Rumbux upper/Yamaha lower crash bar fitment FUBAR

[Mike Sisson]

So, I bought the Rumbux uppers to mate with my Yamaha lower crash bars. Bought them many months ago and finally got off my ass today to get'er done! Happiness did not follow. Installation seemed simple enough.
Pulled of the upper Yammie bar and then the lower Yammie part to mate with the Rumbux uppers. Not good.

The Rumbux upper part that mates the the Yamaha male lower portion is at least 3-4mm off.

Hmmmmm....

Well, I guess it's not impossible to take some material off...except one problem. Would be taking material of the upper portion which is going to make the upper material remaining a bit thin as can be noted looking at the bare piece.

Other side....

Then started looking at the back mounts which bolt up over the back Yamaha mounts. With the two attached and not bolted/attached to the bike (ie; very loose and positionable) the holes aren't even close.

Not a great pic but the alignment is again not even close...not even half a bolt width....and this was with wiggling an unbolted component to the the best possible alignment...... ::010::

From what I saw, once actually bolted up the alignment will get worse....

It might be possible to bend the shit out of things with a crow bar to get 'em to line up but my previous experience with this is the vibration on a stressed/forced piece will lead to a fracture at the tab itself. (This ain't my 1st rodeo with aftermarket parts that don't fit well.... )

Again, based on amount of metal available on the Rumbux tab, elongating the hole is not an option as is is going to leave minimal material as it would have to come out towards the end of the tab.

The instructions note if the Yamaha tabs are bent then the system won't fit well. As my crash bar has never had a hit/tipover this is not the issue. The stock system bolts up easily and aligns with no effort.

What we have here is some bad measurements made by the manufacturer....

My options are (as I see it right now) take the Yamha lowers to a welding shop, have material welded onto the male end to extend them and re-drill the hole. Can't even consider trying to fit the rest without doing this 1st. Can't cut any off the Rumbux female part to align it as the whole alignment would be (even more) off. As far as the lower tabs go, possible to have the existing tabs cut off and longer, more elongated ones added. This would then involve re-powder coating the whole shitaree or more likely just spritzing it with Krylon and calling it good.

As I'm getting things ready to go to Baja soon this is going to have to go on the back burner again. :'(

If any of you machine type guys have any good ideas please pass them on.

 

[Mike Sisson]

BTW, I would like you all to know, Eric (the vendor here whom I bought the bar from) has stepped up and is trying to get this sorted out.

Kudos!!!!! ::012::

 

[RockyDS]

Well that's a bummer. The Rumbux upper seems like a great way to upgrade the OEM bars but I would certainly be leery of going that route having seen your issues.

 

[Mike Sisson]

Okay....update! Eric got my pics, sent 'em to Rumbux and they did some measuring. Turns out after trying an existing bar on a bike, their jig was a bit messed up and the end of the uppers was not trimmed properly...probably about 3-5mm off. In other words, there needs to be another 3-5mm cut off the existing upper. Not a big deal with a hack saw, beer, and 3 or 4 friends watching to cheer me on. After that the holes will reputedly line up, tabs will be in place and the universe will be right as we know it. As I cannot get to this for a couple of weeks, we'll all have to be sitting on the edges of our seat..... ::025::

Kudos to Eric for stepping up to the plate. He has offered to replace the bar if I so choose ( I do not...just wanna get it on), went to bat with Rumbux over the issue and got it sorted. Rumbux offered to pay for re-powdercoating the bars as they'll have to be sawed upon. I'm not gonna do that....just a spritz of Krylon and life will be good. I do think it shows a lot of integrity on everybody's part and I just wanted to acknowledge Eric and the guys at Rumbux. ::012::

Now, fingers crossed, the bars will fit after I saw them up..... ::025::

 

[EricV]

Just ran across this old thread and wanted to post a follow up. All it required in the end was trimming a small portion off each of the ends of the Rumbux bar where they fit over the Yamaha bar to allow everything to line up. DaFoole found some time, a beer and a hacksaw and did the deed, cleaned up the cuts and sprayed some rattle can paint on there and it fit exactly like it should have. My offer to replace the set was in place from the time we discovered the issue until after he modified the bars and had them on the bike. I wanted to make sure he was happy, even after he did the cutting himself. He still refused the replacement set at the end, so life is good for everyone.

Rumbux was able to identify several other bars made with that jig and get them back from the dealers they were sold to in South Africa to be corrected. Apparently the welder liked to do the cut to length step last, so modified the jig to work that way, instead of cutting to length first, then welding the last bits up. Communication and uniformity have been restored to the Rumbux welding shop.

 

[greatbuffalo]

I'm reading through a few of these threads and Came upon this one.
I'd like to report that I put a Rumbux system on My new 14 Tenere in August. After researching many designs I settled on these mainly due to the fact there are no attachments to the motor. I have an older Triumph Tiger That hasa plate and bars attached to the motor. after the bike went down I found I sustained damage to motor mounting castings.
Since putting this system or the Tenere its hit the deck several times with no issues. I am very satisfide with the system.
I bought the complete system. I didn't have to fit fit to any thing else. Installation was straight foreword.

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