RD04 suspension linkage failure African Queens

[anton88]

Cleaning up a few bits whilst i'm waiting for a replacement rear shock, i thought i'd clean up and re grease my AQ linkage and this is what i found :









I'm waiting to hear back from African Queens to see what they say. They only give a 2 year warranty on their stuff, but i think i'm past that.

Hope they will be good sports about it, as its NOT wear and tear but failure.

The bike hasnt been in a crash or jumped. All fitted correctly, and all suspension bearings good and moving as they should.

If they wont honour a replacement, i'm gonna see if i can get it repaired - theres room to chemically weld an insert tube in the middle, and still have room for bearings. Then weld up the cracks outside. Smooth down the welds then weld on top of that some cut down aluminium tube ?

Have no idea whats caused this - bad design or just unlucky.

But pretty p'd off - cant afford another one

[Lutin]

Good for you for checking - how many people would not have bothered?. Doesn't bear thinking about what might have happened!

[StumpyFingers]

That looks like it could be fatigue failure.
It is lucky you found it.

[anton88]

i'm geting a bit fatigued by this as well

[diskow]

As i already said on some other forums and here. AQ sucks big time (Extreme Prices : Normal or Bad quality)

[antti]

As i already said on some other forums and here. AQ sucks big time (Extreme Prices : Normal or Bad quality)

+1

I`d add bad communication to list.
I have done first, last and only deal with them.

[futter]

Why do people use AQ etc? I had a stainless linkage made up a few years ago and not only was it british, it was stunning and only!! cost £90, but, the bloke who made it was local and made numerous other parts for me.

If I need summat done I always go local - makes sense.

[BobA]

That is really not good, and it doesn't bear thinking about what would have happened if that had completely failed. Thank God you discovered it!

Suppliers must learn that they will always ultimately be judged on their customer service, so I hope African Queens do respond to your problem.

Irrespective of whether it is out of warranty, AQ need to reassure you that this is a one-off fault of their parts if they wish to maintain customer confidence in the product. That part needs to be replaced ideally, NOT repaired.

Maybe you need to let African Queens know that there is a thread running on a forum of potential customers, and that their reputation could be judged on their response.

It might be worth contacting a German forum member, or speaker (you know who he is!!!) to see if they can contact AQ on your behalf, and at the same time let them know that the thread is running on the biggest XRV site in the world!!



Good Luck



Bob

[anton88]

Cheers Bob.

Ive posted on advrider as well just in case there are any guys using it also - ive asked them to check.

I had an email from Stephan at AQ yesterday, he had not seen this problem before, but he was going to contact his supplier about this (so obviously made by a third party).

At least he's come back to me so far. If i was in his shoes to maintain customer confidence, i would look at replacing the part as a good will gesture, or offer a new one at a fraction of the new cost as its out of warranty.

They cant be that big a company???? and any negatives aimed at them would surely be bad for business/reputation.

They still list these on their shop but ive noticed they are now made of steel not aluminium.

I'll give them a chance and see what they do from here - fingers crossed.

[BobA]

Ant'

I'm guessing that this part would have to be approved by strict German TUV tests. Might be worth asking the situation on this, and why the original material was changed to steel, should you get nowhere.

AQ would be crazy not to take this seriously.



Good Luck



Bob