Dropped bike, what should i look for?

[Rangerx52]

There's a horrible bridge near my place, and the constuction crews somehow felt it would be helpful to scatter gravel and tar around the road, while leaving nice big empty pits in the pavement at set intervals.

I was going about 25kph, following traffic, watching the road and being damn careful.

Then the car next to me hit a pit, his hubcap popped off and shot under my front wheel, and i ended up 5 feet in front of my bike in the middle of a 4 lane bridge with moving traffic, and a sore knee.

So the bike ended up sliding, and not just crashing down, but it ****ed out all the gas from the carbs onto the pavement, gouged my fairings (the gravel on the road really helped with this one) ripped my mirror off, and snapped my upper fairing where it bolts onto the frame.


I had it painted last month. by hand.

I primed it and it started back up, then drove home. no apparent issues aside from idling ackwardly at low rpms- should i be adjusting anything, calibrating anything, or looking for anything that has a tendancy to go wrong on drops?

[beherenow71]

I figured the roads where you live would be long and hard some times, shorter and soft other times.

[gazoo]

sorry to hear about your accident . screw the bike . be grateful you were'nt seriously hurt ! it sucks when you put so much effort into getting it all done that something like this happens . but you survived and get to ride another day . as far as the bike goes i would make sure no gas is leaking from anywhere then check for oil leaks , cracks in engine , etc . good luck . glad you''re ok !!

[HexKrak]

If you're not leaking anything you're probably ok, BUT you could have ended up with gas in your oil.

Open up the oil fill hole and smell for gas fumes, or just replace it (and the filter) to be on the safe side.

[Bigza]

Count ur bessing glad ur ok. 5 feet in front of bike and just a sore knee. Yep the lord was with u

[DOCTORNITRO]

It's probably junk now! Just ship it to me and get another one! LOL

[The CyberPoet]

Things to check include:

the float valves (or watch the fuel consumption and look for the oil level to go up) -- they often can get "stuck" open from a hard drop. Easy as pie to fix -- simply free them and make sure they're moving right.

Bar-tubes -- bent bar-tubes will induce excess vibration. I normally care spares here and have 'em if you need to buy 'em. At least I think pre and post use the same tubes :

brake rotors, wheels, steering head, footpegs, and the frame [engine cradle] where it passes over the engine. Examine all of them closely for damages.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[CT_KAT]

Things to check include:

the float valves (or watch the fuel consumption and look for the oil level to go up) -- they often can get "stuck" open from a hard drop. Easy as pie to fix -- simply free them and make sure they're moving right.

=-= The CyberPoet

Ditto on this one. My bike simply fell over once, and that was enough that after a short period I was getting a fuel/oil mix from my crankcase breather. I drained the oil and got 5 qts of fluid (gas/oil mix) instead of 4 qts of oil.

Glad you're ok man, I'm sure you'l have your bike back in order in no time.

[Rangerx52]

All sounds good. I was going to swap out all my floats anyway, and do an oil change.

The bars are good, fortunately the bike slid instead of impacting.

And as far as the lord being with me; i may be fine, but it took a lot of circumstances and a finely directed sequence of events for me to even encounter the situation that resulted in my spill. As far as the lord goes, if he's involved in any way, its most likely not in the saving me aspect.



And cp- my handles are ok, but my anti-vibration ends are both toast, both the bell and lead slug. you have any spares?

[The CyberPoet]

And cp- my handles are ok, but my anti-vibration ends are both toast, both the bell and lead slug. you have any spares?

I don't have any of the OEM bar ends here... (sorry)

What I have is some alternatives though that are major:

1. I do have one set of hyper-cool bar tubes with integrated bar-ends that are out of solid stainless steel, machined out of a single piece of steel (and with a slot down the center underside of each), and with 5 or 6 LED's in the end of the each bar (machined in, facing out, hyper-bright), and the wiring run back to where the bars would mount to the triple trees... the LED's can be hooked to running lights or blinkers or brake lights, as you please. These were a labor of love that represent about 20 hours of labor by a very talented machinist I know... $275 +postage.

2. The other item I have is a set of specialty oval tubes with integrated foam grips designed to replace the entire bar-tube solution for a more ergonomic riding experience (less wrist strain, obsoletes the concept of cramp-buster by the design of the system). I haven't tried these yet myself -- I was planning on trying them out before a major cross-country road-trip; the Kat was stolen before that test could happen, and I totally forgot I had these on the shelf until just now when I went to check whether there were any bar-ends up there. $75 + postage (and yes, I'm eating a big loss here just to move them).

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[Rangerx52]

eliminating wrist-cramp would be nice, i find my right hand tumb-area gets sore after a while.

any chance of a screenshot for #2?

[The CyberPoet]

I'll shoot some later for you.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[Enjay386]

Painted last month by hand!? That's frustrating. Well I'm glad you're OK. My boyfriend laughs at me but as soon as I see gravel I die inside and refuse to drive faster than 10 MPH no matter how many cars are behind me.

[Rangerx52]

a lot of effort went into that paint job. I sanded it, bondo'd, resanded, rebondo'd, primed, sanded, polished, painted, repainted, sanded, wetsanded and polished to a high gloss. I got to handwash and wax it once.

very disappointing.

The thing that killed me the most though, is that as i drove home on my injured bike, i pull into my parking lot to find the painters who are repainting my apartment building just hanging around, doing nothing. And right beside them is my beautiful 82 firebird (near mint) with paint all over it. i was ready to just snap

paint is one thing, but there was one spot that was the breaking point for me- there was a paint-footprint.





in the center of my T-roof.


I calmly explained that i had an unpleasant ride, and that should i return to find so much as one speck of paint or remnant of one of their mishaps, that they should phone the police prior to my arrival, for violence would ensue.


wasnt a good day.

[DumbLuck]

wrist strain? stop locking your elbows and take your weight off your arms/wrists. after over 2 years on my kat i still find myself locking my elbows, straightarming the grips and putting too much weight up front. it's taken a real concious effort to stop, most of the time.