Am I being unreasonable? Africa Twin wheel corrosion

[skahigh]

My Africa Twin is less than 2 years old and has been used in the UK exclusively on the roads through 1 Winter (it's been garaged all of this Winter due to lockdown).

I clean it semi regularly (weekly/fortnightly ish when in use) using normal vehicle cleaning products, most recently Halfords own brand shampoo and wax.

I took the wheels off a couple of weeks ago to give them a really thorough clean and bring them back to new by getting off what I thought was chain fling only to discover corrosion in the gold anodising:



Put a warranty claim in with Honda and it was denied, turns out this has been reported to them before and they've issued a directive to dealers:



Am I being unreasonable to think that describing road salt and washing as abnormal conditions that would lead to corrosion, on a bike like this, is completely unacceptable?

This would never happen with a car wheel so why is it acceptable on a bike?

[Beschy]

My Street Triple wheels do not corrode through heavy winter use so yes, I would be p*ssed if this happened to me on a new Honda I had bought.

[bsidethecside]

I don't see riding on a salted road and then cleaning your bike after as unreasonable. It's sold as a road vehicle for use in a northern country, so road salt is part and parcel of normal use, also it's a higher end bike at the price as well. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 provides that goods shall be of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose, so I'd say the AT fails both counts in your case. Unless Honda are suggesting the bike was only meant to last 12 months...

[rat840771]

I though the quality of finish of my AT was crap in comparison to my previous Suzuki GSXR1000 and that was 10 years old and a Suzuki !

Wheels were replaced due to corrosion on the spokes (have these corroded) I did nothing but care for mine but you couldn’t stop it from rusting and furring up

[TinyMonster]

I had an Africa Twin on a 67 plate. Had the gold wheels and spokes replaced twice under warranty. They're terrible.

[anonymous-user]

My Tracer 900 GT is less than 2 years old and was used in very similar circumstances to your AT, one full winter commute with a very quick rinse when used when the roads were salted.
There is no corrosion at all on my wheels, I would be extremely miffed in your position.

[skahigh]

rat840771 said:

I though the quality of finish of my AT was crap in comparison to my previous Suzuki GSXR1000 and that was 10 years old and a Suzuki !

Wheels were replaced due to corrosion on the spokes (have these corroded) I did nothing but care for mine but you couldn’t stop it from rusting and furring up

My spokes seem to be fine so must be stainless and the general condition is ok, although the paint has rubbed off the plastics in places like the grab handles where my tail pack attaches.

[podman]

I also would be seriously unhappy, when the bike was launched I took a demonstrator out from Graftons in Milton Keynes and that bike had very badly corroded rims and spokes with only a few hundred miles on the clocks...

the dealer seemed to think the rims and spokes would be upgraded to a spec more resilient to our Winters but it seems thats not the case.

[trickywoo]

rat840771 said:

I though the quality of finish of my AT was crap in comparison to my previous Suzuki GSXR1000 and that was 10 years old and a Suzuki !

Wheels were replaced due to corrosion on the spokes (have these corroded) I did nothing but care for mine but you couldn’t stop it from rusting and furring up

The slating Suzuki thing is really strange to me. I went from a 15 year old GSXR with 35k miles on it to an 18 month old street triple with 3k miles. The triumph was full of corrosion on most of the threaded fasteners, to the extent that thread fell off when removed. I can’t imagine the state it would have been in after another 10 years. The Suzuki was unmarked.

[Rosscow]

trickywoo said:

The slating Suzuki thing is really strange to me. I went from a 15 year old GSXR with 35k miles on it to an 18 month old street triple with 3k miles. The triumph was full of corrosion on most of the threaded fasteners, to the extent that thread fell off when removed. I can’t imagine the state it would have been in after another 10 years. The Suzuki was unmarked.

Probably better built 15 years ago compared to 3 years ago.

Now it's all about PCP for 2 or 3 years and then change bike.

[TinyMonster]

I had a GSX-R750 K7, which corroded pretty badly over winter, despite best efforts to keep it washed and dry. I think, to some degree, it's the luck of the draw.

