Front fork paintwork under warranty

Paintwork on the front forks is doing the usual bubbling up and flaking off on the front forks in a big way, about a square inch at the bottom of one fork.

The bike is 16 months old.

Should this be a warranty claim? Anyone had it sorted under warranty?

Will be taking into Saltire Suzuki in Edinburgh to get them to take a look tomorrow.

This thread is nothing without pictures...

[fizzwheel]

Liz had a similar problem with her front forks. Same sort of thing paint bubbling off by the dust seals at the stop of the fork.

I took a lot of pictures and we went into the Suzuki dealer near me, which isnt the one that the bike was bought from. After much nagging on my half at the dealer the finally rang up Suzuki and after a month or so we got a phone call to say if we brought the bike in they were going to replace the fork outers under warranty.

Liz's bike was just over 12 months old when I made the intial enquiry.

I'd say go for it, what you got to loose. But take some photos first at home if you can and burn them onto a CD and give that to the dealer so they can post the photos off to Suzuki. I think that certainly saved alot of messing about in our case.

Try it I had my curvy ones replaced under warranty.

[Richie]

Originally Posted by fizzwheel

Liz had a similar problem with her front Norks. Same sort of thing.
I took a lot of pictures.

Yes this thread is nothing without pictures

[fizzwheel]

Richie you are a very bad man

[G]

Is this something I have to look forwards to during the first winter with this bike? or does it happen anyway?

I dont suppose there is a chance they may have rectified the problem on later models after the initial warranty replacements?

[fizzwheel]

You get chips etc on the fork legs anyway, but on Liz's bike the paint was bubbling on the bit of the fork leg thats right up underneath the fairing by the yoke. Right by where the fork seals are.

Its not a brilliant photo, but you can see where the paints come away and where its started to bubble.



TBH the paint on the new fork legs seems to be standing up a little better than the old ones did

Originally Posted by graemepaterson

Is this something I have to look forwards to during the first winter with this bike? or does it happen anyway?

I dont suppose there is a chance they may have rectified the problem on later models after the initial warranty replacements?

Nope no chance. You think you've got away with it all winter and then in April they'll blister. It's damp and salt getting through stone chips and under the measly layer of paint & laquer that Suzuki seem to think is sufficient. It can take a few months to show up. My mate has a 35k mile V plate 1150GS that lives outside under a cover all year round and his fork paint is in better nick. Likewise my brothers 20k mile V plate VFR800 is still immaculate. If BMW and Honda can do it why can't Suzuki?

Get them spotless clean and dry this month before the salt starts getting spread and rub in a good layer of petroleum jelly (buy proper stuff from chemist, not vaseline, take off the front mudguard and don't miss any bits), then when you clean the bike you don't need to clean the forks, just wipe off the jelly with a rag along with the dirt and re-apply clean jelly (advise courtesy of Dicky Ticker).

If I'd had this advise in time for last winter, I wouldn't have this problem now, but being a previous honda owner I thought keeping the bike clean and WD40'ing each time would be enough.

I'll stick some photos up tonight.

Pictures attached, bike was new may 06