I had the same problem with my 2015 after some talk with a local dear replaced under warranty. I paid the difference for black.

 

Not that simple. If that were the case, all lowers exposed to the same environment would show the same damage/deterioration.

The finish is, as another poster said, a thin, cheap-*** Chinese paint.

It is absolutely true that exposing it to road grit will cause this, because the finish on some bikes is either too thinly applied, or the finish is of low quality, or both.

 

I said this in another thread on this subject. You would think, and I know this is a stretch, that after all these years, the MoCo would have come up with something better. They have to know this is an issue because they are and have been replacing them under warranty. Even if they don't want to come up with something better for their customers, you would think the bean counters would look at this as an opportunity to curb warranty costs. They can't be that stupid, can they?

 

Pretty much is that simple ... and the problem is pervasive throughout the industry regardless of the brand ... Over a period of time it will happen to all of them given exposure to the same exposure ... I've been riding for over 50 years and have refinished lower legs countless times on HD's , British and Japanese scooters ...

 

No, they can't. And they're not. They're actually pretty smart.

They continue to put **** finish on the lowers, and save a ton of money, because only a small portion of owners will actually think to file a warranty claim.

So, it's a win.

 

Well, that's conjecture on your part. You have no way of knowing how much the MoCo spends on the coating or how many lower fork warranty claims they've honored. Good try, though.

 

Or for $90 you can buy a pair of new lower take offs on ebay. No shortage of them.

 

There are two possible explanations:

1. They've done the tracking, and have verified that they're saving more money on cheap finishes on the lowers than they're paying out in warranty claims.

2. They're stupid.


Pick the one you like.

 

Actually, there are other possibilities. My favorite is that they just don't give a ****.

 

I bought a spray can of Plastidip, Matt black, masked off everything that wasn't a fork lower, and put three layers on. Looked great, and lasted about three years, and then it was dinged up, so I peeled it off and did it again. Peeled the new coats off agin before I traded it in.