[Fizzerpilot]

Just looked at mine... Mine is flawless, the casting is perfectly smooth.

 

[Fizzerpilot]

Are these 2014s and 2015s....? I see several are 2015s.

Yeah, my castings on both sides are perfectly smooth. I hope this is just an imperfection, not a structural issue.

 

[Fizzerpilot]

On further inspection, my casting/bolts look significantly different than theses photos. On the surface, they appear the same, maybe it is just the photos, but that recess and the bolt head thickness seem quite different on my early 2014.

 

[Fizzerpilot]

I can try to get it... It looks like my bolt heads are much thicker, much more rounded. Maybe insignificant, but could point to a change in the process/part.

 

[Fizzerpilot]

Yeah, in photos, it appears that the bolt heads can look thinner... depending on the angle.

 

[Fizzerpilot]

Looks like they broke the mold after they built mine....

Get it?

Broke the mold?

 

[Fizzerpilot]

If the bolts had changed, it could indicate a change in manufacture. It isn't about the bolt, it is about the process.

Just like when Triumph stopped clear coating over their decals... At that time, the pearl white paint changed as well, and replacement parts no longer matched the OEM color.

It wasn't about the decal, that didn't change the paint...but the process as a whole changed.

 

[Fizzerpilot]

It wouldn't be the first time Yamaha had cracking frames...

 

[Fizzerpilot]

I may be mistaken, but it appears to be on yours too. It's a little hard to tell by your picture, but look closely at the top radius above your forward right hand side mounting bolt recess.

Yup...

It appears to be on late 2014, and 2015 models.

 

[Fizzerpilot]

The quality of the casting looks like it declined over time... Some of these photos look terrible

 

[Fizzerpilot]

Looks similar to mine, will be keeping an eye on this as it develops. If this weakens the frame Yamaha will have a very embarrassing widespread recall. On mine it feels like a crack in the mold and the blemish in the frame actually protrudes in the 4 dark spots in the picture and catches my fingernail on it. I always thought the frame looked cheap anyway, the way the just harshly filed off the edges of it in certain spots.

View attachment 14867

Filed off edges? Man, I inspected the heck out of mine today, and cannot find any portion that is not silky smooth? Where are your filed edges? My frame appears flawless, it is very high quality, not a single mark in it... I'm actually really impressed!

I wonder if Yamaha switched up their casting supplier?

 

[Fizzerpilot]

Yeahhhh, mine is much smoother there

 

[Fizzerpilot]

Don't do wheelies

 

[Fizzerpilot]

Yeah. Mine is NOT like that... Wow. I just checked, my wife thinks I am crazy, I'm running to the garage every 10 minutes!

These late model frames are a little off.

 

[Fizzerpilot]

I just find it odd, that it only appears on later model bikes... So, they changed something.

My manufacture date is 12/13...

Before things went sideways!

 

[Fizzerpilot]

Also, post up your build date, since it doesn't affect all bikes, it would be nice to see the range of dates.

 

[Fizzerpilot]

I think the point was to determine if it was isolated to later build dates, which this information has almost confirmed is the case.

They don't build them like they used to.

 

[Fizzerpilot]

Yep, for one year they built them like they used to...

Well, probably for 6 months...

 

[Fizzerpilot]

Yeah, but your steering head is a helluva lot cleaner than the later runs. I'm not saying the early ones are completely flawless, but they have gotten a lot uglier.

 

[Fizzerpilot]

Uglier.

Upon further inspection:
View attachment 14920
Picture is rotated 90.
Where Steering tube goes through the frame.
Comments?