[Neal H]

That service bulletin from Honda is basically an admission that it isn’t designed to be able to withstand normal daily winter use, therefore they’ve rejected your warranty request because it’s within design parameters. Outrageous really.

It isn’t unreasonable to expect an Adventure style bike called ‘Africa Twin’ to be able to last a couple of years on U.K. roads without corroding, regardless of how often you clean it.

[jjones]

Same as my wheels, I have also hear it may be caused by brake dust.

[Pothole]

bsidethecside said:

I don't see riding on a salted road and then cleaning your bike after as unreasonable. It's sold as a road vehicle for use in a northern country, so road salt is part and parcel of normal use, also it's a higher end bike at the price as well. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 provides that goods shall be of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose, so I'd say the AT fails both counts in your case. Unless Honda are suggesting the bike was only meant to last 12 months...

The purpose of wheels is to enable the bike to move along the ground. A little surface corrosion does not affect that ability. The satisfactory quality angle may be worth pursuing, however. Silly that manufacturers don't coat anodised aluminium, though.

Comparison with car wheels, as further up - not by you, is pretty silly. Car wheels are not generally anodised aluminium.

[rat840771]

I will rephrase, I love Suzuki’s, they have a reputation of being below Honda in the quality dept, all my GSXR’s have been faultless in my ownership and all in amazing condition.

trickywoo said:

rat840771 said:

I though the quality of finish of my AT was crap in comparison to my previous Suzuki GSXR1000 and that was 10 years old and a Suzuki !

Wheels were replaced due to corrosion on the spokes (have these corroded) I did nothing but care for mine but you couldn’t stop it from rusting and furring up

The slating Suzuki thing is really strange to me. I went from a 15 year old GSXR with 35k miles on it to an 18 month old street triple with 3k miles. The triumph was full of corrosion on most of the threaded fasteners, to the extent that thread fell off when removed. I can’t imagine the state it would have been in after another 10 years. The Suzuki was unmarked.

[MorganP104]

Neal H said:

That service bulletin from Honda is basically an admission that it isn’t designed to be able to withstand normal daily winter use, therefore they’ve rejected your warranty request because it’s within design parameters. Outrageous really.

It isn’t unreasonable to expect an Adventure style bike called ‘Africa Twin’ to be able to last a couple of years on U.K. roads without corroding, regardless of how often you clean it.

Agreed. In very simple terms, Honda is saying to their dealers "we know our wheels are crap, tell customers to naff off".

I really wouldn't be happy with that at all. Not one little bit.

[Krikkit]

MorganP104 said:

Neal H said:

That service bulletin from Honda is basically an admission that it isn’t designed to be able to withstand normal daily winter use, therefore they’ve rejected your warranty request because it’s within design parameters. Outrageous really.

It isn’t unreasonable to expect an Adventure style bike called ‘Africa Twin’ to be able to last a couple of years on U.K. roads without corroding, regardless of how often you clean it.

Agreed. In very simple terms, Honda is saying to their dealers "we know our wheels are crap, tell customers to naff off".

I really wouldn't be happy with that at all. Not one little bit.

I suppose you could argue that an "Africa Twin" isn't designed for anywhere but the Sahara, why would it be salt resilient?

Joking aside, it seems scandalous that they're saying the wheels can't stand to be used in Northern Europe winter without corroding.

[trickywoo]

MorganP104 said:

I really wouldn't be happy with that at all. Not one little bit.

Nor me. Is that really the best Honda can do to make people feel better about poor quality wheel spoke nipples?

it would make me more keen to take them to small claims over it not less. I'm surprised people on the FB group, or where ever they gather, haven't banded together to properly challenge it.

[TommyBuoy]

Doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Did you contact the honda dealer or their head office?

Especially annoying as their cars have a 3 year surface corrosion warranty (I didn't check to see if this excludes wheels tbf). Even so, for a finished metal to have corrosion seems poor.

[Pothole]

TommyBuoy said:

Doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Did you contact the honda dealer or their head office?

Especially annoying as their cars have a 3 year surface corrosion warranty (I didn't check to see if this excludes wheels tbf). Even so, for a finished metal to have corrosion seems poor.

Another silly comparison. Are any of the warrantied parts anodised aluminium?