*Rear Suspension Arm Failures* PLEASE READ

JSP

JSP

Administrator
Ok. There is a trend happening and there have been at least 3 confirmed instances on this forum of it happening. EDIT: Possibly 4 now... Please inspect your arms and if any sign of damage, contact Yamaha and file with NHTSA. This is a serious safety issue.

http://www.779cc.org/forum/garage-mechanical-help/3160-rear-suspension-rear-arm-relay-bent.html

http://www.779cc.org/forum/fz8-general-discussion/1256-rear-suspension-failure.html

http://www.779cc.org/forum/fz8-general-discussion/3515-so-happened.html


Some pictures from those threads: There should be no bend in these arms at all. Inspect them for any scraping like you see in these pics. If you get scraping, they are bent a little and then it will just get worse, catch on the arm and bend/break like you see in the following pics.

Roadkill's Bike:


LitzerSki's Bike:


Rotaryknight's Bike:


Pigdog's Bike TBD (waiting for pics):
 
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b-eock

b-eock

New member
Regular street riding... Even with my stunting and "bouncing" the bike this hasn't happened to mine...

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RoadKill

RoadKill

New member
i don't stunt it happened to me. also it happened to a guy with 700 miles on his 2013. he is a new rider and doesnt ride much. he works at the dealership.
Yamaha is working with New York Motorcycle on this issue now so if you report it, it will be VERY useful.
 
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H

HenryT

New member
Even if you were "stunting" this should not happen. I would only accept this type of failure if there was some sort of very major crash/impact. This could get someone killed. Are you listening Yamaha :)
 
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Rotaryknight

Rotaryknight

New member
I rarely do wheelies, when my bike started to felt weird I hadn't done any wheelies in 2 weeks. Those 2 weeks also fell into the time span of when I installed my exhaust and I didn't see the rest suspension bending like that. This is pretty damn scary that I haven't crashed from it.
 
F3NIX

F3NIX

New member
So glad you caught that man. Wow. I will be doing an inspection from now on. Does it have something to do with heat from the exhaust? Are you running a custom exhaust or slipon? Just curious

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Marthy

Marthy

Member
I'm really curious about the issue. Anyone has a clear picture of the whole rear suspension assembly? I'm tying to understand...
 
M

MikeC

Weekend Rider
Time to go check, It might be a good idea for the OPs to chime in on their weight. I'm 250 and I imagine this would happen sooner to me than it would to someone light.
 
pigdog

pigdog

New member
i just inspected my relay arm & its starting to scrape the brackets. i have 700mi on the odometer. reported it to NHTSA
 
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Rotaryknight

Rotaryknight

New member
MikeC said:
Time to go check, It might be a good idea for the OPs to chime in on their weight. I'm 250 and I imagine this would happen sooner to me than it would to someone light.
Click to expand...

I am 208 pounds I thought it was my weight too but....pretty sure the bike can handle up to 260 pounds or so
 
b-eock

b-eock

New member
I've had a 400 pound load on it and it was fine...

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F3NIX

F3NIX

New member
I would hope that a bike with a rear seat woukd be able to carry a minimum of 400lbs. It should be engineered to carry 3 times that.



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b-eock

b-eock

New member
Max load of the bike is like 437 combined rider weights...

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RoadKill

RoadKill

New member
i am 179 pounds. 2012 FZ8. had about 10k miles on it when the relay arm failed.
 
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b-eock

b-eock

New member
I'm 185 and been there for months.! I used to be 230 at the beginning of the year. So that tells you the work I put in on the bike.

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JSP

JSP

Administrator
pigdog said:
i just inspected my relay arm & its starting to scrape the brackets. i have 700mi on the odometer. reported it to NHTSA
Click to expand...

Please post pictures up. If it is scraping, then it seems it is slightly bent. That slight bend will give out like the above pics. Please post some pics here if you can.
 
R

rail

Member
I'm just curious what are the year and manufacture dates of your guys' bikes? Just in case there is a trend there... Not sure what 3 data points will tell us but couldn't hurt.

Edit - nvm saw it in the original threads under OP info. 2011 - 2012.
 
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