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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 13
| Holy crap boys and girls! I haven't been on the forum for a while but damned near crashed my 2011 Vision today so decided to see if anyone else has experianced what happened to me today. So I was at a major intersection waiting to turn onto a highway. There was some oncoming traffic but I had time to excecute my turn. So on with the throttle and out with the clutch. Bike didn't want to turn so I slowed down, now exposed in the intersection with a freekin 18 wheeler bearing down on me. Rode the clutch, gave more throttle and twisted hard on the handle bars, barely making the corner without ending up in the opposite ditch. I idled down the shoulder and stopped in the first approach I came to. Had a look and discovered the back portion of my front fender was wedged into the seem of my lower cowling, preventing me from steering the bike. I removed the entire fender assembly and discovered that the plastic back portion of the fender had failed where it bolts onto the forks. I removed the plastic rear part and bolted the front part back on to get home. I am in total shock over the amount of stuff related to this issue on the forum. I am even more shocked that Victory has told people that this is normal wear and tare and that they are doing nothing about it. I bought my bike new. It has never been off the pavement.
I haven't taken a run at Victory myself yet, but I sure as hell will be.
I read all of the comments on the forum about this and the following is my take on this situation:
The fact that there is clearly a design flaw that could be easily rectified does not fuss me that much. I still think the Vision is a great bike and would like to keep it.
However that's up to Victory. I will not own a product from a company that doesn't give 2 shits about my saftey, only because admitting a flaw would cost them some money! I've seen some great suggestions from riders to permanently fix this problem. Don't tell me that after putting 2 short seasons on a new bike, I should be inspecting it to see if there are hidden cracks in the back fender that may prevent me from steering the bike. I also shouldn't have to hear about such a serious life threatening problem from fellow riders. Victory should be communicating this possible failure to anyone that purchased a bike from them.
So I will start my communication with the dealer and go from there before I get any louder on this subject. Victory will get a chance to do the right thing. But know this, if they don't step up to the plate to protect the people that have put so much trust in them, I will dump this bike in a flash. I could easily modify a front fender that works and is safe, but I won't. I didn't spend 25k on what was said to be a highly engineered piece of technology to start inventing my own repairs.
I'm goin to the Victory shop tomorrow.
More to come.
Mark |
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Visionary
Posts: 1365
Central Maryland | Glad you made out OK there Mark. I am keeping any eye on my 2011 front fender (rear portion) as well; and will reinforce it with JB Weld and steel templates when I change out the front tire later this fall.
Be interesting to see if you get a better Victory corporate response; than what others have attained thus far. How Victory corporate claims that this is a "wear and tear" item is completely beyond me.
Why some of them crack and others don't... is still a mystery. |
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Visionary
Posts: 2300
Georgia, west of Atlanta | Glad you are OK. This issue is getting ridicules ( on Victory's part ) |
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 13
| I went to the Dealership today and explained my front fender adventure to the service manager. He tells me he's never heard of it before. I said what? Opened the forum in front of him and showed him the comments. He said he'd talk to the higher ups in Victory but doesn't think they'll do anything about it because there aren't anough cases of failure versus total units sold. I reminded him that it'll only take one death or serious injury to bring this into the spotlight.
In the mean time I have some thoughts on what may cause the failure. I notice that at high speeds the Vision has a harmonic vibration that I can feel through the floorboards. My assumption is that if enough of that occures, it'll start hairline cracks on the week structural points of that fender. I've been on a few trips with the boys where the roads are flat forever with no risk of animals on the road, endangering other motorists or meeting cops. Some of these guys are on sport bikes and ride long distances at 100MPH plus.
Reinforcing the fender is an idea. However I think I'm gonna build some washers out of rubber or a softer neoprene and put them between the fender and where they bolt onto the forks, as well as on the bolt head side. This should accomplish dampening any vibration as well as prevent damage when tightening the bolts.
