Heat shield fell off on the freeway

alpental

Turbocharged
Joined
Feb 22, 2015
Messages
784
Location
Alexandria, VA
Ride
2014 Rocket III Roadster
Heard a loud clang while driving on the freeway today toward L.A. Looked around when I parked and saw the left side exhaust heat shield fell off. This is the second part to fall off my bike in the past month, the other being one of the factory bolted-on foot pads. I bought the bike new earlier this year and only have 7,000 miles on it!

I hate to think of damaging someone else's vehicle, causing a flat in their tire and them losing control, or something critical falling apart on my bike. Wtf Triumph...

 
Keep a eye on heat shield, and radiator shroud bolts along with the exhaust manifold nuts. After a few heat cycles and checks they will hold.
 
Talk to the dealer as they should replace it under warranty - When you get there, insist they check ALL bolts.
 
I've put appropriately sized wave washers under all the bolts on the radiatior and heatshields. On the exhaust manifold bolts I use spring washers as those buggers never seemed to stay tight on my bike. Nothing has come loose so far (touch wood).

Regards,
Mark Dunn
 
On a regular basis you should be checking all nuts and bolts that you can see and even the ones you cannot see, on the easy to get to screws like the heat shield I put some thread lock on them never had a problem in over 70000miles
 
I spoke to the dealer this afternoon. They tried to blame it on whoever did the 500-mile service until I informed the guy that it was performed by their service dept a few months ago. Their tune quickly changed to bring it in, we'll fix it for free and recheck everything. I was pissed both for myself and for anyone I may have harmed. All bolts will be receiving fresh loctite.
 
Keep in mind many of the parts on a motorcycle are put on at the dealer after it is uncrated. So did a $12/hr shop guy do a good job? Probably not. Better go over the bike yourself and know for sure.
 
After doing a Triumph factory tour in 2012 - I noticed that a lot of these type of parts (Heat Shields etc) are already fitted to the main part prior to assembly in England.
So not only did the factory not tension the shield but the little Taiwanese girl did not assemble it correctly.
 
Maybe, and it would be fun to do a factory tour, but where are the process engineers to ensure that these mistakes either can't happen or are guaranteed to be caught in the QA/QC process? Triumph has been making MCs for 100+ years and should have this **** sorted by now.
 
Last edited:
When mine was new everything was lose!
I had to frequently check all nuts & bolts for several months.
Now I do it a couple times a month during the ride season.
 
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