Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Jerkey front brakes

I recently picked up a green, ’05 America. It’s in fantastic shape, always garage kept, lots of extra chrome, and only 2000 miles. The only problem is that when I apply the front brakes, the bike bounces a bit. The feeling is similar to bad anti-lock brakes. Kinda jerky, and most noticeable at slower speeds. I thought maybe the rotor might be warped? So my question is…What could the problem be? Can I fix it my self? (I’m relatively mechanical, and have lots of tools (Dad used to be the Snap-On man)), and might it be covered under warrantee? (I’ve got a couple months left on it) but I’d rather fix it myself. Thanks for any advice.

Yes I think it's the brake rotor.
If it's small you can try to have a mill work.

What could cause the rotor to warp after only 2000 miles? Is it something that I can avoid in the future?

John, I also have a 2005 America. I bought the bike with 1600 miles on it and it already had a warped front disk. Evidently Triumph has had a problem with factory defective disks. Mine was replaced by the local dealership for free under warranty.

Take your bike in and tell them you think you have a defective warped rotor and see if they will replace it.

John M.
The Colony, TX

Triumph went thru a problem with warping front rotors. Do a search, there are a bunch of threads on the topic and I bet you'll find some good info including how people got the dealer to replace it!

If Triumph won't make good on it consider a floating disc.

John, my '05 BA has a warped rotor as well. Just had it calibrated at .00013" out of alignment when the acceptable limit should be .0002". I believe the bike came new that way but am in the process of replacing the rotor with the EBC floating rotor and EBC HH Sintered pads. I am also considereing SS Braided brake lines because the rubber lines flex too much. I'll Let you know how that works out.

Either one or both of my front rotors were warped on my Speedy. My dealer replaced them both under warranty without any problems at all. It is pretty much a known issue that Triumph had a large batch of rotors that warped.

Soren

Yup. Mine were replaced as well. 06 Speedmaster. There are also some threads on Ratnet. Some have been reported to have been well outside the written period. Not of merchantable quality springs to mind.

Thanks Guys. I took the bike to the dealer this week and was told that they have to send in the rotor to make sure it's acutally a warrantee issue, and my bike would be out of commission for at least the next two weeks. My dealer is so small that they leave everyones bikes outside during the day so they have room to work on other ones in the shop. It's pollen season here right now, which turns the bike bright yellow (not that I don't like yellow bikes). And even if it rains, they still keep them outside. Also...It's finally starting to get warm outside and I really don't want to give up my new bike for 2 weeks in prime riding time. Think I'm just going to spring for the floater!

John I Posted this on the performance forum "I just installed the EBC floating rotor with sintered pads. Bike stops real nice now but rotor did not install easily. Apparently, even though this floating rotor is sold for our bike as MD601LS, the rotor rivets that seperate the floating rotor from the section that bolts to the wheel interfere with the brake caliper bracket. The fix was to grind down the part of the caliper bracket that came into contact with the rivets. Otherwise, the rivets would clip the bracket as they turned possibly shearing off or worse! I would definetly recommend this upgrade, especially with the progressive springs, but don't think the install is for the novice mechanic like me!"

Thats a good tip. I was under the impression since they were sold for our bikes they were a simple bolt on part with no issues.

Other guys have implied that it is just a bolt on change and that removing the old bolts was the main difficulty. I can only say that for my bike there was definetly not enough clearance for those rotor rivets to pass through the caliper bracket. The bracket just neede a slight grinding to allow the rivets to pass through.