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Bam! Motorcycle meet road.

10K views 40 replies 12 participants last post by  Scooter 
#1 ·
I was waiting at a right turn only light on the way to work. The woman ahead of me turned when the light turned green, and slammed on her brakes halfway thru the turn. No idea why. Front tire hit her bumper (I braked as much as I could and went down on the right side). My fault, I guess. Nice guy helped me get the bike back up. Pulled over to check for damage. The crash bars saved the coolant reservoir. The front cowling (green) got pretty thoroughly cracked on the right side. Went to walgreens for duct tape and "repaired" that. The bike doesn't seem to be damaged in any other way except for one weird thing. The rear brake is making a more pronounced grinding noise under pressure, and seems to be dragging a little with the wheel off the ground - or I'm tripping. The rear brake caliper is a little loose, but I can't tell where or how - not the main attach bolts. The weird part is that I don't think any part of the brake system took a hit? The rotor looks true. No scrapes on any of the caliper parts. Little scrape on the rear axle bolt. The rear brake might have taken a little bit of the brunt. But it looks OK. Any ideas?

Oh yeah, I'm fine. Little duct tape fixed me right up. ;)
 
#2 ·
Glad you're okay. Could the brake lever bracket be cracked? I know it's on the other side of the bike but is it possible the chain guard is rubbing a little? That can distort very easily and rub on the chain and make a grinding noise. It's possible you may have bent it trying to save the bike. Just a thought.
 
#3 ·
The bike fell on the right side...I didn't see any cracks. I should have mentioned. I did hit the kill switch while going 25mph or so to check things out and try to determine where the noise was coming from. No grinding noise noticeable until the rear brake was applied.
 
#4 · (Edited)
As you know, there are two brake pads in the rear assembly. Look at the diagram, and see the pad circled. It slips into the area beyond the arrow. It can "cock" itself so that it hangs up. You should be able to view the pad from the rear of the bike. There is nothing to retain this pad in position other than Karma. It floats at will.

Glad it was an incident you rode away from. From this point forward, you are restricted from further altercations involving automobiles and / or asphalt. Failure to comply could be painful.

 
#6 ·
Arg! I can't see pictures on my work computer. Any chance you could email me the pic so I can check it out before I ride home? danlockjaw@yahoo.com

Thanks man


And thanks for the well wishes guys. :) Could have been a lot uglier.
 
#8 ·
Gracias. :35a:
 
#9 ·
maybe you should take the training wheels off Frankie's bike, and put them on yours?

If you still are having a problem with the bike let me know, and I will load up, and come down and look at it. Vatrader may have hit the nail on the head. I could walk you through it too. Just remove the caliper, and reset the pad.

MB4
 
#11 ·
Thanks brother! If I haven't figured it out by Saturday and you don't have plans I may have to go buy some beer for ya. :)

I'm gonna get it home now...funny how you don't feel sore when it happens, huh? Flexeril, here I come.
 
#10 · (Edited)
LJ -

Dude! Sorry to hear about that. Don't do it again, OK?

If there is a grinding noise when the pads are applied, you might want to pull the pads and shake them off/blow the caliper out, just in case some grit got lodged in there. Otherwise, what vatrader said.

The plastics are ABS, so ABS cement from the hardware store should work if you need to glue things back together.

"Though, duct tape does have a certain cachet", Tom said distinctively

Tom
 
#14 ·
"I ****ed the plastic pretty good", Tom said, voice cracking. It's pretty much cracked all the way down the right side. And there are chunks missing. I think the duct tape will stay for a while. I'll put up a picture later. I think it'll hold. Epoxy would be tough.

What say you about the gap discrepancy gents?

Dave, offer appreciated as always amigo.
 
#12 ·
Took the caliper off when I got home. I now know why my rear brake was making a weird noise...pads were TOAST. I guess I never noticed because I wasn't listening for something wrong. So, that's easy. New brake pads for me.

Now, a more perplexing problem. I know nothing about mounting/balancing wheels. It seems logical to me that there would be an even gap on both sides, but there isn't. Is this a problem?

Chain side:


Brake side:


Brake pads are easy. If the wheel got tweaked I have no idea. :confused:
 
#15 · (Edited)
LJ-

That gap doesn't really matter - what you should be looking at is the lines on the swing arm and how they line up with the edge of the plate that is under the axle head and nut.

Really, what matters is that the rear wheel is tracking in the same path as the front wheel. another way to examine that is to note if the front end of the rear wheel seems centered in the swing arm, which may be difficult to see with the chain guard in the way.

