HELP PLEASE!!!

**** day today. On the way home my chain snapped. Instead of flying off, the chain got caught up and has made a whole in the crank casing (or something). Initial estimate is somehere around 2 grand, though will know more Monday.

Problem is, it doesn’t look like it will be covered by the warranty. The bike shop agree that the chain looks well lubed and isn’t seized or anything (just a bit of surface rust here and there). They think that when I got a new tyre fitted about 2 weeks ago, the tyre shop probably set the chain too tight.

Obviously I won’t get anywhere with the tyre shop as there is no proof they’ve done anything wrong. Question is, is this sort of thing really not covered by warranty? The bike is still less than a year old with 9k on the clock - with the regular services done and dusted. The shop say they are going to phone around and see what they can do, but they don’t think it will come to anything, as Aprilia will wash their hands of it.

Where do I stand?

its not really fault of the bike is it?

Also another reason why i take wheels off to get tyres done and put em back on myself.

reckon only way you’ll get anything is if you can prove fault of the tyre shop.

Sorry tale m8.

i doubt very much the warranty will cover that, chain adjustment is down to the rider , routine maintainance, pre-ride check etc as described in the handbook, as they’ll see it as been done by you and not part of a booked in service at a main dealer they’ll wriggle right out of it ! how big is the hole?

bummer :crying:

Sheeehit! Sorry to hear this mate - that’s major crap. Chop is right when he says you can’t trust tyre fitters to get chain tension right - I bought a used bike a month ago and they stuck new tyres on it as part of the deal - when I checked the chain back home it was way too tight.

Like Chop I take the wheels off of the bike for tyre changes myself - that way I know everything will be put back together properly.

Hope you get this sorted without too much hassle.

Cheers sid. Thats all I wanted really - someone to say ‘damn, thats unlucky’ :slight_smile:

I’m relatively new to biking and it never occured to me that you couldn’t trust what I consdered to be ’ the professionals’. I’ve no technical know-how or tools and when I got the bike I never thought that would be such a problem. I mean, after driving cars for ten years it was never a problem and i thought it wold be much the same with bikes.

I saw someone posting up about a maintenance course - mighttry and find something like that, or just get myself some tools and a book - - looks like it’ll save me a packet in the long run.

aprilia wouldnt accept liability if the engine fell out and the wheels fell off after a week let alone a chain break. Has the chain damaged the outer casing or the internal casing…if its the outer casing that should be easy to replace if it has actually smashed the internal casings then it will have to be stripped to remove any pieces from the engine or it will screw up the gearbox and or the engine…

Its a real bummer and i think 2k might be a tad light or at least I doubt it would be less…

Sorry mucker but its a bad news story and to be honest one we all face with chains…you just never know when one might let go…at 9k chains are getting tired but can last well over this depending upon your riding style…mine never last much beyond 8k…and then i am usually just pushing my luck…

Sorry to hear mate! That must really hurt.
I’m like you, no technical knowledge, so it’s crazy you can’t trust who you consider “professionals” to do something you employ them to do.

Hopefully it’ll get sorted!

I’ve had chains last nearly 20k miles even on a litre bike doing trackdays etc.

The biggest killer for a chain is not just not lubing it often enough, but a chain that is not cleaned often enough. The dirt particles break up the oil seals which spells the end of a chain (speeds up wear), so even if loads of lube is applied, the real problem isn’t tackled.

I know you know all that anyway as you’ve been riding 2 wheels long enough :hehe:

I do think you may have half a chance on getting it replaced under warranty if you still have the chain,the dealer has allready agreed that you have lubed & maintaned your chan. if you feed chain back round front sprocket & rear etc cable tie or wire chain back together tightley then you can see if chain was over adjusted, if not then the chain was at fault not you,or tyre fitters as long as it is the origanal chain.
take it easy on the dealer as they are the only people how can help convince aprilia that it was the chan & if you do get done on warranty be patient BIG JOB.
if you cant get it done on warranty find a descent ally welder,make sure he comes buy recomondation as descent ones should be able to do with engine in the frame as long as the hole is acessible.

Can you get a quote from an independant mechanic?

not saying dealer is diddling you but prob quoting for all new parts direct from aprillia etc, you might be able to save some sourced from other places.

Like someone else said in the post you made in the BCR thread…

If it does work out that expensive to repair the engine, it might be worth selling the damaged one and buying a low mileage one all off ebay.

You might get a good deal.

Really sorry to hear this. bad luck fella :doze:As the others have said, I doubt very much if the manufacturer will entertain a claim on what they call a consumable item after 9k.

I’ve had the same thing happen years ago and it really messes your day up. The damage is usually to things like the clutch push rod/mechanism and if you are are really unlucky the crankcases in that area.

If yo can get the engine/gearbox stripped it may be cheaper to get the original cases specialist welded as opposed to new cases which will cost a fortune.

Good luckEdit: I forgot to add that you can find such coded welders through speedway and racing circles usually:cool:

It was exactly the same for me mate - when I started biking I used to rely on shops to do even basic work - but I got a haynes and bought some tools and gradually built up some knowledge - it’s just a question of getting the time to do it really.

There are some very knowledgeable people on here who are giving some good advice - so I hope that getting your bike back on the road will be as painless and economical as possible. ;):slight_smile:

you would be better of getting a second hand engine from a crashed bike…

what bike is it?

Agreed but I recon a s/h Tuono lump is gonna be like rocking horse doo-doo

Argh this is bad luck; sorry to hear this.

If you do decide to get a secondhand replacement then you might want to consider this one (assuming your bike is indeed a Tuono).

Best of luck :slight_smile:

Warrenties aint worth the paper they are written on unless your bike takes it upon itself to teleport straight into the sun for no apparent reason it seems :frowning:

There ya go then… Job’s a good’un:)

If under warranty, WTF didn’t you get the original dealer to do the tyre? There wouldn’t be a problem then.

I’m sympathetic, but not too much.

indeed what a pain in the butt!!

any way you look at it its not going to be cheap but thats a good find by eezyrida nice one.

you may be looking at a grand not two…

best of luck dude