Mark |
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Cruiser
Posts: 100
Hudson, Ohio | Cochrane - 2013-09-17 8:15 PM
I went to the Dealership today and explained my front fender adventure to the service manager. He tells me he's never heard of it before. I said what? Opened the forum in front of him and showed him the comments. He said he'd talk to the higher ups in Victory but doesn't think they'll do anything about it because there aren't anough cases of failure versus total units sold. I reminded him that it'll only take one death or serious injury to bring this into the spotlight.
In the mean time I have some thoughts on what may cause the failure. I notice that at high speeds the Vision has a harmonic vibration that I can feel through the floorboards. My assumption is that if enough of that occures, it'll start hairline cracks on the week structural points of that fender. I've been on a few trips with the boys where the roads are flat forever with no risk of animals on the road, endangering other motorists or meeting cops. Some of these guys are on sport bikes and ride long distances at 100MPH plus.
Reinforcing the fender is an idea. However I think I'm gonna build some washers out of rubber or a softer neoprene and put them between the fender and where they bolt onto the forks, as well as on the bolt head side. This should accomplish dampening any vibration as well as prevent damage when tightening the bolts.
Mark
Wow - you have not been on the forums in a while....this thing has blown up all summer. Go to the VOG, VMC, VictoryForums, Facebook and you will see what I mean. You need to report this on the NHTSA site and also to Victory via their Facebook page. Send them a message and post your experience on their FB Page. What happened to you also happened to me earlier this summer and it scared the crap out of me. I have heard about this issue before but decided it was time to start spreading the word so others are aware and Victory does something about it. Their official response is this is caused by normal wear and tear and they are not responsible nor do their engineers believe this is a safety concern. Are you freaking kidding me? Since when is a fender breaking considered normal wear and tear? PLEASE do elevate this issue and post your story to Victory.
Edited by Spiderman 2013-09-17 8:43 PM
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Visionary
Posts: 8144
New Bohemia, VA | Cochrane - 2013-09-17 8:15 PM I went to the Dealership today and explained my front fender adventure to the service manager. He tells me he's never heard of it before. I said what? Opened the forum in front of him and showed him the comments. He said he'd talk to the higher ups in Victory but doesn't think they'll do anything about it because there aren't anough cases of failure versus total units sold. I reminded him that it'll only take one death or serious injury to bring this into the spotlight. In the mean time I have some thoughts on what may cause the failure. I notice that at high speeds the Vision has a harmonic vibration that I can feel through the floorboards. My assumption is that if enough of that occures, it'll start hairline cracks on the week structural points of that fender. I've been on a few trips with the boys where the roads are flat forever with no risk of animals on the road, endangering other motorists or meeting cops. Some of these guys are on sport bikes and ride long distances at 100MPH plus. Reinforcing the fender is an idea. However I think I'm gonna build some washers out of rubber or a softer neoprene and put them between the fender and where they bolt onto the forks, as well as on the bolt head side. This should accomplish dampening any vibration as well as prevent damage when tightening the bolts. Mark Poppycock. Not to shoot holes in your philharmonic theory, but that is just plain nonsense. They, Victory did a poor design on a small part of an otherwise phenomenal machine. Bad material, bad vendor weak mount points, and the potential of killing one of it's loyal customers, for what? In the business scheme of things, Victory should have owned this on the first one, but something else seems to be going on. Never have understood this, but I will not make an excuse for a poor, cheap product that will cause death or injury. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 78
| If it is a "wear and tear" item, shouldn't it be happening to ALL with in a certain window of time???? willtill - 2013-09-16 4:33 AM
Glad you made out OK there Mark. I am keeping any eye on my 2011 front fender (rear portion) as well; and will reinforce it with JB Weld and steel templates when I change out the front tire later this fall.
Be interesting to see if you get a better Victory corporate response; than what others have attained thus far. How Victory corporate claims that this is a "wear and tear" item is completely beyond me.
