Royal-Enfield North America Limited issued a recall on its 650 models due to potential brake corrosion.
According to the documents published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (), some 2018-2020 Continental GT and 2018-2020 Interceptor (INT) 650 could present the flaw.
In the Recall Acknowledgement document, Royal Enfield details how road salt could potentially cause the Continental and Interceptor’s brake calipers to corrode. Should one or both calipers rust, it could keep the piston from retracting properly, causing the brake pads to remain in contact with the wheel. This could not only cause premature wear of the pads but it could also reduce the motorcycle’s stopping power. In the most extreme cases, the loss of stopping power could result in a crash and in injuries.
As things currently stand, the manufacturer has yet to confirm the root cause of the problem—whether it has something to do with the type of alloy or a faulty treatment of the caliper.
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If the problem is similar to the one reported in Europe and Korea in May, 2020, the company found out that in countries that use salt as a deicing agent against ice and snow, it received a small number of reports of the calipers presenting sings of corrosion.
Enfield confirmed that it will notify the owners though it didn’t disclose the timeline for this recall. In the case of the similar European and Korean recall, owners of the 15,200 bikes potentially affected were invited to visit their dealer to have the caliper inspected, cleaned, and even replaced, if necessary. We could expect a similar resolution for the American recall.
We will update this recall notification as more details become available. In the meantime, should owners have any questions or concerns regarding this issue, they are invited to contact the Royal Enfield customer service at 1-414-502-1214 to have their VIN verified. Customers may also address their questions to the NHTSA’s Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 or visit www.safercar.gov for more information.
Source: NHTSA