Disaster (for Me!!!)

[Chris1200]

Folks.
I've just had a disaster with my beloved 03 Trophy 1200. Apparently a needle bearing in the crank case has broken/collapsed/died and has caused all sorts of mayhem to other internal components. My local Triumph dealer has examined it and it looks like my bill is going to be £1000+++ to repair it. Needless to say I am gutted!

The bike has 13000 miles from new and is in excellent condition. To date it has been serviced according to the book, twice by a Triumph dealer and lately by a non-Triumph mechanic. I was thinking of writing to Triumph to see if they would provide any assistance seeing as the bike is built to be a big miler but seems to have made itself very sick. I appreciate it is out of warranty but it seems unfair that a bike sold as a mile muncher has gone so badly wrong. The dealer is trying to tell me that this fault has occurred because the last service was carried out by a non franchised mechanic. Now Im not a technical genius but as the needle bearing is an internal part it is not something that would have been detected as being faulty during a routine service....or am I wrong? The bike was giving no bother whatsoever until it suddenly stopped and spit all of its oil out through the slave cylinder. I ride sensibly at all times and the bike is never abused and I guess that adds to my frustration and disappointment. If I had been abusing it then I could understand when a problem occurs. But this bike is my baby and something seriously bad has failed inside the engine, and I don't think I have done anything to cause it.

I appreciate fully that even if Triumph did make a gesture it would be purely out of their own goodwill and there would be no requirement for them to do anything to help. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I should go about this? I simply cant afford to fix it at the moment but the bike is in pieces at the Triumph garage.

If anyone can give me any guidance I would be eternally grateful. Promise!!

Chris