Lofo ride Sun 4th Aug.

[Dead Eye]

May be a plan - I plan to respray the bike over the winter anyway I think. New front fairing purchased from Fuzzy plus the tank and rear really do need to be cleaned up. Probably going to switch to a red / black combo so we shall see what I come up with

[ChristoT]

Can't make it now after all - had an unfortunate incident with a ditch! 

Have a good ride, LoFos.

[Hedgetrimmer]

What, crashed the bike? You ok?

[ChristoT]

What, crashed the bike? You ok?

Afraid so. Just been doing a dammage assesment. Not as bad as I though (if the rattling I heard was just paranoia and / or coolant pump as it dumped its load on my foot). As it is, I have few to no tools, and will need public transport for a minimum of a week. Lucky me. 

I'm OK, apart from a few bruises and severly dented pride. Very, very pissed off at myself. 

[Hedgetrimmer]

Well, glad you're alright. What happened?

[ChristoT]

Well, glad you're alright. What happened?

Riding back from work, I was joshing around with a coworker who rides an SR125. We'd been talking about backfiring at work, so I was showing off, doing killswitch backfires. I'd just done one, was coming up to a junction (so slowing down). He was on my right, yelled out "I saw flames on that last one [backfire]!". I was looking over my right shoulder at him just long enough to drift to the left, right into the patch of cracked tarmac on the side of the road. The bike went further left, sideswiped the high grass/mud kerb, fell over (onto the left), and sent me headfirst into the ditch. I was only doing 20 or 30 though, mind.

Pulled it out, faring's buggered, mirror's hanging off and coolant's pissing out of it. As I was in the middle of nowhere, I decided to ride back to Andover very gingerly, so crawled along, with my foot getting covered in coolant. Got back without drama, the bike's now in the garage being looked at by me.

I've buggered the fairing, put a hole in the left rear cam cap, snapped the mirror at its base, bust a coolant hose, and dammaged its link pipe. Hopefully, there's no internal dammage. There's a slight grating, but for the moment I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and calling that camchain/paranoia/coolant pump. I suspect the forks are slightly bent, but might be an easy fix (slacken everything, then retighten). Of course, I have very few tools here (basically, the contents of the bike's mini kit), so am going to have the devil's own job fixing everything. 

[Hedgetrimmer]

Wonder if you might get a claim out of whoever's responsible for road maintenance where it happened? After all, they don't need to know you were distracted at the time?!
If forks just need realignment, then probably as you said - loosen off, or just give it a judicious wrench through the front wheel, realign. But if they're actually bent, they'll need proper re-straightening, which should be ok as long as it's not so bad that they've creased. Take a good look where they go into the yokes, common place for this to happen.
Cam cap holed? Did it lose any oil?

[ChristoT]

Wonder if you might get a claim out of whoever's responsible for road maintenance where it happened? After all, they don't need to know you were distracted at the time?!
If forks just need realignment, then probably as you said - loosen off, or just give it a judicious wrench through the front wheel, realign. But if they're actually bent, they'll need proper re-straightening, which should be ok as long as it's not so bad that they've creased. Take a good look where they go into the yokes, common place for this to happen.
Cam cap holed? Did it lose any oil?

I could try, I suppose. The road (a back road) has been marked for repair, but hasn't been done yet. I don't want a long legal battle for a relatively small repair job.

As for the cam cap, it's the round, aluminium cap that makes the rocker cover look prettier - nothing structural.

Doesn't look creased anywhere, but looks like both are leaning right slightly, so praying it isn't the headstock.

[Hedgetrimmer]

Steering turns ok with front wheel off the ground? Lock to lock? No binding/roughness? See if you can post a couple of photos showing fork misalignment etc.
Might be an idea to put it on a new thread.

[Punkstig]

Didn't quite swerve enough eh!
You're ok and that's what matters.
Shame cause I was looking forward to saying hi!

[ChristoT]

Didn't quite swerve enough eh!
You're ok and that's what matters.
Shame cause I was looking forward to saying hi!

Ditto! Work has been shit, was well looking forward to LoFos to unwind! 

I'll have to see if I can make September. But no promises.

[alexanderfitu]

So tomorow here: http://goo.gl/maps/ftuh4

What time ?

[Punkstig]

9am right!?