Why some of them crack and others don't... is still a mystery. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 78
| Cochrane - 2013-09-15 11:13 PM
Holy crap boys and girls! I haven't been on the forum for a while but damned near crashed my 2011 Vision today so decided to see if anyone else has experianced what happened to me today. So I was at a major intersection waiting to turn onto a highway. There was some oncoming traffic but I had time to excecute my turn. So on with the throttle and out with the clutch. Bike didn't want to turn so I slowed down, now exposed in the intersection with a freekin 18 wheeler bearing down on me. Rode the clutch, gave more throttle and twisted hard on the handle bars, barely making the corner without ending up in the opposite ditch. I idled down the shoulder and stopped in the first approach I came to. Had a look and discovered the back portion of my front fender was wedged into the seem of my lower cowling, preventing me from steering the bike. I removed the entire fender assembly and discovered that the plastic back portion of the fender had failed where it bolts onto the forks. I removed the plastic rear part and bolted the front part back on to get home. I am in total shock over the amount of stuff related to this issue on the forum. I am even more shocked that Victory has told people that this is normal wear and tare and that they are doing nothing about it. I bought my bike new. It has never been off the pavement.
I haven't taken a run at Victory myself yet, but I sure as hell will be.
I read all of the comments on the forum about this and the following is my take on this situation:
The fact that there is clearly a design flaw that could be easily rectified does not fuss me that much. I still think the Vision is a great bike and would like to keep it.
However that's up to Victory. I will not own a product from a company that doesn't give 2 shits about my saftey, only because admitting a flaw would cost them some money! I've seen some great suggestions from riders to permanently fix this problem. Don't tell me that after putting 2 short seasons on a new bike, I should be inspecting it to see if there are hidden cracks in the back fender that may prevent me from steering the bike. I also shouldn't have to hear about such a serious life threatening problem from fellow riders. Victory should be communicating this possible failure to anyone that purchased a bike from them.
So I will start my communication with the dealer and go from there before I get any louder on this subject. Victory will get a chance to do the right thing. But know this, if they don't step up to the plate to protect the people that have put so much trust in them, I will dump this bike in a flash. I could easily modify a front fender that works and is safe, but I won't. I didn't spend 25k on what was said to be a highly engineered piece of technology to start inventing my own repairs.
I'm goin to the Victory shop tomorrow.
More to come.
Mark
Make sure you report what happened to the NTSB. This was the only way that Honda stepped up and repaired their frame cracking issue back in 2004. |
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 13
| Yep I agree it's BS. The service guy I talked to today was clearly giving me a canned speach that I'm sure Victory has instructed their shops to do for now. I could have poured it on heavily to this young guy, but it was clear he was powerless to do anything for me right now. So I decided to walk away and jab away at Victory myself as others are by signing the petition and posting my incident and concerns publicly and to Victory. I'm not giving up I just want to try to put the energy in the direction that gets us somewhere.
In the mean time, I still love the bike and want to do what ever it takes to pound on a few more miles this year safely. |
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 13
| If the Vic engineer who stated it's not a safety issue could experience what I did and have to put huge torgue into the bars to get around a corner on a busy intersection, hearing a bunch of snapping and cracking going on while ejecting turds from his anal sphincter he'd change his mind in one hell of a hurry! |
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Cruiser
Posts: 166
Bullhead City, AZ | Would the Polaris brass fly an airplane designed by the guy that did the fender |
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Cruiser
Posts: 128
| loren2 - 2013-09-18 1:55 AM
Would the Polaris brass fly an airplane designed by the guy that did the fender
Now thats funny right there! |
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Tourer
Posts: 500
| Naw!! It is just a wear and tear issue!!! Unless the one of the engines fall off and kill someone..... |
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Cruiser
Posts: 100
Hudson, Ohio | Cochrane - 2013-09-17 11:33 PM
If the Vic engineer who stated it's not a safety issue could experience what I did and have to put huge torgue into the bars to get around a corner on a busy intersection, hearing a bunch of snapping and cracking going on while ejecting turds from his anal sphincter he'd change his mind in one hell of a hurry!