Both of these methods are usually "Good enough", but to be perfect you need to do an alignment using a couple of long straight edges to determine if the rear and front are really tracking right.

How does the line up of the marks and the edge of the plate look? They are just out of frame in your picture.

By the by, if you used up a set of rear brake pads in 10K miies, how does the thickness of the rear disc look? Is it still within service limit (4.5mm thick)?

Tom
 
#16 ·
Hmm, rear disk LOOKED OK. I can check on this tonight. This was my second set of pads. I think the green galfer pads are soft.

Re: the wheel. Not sure about what you mean by the plate? You just want a wider shot? Maybe you could take a picture of what you want me to take a picture of and I could replicate it?

I doubt the drop tweaked it cause I was going so slow, but I don't know. Next bike I get, I'm taking detailed pics of everything to compare when I start tripping. ;)
 
#17 · (Edited)
LJ -

You want to look at these marks and line them up equally on both sides. That should have you pretty good, though they can be off. Double check for centering in the swing arm.



Dunno why they don't have marks right where the edge of my plate is. Use a ruler.

I doubt you tweaked it, too. These things are pretty tough. Don't tell anybody I said this, though, but the KLR is a cheap bike. The alignment marks aren't all that precise. Geez, I hope nobody heard me say the KLR was a cheap bike.

Tom
 
#18 ·
OK, I gotcha. Bike is too clean, but I gotcha. ;)

What do you line the lines up with, just the center of the bolt?
 
#19 ·
Yeah, I washed it. :)

Use the edge of the plate (red) as your reference point, and get it the same on both sides. Measure from the forward-most scribe mark to the plate. You can loosen the jam nut on the adjuster bolt and use the adjuster bolt to move things around. Reset the jam nut when done.



Tom
 
#20 ·
Beauty. Thanks Tom!
 
#22 ·
Hey, this was my first little spill! I'll knock it off. :)
 
#24 ·
Yeah, this one was enough for me. Don't even have to buy new gear. No scrapes on anything but my pride. :)
 
#25 ·
DUCT TAPE MOD


Gorilla duct tape. All fixed. :) (until a damn headlight goes out)
 
#26 ·
Geez, LJ, I can't imagine what it looks like under all that.

It needs a zip tie.

Tom
 
#27 ·
You're right about the zip tie.

It looks like hell on the right side. Fine everywhere else. I figure if it's gonna stay like that I can at least make it symmetrical. :)
 
#29 ·
I've read Hough, and I practice hard stops pretty regularly. Good ideas, though. I definitely use my front brake.

As far as the accident, a little less front brake would have been a good thing I think. Definitely grabbed too much. We were barely moving.

The pads were through at about when I expected last time...this time caught me by surprise, but I think it was a combo of the soft pads and using the overusing the rear brake learning how to ride offroad a few weeks ago.
 
#34 ·
The rear disc looked good??? I think I need to get a micrometer to know for sure.
 
#35 ·
Now you no longer have a good excuse for not riding in the dirt, since the bike has now been down. :)

The two-second following distance rule applies to pulling away from a stop too. If you had waited two seconds after the car moved until you moved, do you think you could have avoided bumping into the car?

I learned that lesson a couple of different times in cars and follow it religiously now.
 
#36 ·
Hey Scott. Yeah, totally...2 seconds would have done it. It was a brainless moment. I did give her some space, but obviously not enough. I don't know why she braked in the turn immediately. I don't think she knew. But she was old and nice and I told her it was my fault.

But yeah, you're right. Time to hit the dirt. I cut my teeth a little a few weeks ago. Let me know when you're going again.
 
#37 ·
Dan glade to see you are ok. NO MORE OF THAT
 
#38 ·
Deal. :)
 
#39 ·
Scooters Boo-Boo

WOW,you and me both!The KLR got hit today by an ass in a F-250 today at 35 mph!!!I was waiting to turn left,BEHIND the white stop line on road,and this piece of crap was turning left from the other side of intersection and cut his turn too sharp and was coming at me at 35 mph,I had 3 seconds to jump off bike,so I did,strained my calf muscle whenI hit the ground in the lane next to me,just as I jumped,I heard SMASH!!!! And MR KLR was no longer new!.I now need handle bars,Front brake lever assy,few other small things.If I had stayed on bike,I probably wouldnt be here to tell about this!And to those who are wondering,,,,,,,NO I WILL NOT STOP RIDING MOTORCYCLES!!!!If the bronco throws you off,you get back on and ride!Right?If I wanted to live my life in a box,insulated from the ways of the world,I may as well not get up in the morning.
 
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