It was only a week ago that i mentioned about the poor quality of finish on my new speed twin compared to my old 16 speed triple, today i removed the fixings from the rear shocks to measure for some new rear shocks and found this :-(
The incorrect use of a fully threaded bolt instead of using shanked bolts, sorry for my lack of explanation.
Hhhm rust ? Loose bolt ? Or the weld on the shock base ? All looks fairly good to me, it's in a fairly innocuous place to me, very limited visibility. But then again I'm a mechanic and so long as it's fully functional it's all good. I'm usually more disappointed when the standard of performance is limited or restricted. That's why my America has fully upgraded suspension all round and I've had the motor dyno tuned. As who wants a 865/900 that is so poorly performance oriented ??
Hi Capt, no issues with the 1200's 90 + BHP or the 80 + of torque as thats why i bought the bike, just pissed that Triumph couldn't use a shanked bolt in a stress/mount area.
Even the shit cheap shock works ok for average riders and i am only changing them so as i can set up the rear sag on our bikes.
They have spring preload freck lol, with our old bikes i have always been able to adjust the sag for both of us as the speed and street triples have far more adjustment on there better quality shocks, i was aware of this before i bought the bikes but was somewhat pissed at finding that shit bolt holding the rear shock in lol.
That's not that high a stressed performance area ? 90 HP and 240 ish kg vehicle mass , the bolts on my America are the same, but the shocks do slide over mounts on the swing arm and on the upper chassis/frame.
Over time the threads will grind into the eyelet, or if the bolt is softer it will wear down compromising the strength of it. Or both. A shanked bolt gives a smooth pivot point. Sorry for the simple explanation, but wanted all to get it. This is a case I feel of bean counters not caring because a bolt is a bolt, right!?
Yes the top mount is a slide over on our bikes as well and not an issue, i will be replacing the lower bolts with shank bolts that are of a better quality.
Shouldn't be a problem as the bolt only provides clamping force is on the inner sleeve no movement involved, the whole stress and slight pivoting force is concentrated on the rubber liner that the shock eye sits on.
In years of wrenching on anything from restoring classic cars to building off-road rigs I have seen bolts in this very application get eaten well into their total diameter. There is just enough movement to allow it. Time will kill anything, for the extra effort they should have done it right.
What gets me here is that the retro stuff fitted with poorer quality components actually cost a similar amount to a top of the range Street Triple RS which have Ohlins, Brembo etc, why the shite components on the retro stuff then?
All sorted now, spoken to a very helpful person at firefox and getting new shocks for both bikes with correct spring weights for both of us and with height adjustment as well so we have the option to play with lowering them a tad as well and ordered new bolts.
FYI - That's a set screw or machine screw as it is threaded all the way. A bolt has an unthreaded section. I'd go down to an engineering supply shop and get a proper bolt, will cost you pence. Cheap bastards Triumph