Could not have said it better myself Cochrane! |
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Cruiser
Posts: 50
| All
One more broken lower front fender.
I have been checking with every ride. It got cold so I decided to look it over so I took it off.
There is a crack on the left side from the bolt hole strait down to the edge.
The right side has a crack started at the bolt hole, it has not completely made it to the edge yet.
I would like to thank the members here for making this problem well known.
Without the information you have published I would not have known to take it off for a full inspection.
Vision owners that have not removed your fender for inspection you might want to invest the time.
I could not see the cracks with it mounted on the motorcycle.
Again many thanks to the dedicated riders of this forum.
Rick |
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Visionary
Posts: 4278
| On my bike is was a bolt that never was tightened. The fender is not at fault its the person who didn't tighten the bolt.
Bet the majority of fenders that broke were left hand cracked holes |
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Cruiser
Posts: 50
| johnnyvision - 2013-12-03 6:47 PM
On my bike is was a bolt that never was tightened. The fender is not at fault its the person who didn't tighten the bolt.
Bet the majority of fenders that broke were left hand cracked holes
JV
I had been checking the bolts about once a month, never found any loose.
Did not know about the left hole being the predominant breaking point.
The plastic fender will not go back on, will probably use a Cross fender that a friend has. The price is right and won't have to worry about what or when something will happen.
Rick |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 1066
Peru, IN | johnnyvision - 2013-12-03 7:47 PM On my bike is was a bolt that never was tightened. The fender is not at fault its the person who didn't tighten the bolt. Bet the majority of fenders that broke were left hand cracked holes Nope. Mine was the right side and both bolts were tight.
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Iron Butt
Posts: 802
Perry Hall, MD | johnnyvision - 2013-12-03 7:47 PM
On my bike is was a bolt that never was tightened. The fender is not at fault its the person who didn't tighten the bolt.
Bet the majority of fenders that broke were left hand cracked holes
All bolts were tight when I removed it for inspection and found both sides were cracked. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 251
Mechanicsville, VA United States | Okay I've found out why the front rear part of the fender is breaking.......now lets see if I can post pictures.
A little history, my fender was found to be broken at or around 20,000 miles, I ordered a new one and replaced it ....at 27,000 miles I decided to changed my fork oil and seals........found another crack in the same side that had broke before(Left side).....anyway I figured I've got to find out why it keeps breaking! Just in case the pictures won't post here's the deal, the Shoulder of the bolt that holds the fender in place is not long enough to make contact with the fork and it is meshing the plastic fender and breaking it. As it turns out I can't post pictures again.......I can't seem to resize them. sorry!
Edited by diamonbird 2013-12-18 5:09 PM
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Visionary
Posts: 4278
| diamonbird
try this. Go to your photo. Put pointer on photo right click. Then click edit and click on that. At the top it should say resize. Now clear the 100 out and put in 30.
Now go to right hand corner and click red X it will ask you if you want to save. Click on save. Now it might be the size to post |
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Cruiser
Posts: 251
Mechanicsville, VA United States | Thanks JV but mines doesn't have those options on the right click but I did find a re-sizer online and I'm having trouble getting it to work.........I give!
Edited by diamonbird 2013-12-18 6:00 PM
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Cruiser
Posts: 251
Mechanicsville, VA United States | As you can see from above I got it, now as you can see the shoulder of the bolt does not come all the way through the hole so it can land on the mounting spot on the fork so if you tighten the bolt too tight it's going to mash the plastic and break it. I made sure when I tightened the bolt when reinstalling the new fender I was not over tightening it but it still broke. The problem is the lack of length of the shoulder on the bolt. Now if someone can kind a longer bolt they could sell the crap out of them to us! |
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Cruiser
Posts: 251
Mechanicsville, VA United States | maybe more
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Visionary
Posts: 8144
New Bohemia, VA | You know, that actually makes sense. I think the thing that gets me, if Victory knows this, why didn't tell us and give us a remedy for it? |
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Front fender
