Outranked by Major Engine Damage - Part 3

["Rick Damiani" <rickd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The (new and improved) latest word:

Last Tuesday came and went without any final word, though I *did*
discover that the package had been sent from South Bay Triumph via UPS
next-day air and not Priority Mail. They had the papers and oil
samples (?) in their office on Tuesday morning.

After calling Triumph and South Bay several times over the next few
days I finally got an answer on Friday morning from Triumph:

Claim denied.

Long-timers here might remember that around the end of last August, I
picked up a metal rod that punctured my oil filter. That happened when
the bike had about 9,800 miles on it. I managed to avoid engine damage
by disengaging the clutch and killing the engine, then had it towed to
North County Yamaha. They looked it over, cleaned it up, replaced the
oil and filter, and told me that if I didn't see any metal in the oil
after the next couple of changes I should be fine. I did the next few
oil-and-filter changes myself and didn't see anything that would
indicate any problems with the engine. No bronze, no babbitt, nothing
at all beyond a few small, soft pieces of carbon. 22,000 miles later,
the engine fails. So, like night follows day, Triumph claims that the
damage was the result of running out of oil all those weeks ago.

Now at this point, no one has done anything beyond listen to the
engine and look at the oil. No one has explained how a (supposedly)
gradually deteriorating bearing would suddenly fail with no warning
while leaving no evidence of it's deterioration in the sump. No one
has actually *removed* a bearing and had a look, nor have any other
possibilities been explored. My only recourse with Triumph at this
point is through legal channels, as the denial came from the factory
in England. That is supposedly what took them so long to return an
answer.

Matt Capri was taking his time with the claim hoping that it would,
like so may other things apparently do in Triumph of America's office,
get bundled with other things and approved without rigorous review. A
nice thought I suppose, but it would have been better if he had shared
that with me *before* the long wait, rather than *after* I got upset.

The only ray of sunshine here is the fact that I have comprehensive
coverage on the bike, and the official word from Triumph is that the
damage was caused by the collision with the rod. While I am not
entirely convinced (I *will* make it a point to look at the damaged
internals and, if possible, take pictures) I at least have some hope
of getting the bike running again sometime before summer is over.

Of course, the drama is not yet entirely over - the insurance
company's appraiser still has to look at the bike and make a
determination - but with the official word being that it was caused by
the collision, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. My insurance
company seems to handle things like this pretty well.



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