Disappointing end to a great day of riding

[mjk778]

Beautiful day in NY, day off from work, great day of riding, on the way home I intermittently notice a burning rubber smell, looking down I see nothing. Bike seems fine until about a mile from home I feel something dragging, pull over promptly and WTF, my exhaust bracket snapped and is stuck on my tire, shredding it around the edge while simultaneously turning the lower pipe in because of the force (hopefully nothing bent) Thankfully the tire did not blow while I was riding, as it was a pretty spirited ride home.

So the question I have, is it normal for a bracket (I believe to be made of aluminum) designed for an exhaust, to snap. Keep in mind I have roughly 1k on my new exhaust or is this just a freak thing. Exhaust was dealer installed, I'm wondering if it was tightened properly or something else that could of caused this. Also, is this a piece that can be fabricated? Obviously I do not want the same piece from QD.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Mike

[redpato]

In the first photo of your bracket it appears to be a stress crack. Notice the rough edge of the material at the crack? That type of crack can be caused by the part being installed under a load. In other words, not in a relaxed condition. If when the pipes were installed they didn't quite line up and the mechanic forced them to align, it could have caused the part to be under stress, leading to its cracking. In the same picture, the bolt hole on the right has a black mark as if the washer or fastener rotated against the part, another sign of not being installed properly. If it was installed loose, the black mark showing the washer rotation, the vibration of the bracket could cause it to crack. As for making a replacement part, bending aluminum to mark parts is easily done when the material is of a soft quality. After it's bent it needs to be heat treated to keep its shape or under load it will try to straighten out. If you're not equipped to do this work have a local fabricator make you a new one. Or get a replacement part from the original manufacturer.

"in God we trust"

[TOP_DUC]

My guess is the part is fine, but was installed under "stress", meaning the pipes weren't aligned to eliminate any undue loads on the bracket. It could also be poor selection of aluminum plate to stamp out the bracket. You should be able to see strees cracks along the break line that would indicate the metal was stressed during the original bending process or during installation.

Unfortunately, the FIRST place to look is the installation itself. Although there are some great technicians "out there", many are simply parts-swappers and not very good ones at that.

Looks like I was late on my post. The post above is right on the money.

[mjk778]

Hey guy, thanks for the feedback, really appreciate it. Few questions

Should I have the bracket fabricated ou of the same material or something stronger?

Secondly, if the pipes were forced into position on initial installation which caused the issue, what would or could be done to prevent this from happening again? I was planning on fixing this myself (am mech inclined, but not a technician), but am not so sure now, although the alternative is bringing it to the dealer who installed the, in the first place


Thanks

[TOP_DUC]

You can check the pipe alignment by eyeballing the bracket into position and see where the pipe is in relation the the bracket. It looks like the pipe has a clamp and slip-joint fairly close to the muffler section. IMO, if that connection were aligned and tightened properly the bracket would not have broken, PLUS if it did, the pipe would remain in position as the slip-joint clamp would hold it. Maybe the slip-joint is loose? IDK, but you can figure it out with hands-and-eyeballs on.

As for the bracket, I would contact the manufacturer to let them know of the failure and ask for a replacement bracket (only). They will likely ship you one for free. If there was really a material problem, there should be more failures than yours...

[mjk778]

Update on this is I went to my dealer with the snapped bracket and pics.* They insisted on picking my bike up and correcting the situation.* *They are going to contact motowheels (who they purchased from) to contact QD to inform them of the issue.* The pipes may still have some type of warranty, but not sure.* *

I appreciate all your advice, and will Update once I hear back from the dealer.*


Cheers

Mike

[Michael the Psycho]

Usually... Exhaust manufacturers tell you to do a loose alignment before tightening everything up. That location doesn't look like a common candidate for failure. I'm guessing the installation wasn't done properly and everything was tightened along the way and not at the end like it should have been.