[Exupnut]

Yup. 9am. And no deadeye either. He crashed this afternoon when we were out avin a wee blast. He is fine thank god and we managaed to get the bike home even with a mashed front end. I asked him wot woz the last thing that went thru his mind B4 he hit the hedge and he said "thank fuck i didnt take the piss outta christo"

[Exupnut]

Oh yeah...we ad some nice wevver....

[Hedgetrimmer]

Not another one! Glad to hear you're ok too Dead Eye. Must be a nasty dose of bad luck going around at the mo.

[alexanderfitu]

Bloody hell ! That's some bad luck! I will see you all tomorrow

[Arfa]

Still on track too. See you all tomorrow morning.

[Dead Eye]

Oww, oww, oww, oww... damn shoulder

Front end of bike is mostly obliterated - anyone who had seen the front fairing before hand will know exactly why, but its basically in about 34,315 pieces :| Front left fork is destroyed, right one is highly questionable, fairing mounting is buggered, generator cover is history, rear cowling cracked and torn, both mirrors disintegrated, fairing inlays destroyed, gear change lever is questionable at best and tank dented and scratched - so basically, if I was going to crash, I was going to do it in style...

Entirely my own fault, had a huge downpour a few miles back on the B184 but Thraxted was magically bone dry a few miles down the road I carried a little too much speed in to a double apex corner (didn't realise it was a double apex at the time) and due to the rain previously was in a "don't lean it too far over" mode even though I could have. Result was that I ended up hitting the quite well built up grass bank (it was like 4-5ft high) shoulder first. So shoulder is pretty mashed up (can't lift my arm very high), massive lump on my knee and my ankle kinda hurts as well...

Luckily Exupnut was on hand to help me out, so epic thanks for that! Luckily managed to get the bike started again after a bike behind me stopped to help as well (massive thanks to him on his Triumph Street Triple) and Mr. Exupnut rode it back home with me on his (a lot of trust there!). Now sitting at home trying to drown my pain in beer

[Hedgetrimmer]

Some of the corners out that way are real bastards. There's one in particular on the way out to Finchingfield, another double apex, that even though I know exactly what to expect by now, I never get right. I'm either carrying too much speed and end up wobbling around on the wrong side of the road (it's a blind bend of course!) or going way too slow and thinking, where the bloody hell is a happy medium on this sucker! And another that we met on the last Lofo ride - knew it was coming, knew what it was like, still fluffed it completely!
Glad to know you're not seriously hurt - 2 in a day, lets hope this particular run of bad luck doesn't need a third to be complete. Ride careful tomorrow folks!

[bozboz]

I cant believe you two! Just read christos want list now you deadeye! Hope you are both ok.
Christo sent you a msg, I've got the mirror, rad pipe and cam cover I can donate to the cause! Not sure if Ive got the metal pipe but got a feeling ive got one that's bodged but solid. Let me know via txt 2moz as I doubt i'll be on the forum.
Deadeye If you need parts headlight fairing bracket etc, Ive just converted mine to a foxeye so Ive got a few bent bits of bike that you mite need, they are yours if you need them!
Now lofos can we all stop falling off before the meet! (...and during/after too!)

[Dead Eye]

Thanks bozboz, appreciate it!

The only thing I think I'm concerned about is the central bracket that holds the front fairing. It was twisted quite badly so I'm uncertain as to how much damage has been caused to it until I manage to rip off the current fairing and inspect. Luckily I have some spare front forks and a new front fairing already, will have to try and source a generator cover which will definitely be the hard part

[kitcrazy]

Sorry to hear it m8 and hope you feel better soon.

[bozboz]

Thanks bozboz, appreciate it!

The only thing I think I'm concerned about is the central bracket that holds the front fairing. It was twisted quite badly so I'm uncertain as to how much damage has been caused to it until I manage to rip off the current fairing and inspect. Luckily I have some spare front forks and a new front fairing already, will have to try and source a generator cover which will definitely be the hard part

No probs mate, mine is slightly bent so needs to be viced and hammered straight not bad tho, I never bothered because....well you know what I'm like!

[noggythenog]

Yous boys are something else!, i go quiet on the forum for a few weeks & everyone's crashing.
Glad yous are ok though
 
Stay safe!