tee jey
12-09-05, 11:09 AM
Has anyone had the 'cowling brace' (the tubular metal frame that suports the upper fairing) break?
Owners of the early pointy bikes should check their cowling brace, I believe the lower tube will fail first adacent to the weld line. Once this occurs the upper tube has to support all the weight of the fairing.
The lower tube of the cowling brace on my 03 SVS fractured almost completely to leave about 5 mm of metal and the upper metal tube fractured completely. Both tubes broke close to the welds where the headstock mounting bracket is attached.
It would appear that the lower brace tube failed first in the region of the weld as was evident by the appearance of rust on the failure line. Without the support of the lower tube, the upper tube was subject to additional load and stress causing it, in turn, to fracture.
My SV650 is now out of warrantee however I do not believe that it should have suffered this sort of failure after only 11000 miles and 2 years and 4 months of normal use. Irrespective of warrantees and guarantees, goods must be fit for the purpose for which they are supplied and in this case, when a major structural part of a motorcycle fails, it plainly was not fit for purpose. In my view this is supported by Suzuki's change to the specification of the cowling brace which now uses much larger tubing.
Fortunately, I was only a couple of miles from Crescent Suzuki at Verwood, the dealer who supplied the bike to me as an ex demonstrator in Jan 2004, and I was able to seek help from them. Crescent was able to locate a second hand cowling brace from a crash repair and fit it while I waited. Their service was exemplary however the cowling brace was twisted causing the body cowling to sit out of true but it enabled me to continue my journey. A new one is on order.
I contacted Suzuki GB who were extemely UNHELPFULL :evil: :evil: and told me to go back and see my dealer. I am now waiting to see what Crescent have to say once they have spoken to Suzuki.
Owners of the early pointy bikes should check their cowling brace, I believe the lower tube will fail first adacent to the weld line. Once this occurs the upper tube has to support all the weight of the fairing.
The lower tube of the cowling brace on my 03 SVS fractured almost completely to leave about 5 mm of metal and the upper metal tube fractured completely. Both tubes broke close to the welds where the headstock mounting bracket is attached.
It would appear that the lower brace tube failed first in the region of the weld as was evident by the appearance of rust on the failure line. Without the support of the lower tube, the upper tube was subject to additional load and stress causing it, in turn, to fracture.
My SV650 is now out of warrantee however I do not believe that it should have suffered this sort of failure after only 11000 miles and 2 years and 4 months of normal use. Irrespective of warrantees and guarantees, goods must be fit for the purpose for which they are supplied and in this case, when a major structural part of a motorcycle fails, it plainly was not fit for purpose. In my view this is supported by Suzuki's change to the specification of the cowling brace which now uses much larger tubing.
Fortunately, I was only a couple of miles from Crescent Suzuki at Verwood, the dealer who supplied the bike to me as an ex demonstrator in Jan 2004, and I was able to seek help from them. Crescent was able to locate a second hand cowling brace from a crash repair and fit it while I waited. Their service was exemplary however the cowling brace was twisted causing the body cowling to sit out of true but it enabled me to continue my journey. A new one is on order.
I contacted Suzuki GB who were extemely UNHELPFULL :evil: :evil: and told me to go back and see my dealer. I am now waiting to see what Crescent have to say once they have spoken to Suzuki.