British motorcycle manufacturer Triumph has announced a recall of several of its motorcycles because of potential tire bearing problems. Triumph Motorcycles America LTD said that the wheel bearings are of an “unknown” quality and can therefore expose riders to motorcycle accidents.
The company said that Jiangsu, its wheel supplier, recently admitted that got fitted bearings from some company other than Triumph’s intended bearing supplier, which prompted the recall.
“Triumph has no details of the bearing supplier, its quality controls and standards and therefore confidence in the bearing is low,” the company said in its recall notice. “Potential problems arising from bearing quality variability are acknowledged by Triumph. As a precautionary measure Triumph believes it is in the customers best interests to fit the correctly specified bearing from a known supplier with auditble quality control records.”
Triumph said it plans to replace the bearings for free and that it has fixed its supply chain problems.
The recall affects 2012 Thunderbird and Thunderbird Storm motorcycles as well as certain model 2011-2012 Daytona 675 and Street Triple motorcycles.
The company recalled some of its 2006-2009 year motorcycles last year because of electrical problems which could cause the bikes to stall suddenly in traffic, causing crashes.