Anyone else have this plate break on their ZX-2? At first I thought it was a plastic piece then realized it is aluminum with a decal. The plastic appears to be ok, but the plate is definitly broken. Wondering if it is from the whole thing flexing. (It is the mostly vertical crack to the immediate left of the upper rivet in the picture.)
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What is AD Boivin is saying about this?
I find strange the break location. Probably a weakness point!
I find strange the break location. Probably a weakness point!
I'm currently trying to get a hold of Dennis from A&D.
sxray
Pro
Please let us know what he says.
subaru2006
TY 4 Stroke Junkie
If the plastic is OK I would think it would be OK??
mdkuni
TY 4 Stroke Guru
Looked mine over and found the start of this crack on the right side only. What side is yours on? Would be curious to hear AD's response as well.
Right side as well. I have not got a response at all from A&D. I am a little disappointed with that. When I get a chance I'll try calling Dennis directly.
mdkuni
TY 4 Stroke Guru
thegrizzly1 said:
This is the norm with my experience with them.
Try this address as well as Denis: services@adboivin.com
That address is for Sophie she is sales/customer service.
Thanks MD, I'll give it a try now.
Well, here was the deal: With the new email address (thanks mdkuni), Denis got back to me within 24hours. He said he couldn't see the crack and try to get some better pictures.
Last night I dropped the skid out and took some better pictures, and discovered that both sides were in fact cracked. I sent pictures of them to Denis this morning and within 2 hours he got back to me. Here is a portion of his reply:
He will be sending me both plates and required rivets free of charge, and as promised Annie got a hold of me later this afternoon to confirm shipping and payment for some other parts that I ordered.
Once I was able to get a hold of them, I was taken care of promptly and to my satisfaction. Thank you Denis at A&D Bovin.
I have a theory about why the plates may be bending: I have the Z-extends for a 144" suspension. While the aluminum coupler blocks for the extends appear to be good and they do interlock well with the rail, it looks as though I have tipped up rails much like the new XTX. I think the additional leverage if the 11.5" rail extension is flexing the main plastic rails enough to work the aluminum rail plates back and forth enough that they eventually get fatigue cracks in them. I am pretty sure I saw a picture of a 151" ZX-2 on this site, and I believe it had a much more extravagant gusset/brace system than what was included with mine. I know I had one of the first ZX-2's in production and maybe they changed the design. For any of you with a recently purchased 136" or 144" ZX-2, do the coupling gussets for the rails look like the ones in my pictures (with only a couple of bolts), or do they have a bunch of rivets in them like the 151" I thought I saw?
I will copy this message to Denis at A&D Bovin and see what he has to say about my theory.
For those of you who have found cracks in your plates like mine, what length suspension do you have?
Last night I dropped the skid out and took some better pictures, and discovered that both sides were in fact cracked. I sent pictures of them to Denis this morning and within 2 hours he got back to me. Here is a portion of his reply:
He will be sending me both plates and required rivets free of charge, and as promised Annie got a hold of me later this afternoon to confirm shipping and payment for some other parts that I ordered.
Once I was able to get a hold of them, I was taken care of promptly and to my satisfaction. Thank you Denis at A&D Bovin.
I have a theory about why the plates may be bending: I have the Z-extends for a 144" suspension. While the aluminum coupler blocks for the extends appear to be good and they do interlock well with the rail, it looks as though I have tipped up rails much like the new XTX. I think the additional leverage if the 11.5" rail extension is flexing the main plastic rails enough to work the aluminum rail plates back and forth enough that they eventually get fatigue cracks in them. I am pretty sure I saw a picture of a 151" ZX-2 on this site, and I believe it had a much more extravagant gusset/brace system than what was included with mine. I know I had one of the first ZX-2's in production and maybe they changed the design. For any of you with a recently purchased 136" or 144" ZX-2, do the coupling gussets for the rails look like the ones in my pictures (with only a couple of bolts), or do they have a bunch of rivets in them like the 151" I thought I saw?
I will copy this message to Denis at A&D Bovin and see what he has to say about my theory.
For those of you who have found cracks in your plates like mine, what length suspension do you have?
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mdkuni
TY 4 Stroke Guru
Here are some pictures of mine. Not sure I am going to worry about them too much unless the crack runs all the way through. I will contact Denis to see what his thoughts are though. Turns out mine is also happening on both sides as well. This is at about 13,000 miles on the skid.
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Why could one not double up on the plates with one more on the inside? Maybe bolt together instead of rivet if one can't find rivets long enough?
Would this not make the area twice as strong?
Would this not make the area twice as strong?
You could double up the plates, one inside and one outside. But I think you need to look and see why the plates are breaking in the first place. My guess is that for those of us with extensions (longer than the 121" base model) there is enough of a lever to slightly bend/flex the whole rail assembly. So far, the plastic seems to have held up just fine. I think the aluminum plate is cracking from all the fatigue caused by the flexing. Now if we double up the plates in this area, we still have the same forces caused by the lever action of the extensions, but we have increased the local resistance to flexing in the area of the plates. Since the force causing the flexing is still there and unchanged, that force still has to be transmitted. It is transmitted through the rivets and the clamping effect of the aluminum plate to the plastic rail. My guess is that the larger part of the force is through the rivets. If we double the bending resistance (by doubling up the plates) I would be afraid of the rivets tearing out the plastic instead of fatiguing the aluminum plates. Once the plastic tears/breaks, catastrophic failure will follow shortly after.
I am sure ther are other engineers on this site than can do a better job of explaining this than me. I hope it makes sense.
I am sure ther are other engineers on this site than can do a better job of explaining this than me. I hope it makes sense.
mdkuni
TY 4 Stroke Guru
Just an update. I do have the 121" model and I have the same cracking as seen by my pictures above so I do not believe this to be simply due to the extension.
Denis also made me aware that the intended purpose of these plates is for compression strength only. So with them being cracked they will still be doing their job just fine.
Denis did agree to send me new plates as well. Until a couple days later he changed his mind and said my suspension was too old. The service gets better every day! I will not be replacing mine.
Denis also made me aware that the intended purpose of these plates is for compression strength only. So with them being cracked they will still be doing their job just fine.
Denis did agree to send me new plates as well. Until a couple days later he changed his mind and said my suspension was too old. The service gets better every day! I will not be replacing mine.
kinger
VIP Member
I have a 121" and mine are cracking in the exact same spot. Not as bad as those picts yet but I only have 2500 miles on it.
