Motorcycle steering lockup

This Preliminary Evaluation (PE14006) was opened after NHTSA became aware of alleged steering lockup involving Victory Vision motorcycles built by Polaris Industries, Inc. (Polaris). This issue has been the subject of numerous online forum posts by the filer of VOQ 10534733. Both the VOQs and forum posts (from all sources) formed the foundation of our investigation. The subject motorcycles are equipped with a two-piece, plastic, front fender. The back half (the all-black portion in the photo below) is secured to the fork with a single fastener on each side. It is secured to the front half of the fender with two plastic pushpins. The back half of the subject 2-piece fender is alleged to cause steering lockup when it partially separates and becomes wedged in the lower faring. We have expanded the PE's original scope to include the MY2014 and 2015 Visions because (1) these bikes came on-line after we opened this investigation and (2) the subject fender remains unchanged. Since its introduction in May, 2007, Polaris has produced 7,337 Visions (and trim derivatives). In the 8 years since, we are aware of 35 incidents of partial fender separation wherein the fender "wedged" in the lower fairing opening. None of the incidents involved a crash. During testing, with the fender both wedged in the lower fairing and with it pinned in the seam joining the right and left lower fairing halves, we noted a “notchy” steering feel but no steering lock-up. At no time was steering control lost in either circumstance (wedged and/or pinned). When the front forks were rotated at angles greater than 10 degrees, and vehicle speed was, by necessity, below 10mph we noted an increase in steering effort that was easily manageable. This is consistent with the results of Polaris’ testing where steering effort increased at steering angles beyond ten degrees. Such steering angles were only reasonably obtainable at speeds below ten mph. Polaris concluded that a fender separation of the type owners al