The bmw fork problem was another design problem with stress loading axle mount as axle was mounted to the front of fork leg which on a off road bike equals poor design. The only good thing about that failure is you wont lose your axle mount & have wheel kick sideways like the bmw did. There are such things as manufacturing defects & this is probably just the case & not a major problem with the 09 R1. nope, you are wrong, every cast is x-ray checked, it doesn't cost NOTHING beside the berillium emettitor, we use it at work ... cost 0, just the time to put it inside and take a snapshot of critical points!

double,sorry

Update: I received my bike today. FYI Yamaha replaced the fork stantion and inner under warranty.

good man... glad they fixed it!!

Update: I received my bike today. FYI Yamaha replaced the fork stantion and inner under warranty. Good deal, glad to hear. 1-2-1 is referring to proper tightening of the front pinch bolts. You want to tighten the first bolt slightly then go to 2nd bolt and tighten slightly and then go back to the 1st bolt and tighten slightly again, then repeat, hence 1-2-1. You do this as many times until their snug. Then you get your torque wrench, preferably the shortest 3/8 inch drive torque wrench and then apply final torque to manufacturer's specs again following the 1-2-1 order until you reach the desired torque. So if you do this without the 1-2-1 sequence and both bolts are threaded in, and if you tighten just one bolt all the way, you will not bring in the fork bottom together evenly and will stress the fork bottom. And of course this is done after tightening the axle bolt. Hopefully this makes sense to you. Thanks and yes it makes perfect sense. or just have some common sense You should really open your owner's manual every once in a blue moon!:) Um yeah I do, and the Yamaha service manuals I find are much harder to use than the Kawi ones as they have more step by step instructions, wheras the yamaha one is a hard to follow exploded view diagram with little step by step blurbs without as much detail per step as I am used to. Not everyone is mechanically inclined you know. I bet if you had little experience in building pc's or servers and were just going by a motherboard schematic to put in a daughterboard or processor, you'd get confused as well, where as it looks painfully obvious to me, but you don't see me belitting anyone's silly question.

Here's another one... http://www.r1-forum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4194009#post4194009 Bummer

nope, you are wrong, every cast is x-ray checked, it doesn't cost NOTHING beside the berillium emettitor, we use it at work ... cost 0, just the time to put it inside and take a snapshot of critical points! Do you have some sort of manufacturer documentation to prove this? Sorry, I can't see the Big Four checking every single cast piece as it comes down the production line. Oh, and it's spelled "beryllium!"

nope, you are wrong. Every cast is x-ray checked, it doesn't cost NOTHING beside the berillium emettitor, we use it at work ... cost 0, just the time to put it inside and take a snapshot of critical points! Yeah... Because the X-ray machine was free, you work for free, and the rent for the building in which the machine is housed... You guess'd it, FREE... :2bitchsla