Tenere suspension
 

Like a good soldier, I took my Tenere for its 6k service. Arriving to collect it, to be told that the suspension bearings had collapsed and I would be walking home.

It's a warranty job and the engineer will be putting in a technical report.

The bearing collapse can be diagnosed by putting the bike on its centre stand and lifting the back wheel. If there is significant vertical movement, then the bearings are probably f**ked.

On the whole, not a good day. But it is better to find out now rather than somewhere out in the boonies with limited cell coverage.

Si

Oh dear!
Did they give you any idea as to what could have caused it? Or is it just 'one of those things'?

Barry.

Edit: is it the swinging-arm bearings or some other?

Sorry if I am stupid (as usual ... ) but don't you mean horizontal (free movement from the left to right)?

I had this happen on my old ZZR250 when i was first starting biking. Didnt think it would have happened on a newess bike. Do you use a power washer to wash your bike. As using high pressure water or the seals of any bearing is not good and it pushs past them and blasts out the grease meaning over time they rust/cease up and then bang let go and leave you in the middle of no where.

If you put your bike on the centre stand or riase your rear wheel off the ground with out putting any pressure on the rear suspension. You then try and move your rear wheel vertically up or down, there should be no free play (ie easy up and down movement) as it should be compressing the rear suspension. When the bearing goes it means the first for centimeters of movement is the play within the broken bearing before your rear supension kicks in.


If youve sideways movement in your wheel it sounds like its a wheel bearing had broken, had a few of these go on me too:sick[1]:.

Up and down play is almost always due to the bottom shock bearing. Side to side play in the swinging arm will mean swinging arm pivot bearings.

To reply,

<borus>
It is up and down movement in the bottom shock bearing.

<maxwell>
I don't pressure wash anything, at most it gets a couple of buckets of water from time to time to take the worst of the grime off.

<badgestar>
I haven't gone off road with the Tenere. However, the roads around me are littered with speed platforms / humps / mini roundabouts, not all of which are taken at the regulation 20mph, and the roads in the SE are particularly bad at the moment, with some deep and unavoidable potholes.

The engineer was also surprised, I guess it could be just a duff set.

Currently looking at the weather and thinking that I had planned to be out all day today (Sun).

Si

When I fitted the MM lowering link I noticed the bearings are fairly dry and greased them but that should not cause this.

Can you find out what bearing , is it the bearing in the linkage or at the top or bottom of the shock

Looks like it was the link at the bottom of the shock.

BTW. All of the odd clunks that I had written off as normal for the bike appear to have gone away. So I think that the bearing may have been iffy for some considerable time.

Feels like a new bike again.

Si

I had the same experience. See my post http://www.xt660.com/showthread.php?...excessive+play
I have not solved it yet, because I have broken hand, so I am not able to go to my dealer http://www.xt660.com/images/icons/icon8.gif There are 3 bearing with excessive play: bottom bearing of the dumper, one bearing in the linkage and small play is in upper bearing of the dumper too. I am curious, how my dealer will react... The bike is quite new - 5km on the clock!

Well as mine is almost on 6000miles I thought I'd take the linkage apart this afternoon.

All looks okay with the dogbone linkage and the lower shock mount bearings although there wasn't much grease in there. The bolt head (LHS) for the frame to knuckle pivot point was difficult to get a spanner on so that will have to wait till another day. Sod's law this will be the one that goes first, especially now the others are nicely greased.

You guys got to be joking! Worn bearings in the suspension after a p**spot full of of miles? Tenere used to stand for something ones, endurance and toughness. It would not let you down. Whatever happened to grease nipples on linkages? The old Teneres got them and with an annual squirt of grease they last more than 22 years and over 100k miles!
I was going to change my XTR for a 660 Tenere next Jan but your issues have just made me think twice about that.

Rob

1 or 2 incidents doesn't make it into a common problem. =)

Yep grease nipples would be nice.

I think you should think twice.

There are a number of quality issues which appear common to date.

Cush drive shortlived
Engine bar lugs cracking
Poor quality bolts and fittings in exposed areas
Loose bolts from the factory, my sprocket nut was scarily easy to undo nowhere near the 120Nm recommended, ditto the shock linkage nuts- which may explain the failures Big Si and George mention above.

I'd recommend a torquing and greasing session to Tenere owners.

They did that to my bike both at the 1000km and 10000km service, maybe the reason why I've never had a single problem. I thought that was part of the routine?

I hadn't intended for this to get major, while the engineer "deamed" it dangerous, to be frank, the bearings were probably shot for some considerable time before the engineer noticed it. I had probably been riding it for months with the duff bearings. Looking back, the time it might have caused me problems was a hump backed bridge on a sharp left bend near me, and the couple of times I took it a bit quick with the bike hard over, as the suspension relaxed, the bike stepped out, so I learned not to take that particular bridge at speed. It might have been the bearings, it might have been the surface, it might have been the tyres, either way, I was pushing my luck and the design envelope of the road / bike.

Most new models have teething problems, some worse than others, you only have to look to the car industry for some classic lemons.

I must say I miss grease nipples, my Triumph had them in the rear suspension, and once a year I pumped grease in until clean grease oozed out the sides. Good checking / maintenance practices are a necessity on any bike.

Si

The main reason to check my rear suspension in Tenere was an experience with the same problem on Germany XT660Z forum ( www.xt-660.de), so I�m afraid, that this is not only one or two cases... If I compare my old XT600E from�96 and XT660R from�04, I have to say that the quality is continually going down :-( At this time a have DRZ400S from�05 too and I must say, that there is a really big difference in quality. I spent 10000km on DRZ and the bike is like new (if I wash it...) - no play in suspension, no rusty places.. On XT660R i found some rusty places after 1 - 2 years with 6000km on the clock...I bought the Tenere, because I like it and I want to go for a trips with my wife too. And, frankly speaking, I love Yamaha....

all feedback is good plus it gives the rest of us ammo for when the dealer starts trying to charge us.

grease must be in short supply in italy, ive had my bike to bits today to lube up all bolts, wheel spindles and rear shock bushes, their was little or no grease on them , THEIR IS NOW , shockin