fallout

[Guest nitzge]

has anyone had trouble with bolts falling out, the reason I ask is that so far the three side cover bolts have fell out 3 times until the dealer finally put loc-tite blue on them, all three bolts in gaurd around the driveshaft fell out, quite scary! and the bolts on the swing arm and surrounding linkage came loose twice, I know this is vibration related but whats the deal!!!

[stormsedge]

Yes. Right after I bought mine second hand, I thought "this bike doesn't vibrate nearly as bad as the magazines made out"...only because one motor mount bolt was missing and the other was loose (uppers at the frame downtubes/ears). I check things fairly often now and use blue locktite. k

[Keith Foster]

So far so good for me, 3 months and 2400 miles and nothing has loosened/fell out on my '04 Nero.

[Guest chong-chong]

I've had one bolt fall off my right side cover.

My 02 Triumph Sprint St (which I traded in for my Le Mans) was always having bolts falling off or loosening. And, it had less vibration than my Le Mans. Maybe loosened bolts just goes with motorcycle ownership.

I've never had a "major" fastener loosten up on me, mostly just the srews holding on the plastic bits. Perhaps the manufacturers dont fasten down these screws enough fearing cracking or damaging the plastic?

[Guest Bruce]

Initially a number of things came loose but now everything has either had the locite treatemnt or 'bed-in' as nothing has come off in some time ( 8000 miles plus ). Also, now that its broken in and nicely tuned there is alot less vibration. None the less your post is a good reminder so this afternoon I'll have a look around as the weather is not good here.

[Lex]

I had an amazing number of things fall off my 2001 V11 Sport from new. By this time I had most of the bike apart and nearly everything has been torqued properly and thread locker used. No problem with anything I've worked on, just the stuff the factory never tightened properly.

 

A few hints for anybody who hasn't made as many mistakes* as me. The parts must be clean, smooth and screw together will minimal force or you torque wrench will give you a false reading. Do not be shy with the loc-tite.

 

As an illustration of how much is enough, I work in place where parts destined for military and aviation use are assembled. Many of these parts are put on a three axis vibration table for acceptance testing. Then the parts are put in thing like tanks and aircraft that shake worse than a new Guzzi. Our assemblers know how to build parts that can take vibration. The instructions for using loc-tite show the entire threaded area covered with the blue goo.

 

I hope this helps,

 

Lex

 

*Experience is a dear school but a fool will keep no other (B. Franklin), just call me fool.

[al_roethlisberger]

I refuse to comment on how many or what has come loose, so as not to invoke the various fastener stealing demons

 

 

But yes, what Lex said.... Blue Loctite is your friend