Crashes due to mechanical failure? [Archive]

Berries

9th October 2010, 14:45

Have not seen a broken brake lever cause a crash, but blow outs do happen and I have seen a few of those. Broken chains locking wheels and soft luggage going astray are ones that come to mind. People polishing the brake discs has also led to a few crashes believe it or not. It is pretty rare to see a mechancial issue like suspension failure cause a crash these days. Brain failure causes a whole lot more.

I fell off while parking once because the front brakes were sticking and I had it on full lock. Wouldn't call it a crash though.

p.dath

9th October 2010, 15:04

At the AMCC ART day one of the people had their throttle jam full on approaching the hair pin.

If it happened to me I would have panicked. They were calm enough to hit the kill switch, brake and coast through the hair pin.

Phew!

ukusa

9th October 2010, 15:09

had an off road crash on my DR350 due to a jammed throttle.
Can't really class a blowout as mechanical failure, more just bad luck (nail/screw etc)or bad management if you ride on bald tyres.

slofox

9th October 2010, 15:11

Has anyone here had a crash due to a mechanical failure on the bike? For example, a break lever snapping, tire blowout, foot peg breaking etc.

Warr could tell you about blowouts...:whistle:

JimO

9th October 2010, 15:32

i know a guy who's norton commando seized and spat him and his wife off on a motorway

Jantar

9th October 2010, 15:46

LBD

9th October 2010, 17:30

Back in the day.....

This budding mechanic rebuilt his CB 350 twin, and carbs....(I heard abouth this guy...cough cough)

Running too lean, and maybe to far advaced....said mechanic melted a hole in a piston....approaching a bend....with one cylinder working as a compressor presurizng the crankcase, bulk oil pumped out the breather which was fitted with a tube that lead down in front of the swing arm hinge/rear tire.

Said budding mechanic did not make it around the approaching bend....

mrchips

9th October 2010, 18:02

Some rivets let go on my old CBR's right muffler steel housing.

The trail of sparks & scrapage from this housing although impressive, was not what i wanted to hear whilst entering a sharp right hander with the wife on the back.

Muppet

9th October 2010, 18:44

Chain came off back sprocket and jammed rear wheel on my cb175. Luckily I was only doing about 10 km/h, I was on Johns Road in Christchurch when the speed limit was 100 km/h. Entirely my fault for not checking chain tension, being 16 I thought those things fixed themselves.....

Kickaha

9th October 2010, 19:53

Twice but only when racing

Both times the big end shit itself and the bikes locked solid and spat me down the road

gav

9th October 2010, 19:57

Twice but only when racing

Both times the big end shit itself and the bikes locked solid and spat me down the road
Yeah, but you are hard on gear ... :innocent:

Milts

9th October 2010, 20:13

Closest I've ever had was coming over a sudden rise with next to no petrol in the KR150, the gforces pulled the petrol to the top of the tank and the engine cut out on me at about 60k's an hour. The rear was well sideways by the time I grabbed the clutch and straightened up...

I know my father had a nasty moment in his youth after adjusting his chain and not tightening the lock nut - result was a sudden tankslapper when he hit about 120 on the motorway, which apparently took the space of several lanes before he got it under control. Again, more rider error than mechanical fault though.

I do remember seeing some 'stats' which claimed that mechanical failure is only a factor in somewhere around 2% of accidents. Modern technology....

scracha

10th October 2010, 07:14

Has anyone here had a crash due to a mechanical failure on the bike? For example, a break lever snapping, tire blowout, foot peg breaking etc.

Had brake seal go whilst 2's up years ago....saved that one...just.

Had brake pads fall out after bike shop hadn't bothered to put retaining pin split pins in. After about 200m grass tracking, wet grass made for a soft landing.

Now I do my own brakes.

Big Dave

10th October 2010, 08:20

The air intake grill on the front of this Ducati fell off, got sucked into the fuel system and jammed it flat out - He was about 6 months on crutches.

Shaun

10th October 2010, 08:22

Sure have, My Isle of man crash was due to a steering damper breaking

simpy1

11th October 2010, 08:21

I had a throttle jam open....on a Honda Trail 90 heheh. It was also on a deserted and perfectly straight country road. I had plenty of time to try all the options before eventually turning off the ignition and walking it back home.

Grubber

11th October 2010, 11:35

One due to a blowout on an overladen bike, so I guess that one is almost rider error.

One freak crash due to mechanical failure. The spring that holds the side stand up broke and the side stand came down (this was 1974). I discovered it the hard way when I went to lean into a left hand corner and ended up laying the bike down. Of course modern bikes will kill the engine if this happens, so not likely on a modern bike.

Then 1976, I had the rear hub split on a GT750 waterbucket. That tossed me off in a big way, and Suzuki did replace the hub under warranty. The rest of the damage was an insurance claim.

Mechanical failure that can cause a crash is very rare on modern bikes, but can still happen.

I had the same thing happen on Yamaha XS 750 i had when in Aussie.
Stopped on the side of the road to do a couple of repairs (very common for this bike) and then took off home once fixed. First right hander was no worries but the slight left hander was a bit of a catastrophe to be honest. Bounced on the side stand once, took a moment to figure out what just happened, the next moment was heading for the rear end of a car going opposite way. BANG. All over in a second. Bike to wreckers, me to hospital, car to panel shop, end of story.:facepalm:

DEATH_INC.

11th October 2010, 11:41

Not me, but I saw a guy go straight off a corner at taupo when his front brake lever fell off....

Str8 Jacket

11th October 2010, 11:43

I recently had my race bike seize at a testday and it spat me off, I was lucky to walk away with a dislocated toe and scraped up leathers. I have had many others seizures (no, really) that I have saved with grabbing the clutch in time!

The few accidents I had when I started riding where caused by a mechanical failure in my brain.

gazmascelle

11th October 2010, 11:55

a mate of mine once went off the road and down a 2 metre slope/ditch/hole due to headlight failure with police following about 20 seconds behind lol. Went back and picked up the bike the next day

mashman

11th October 2010, 12:08

I blew the top off a piston on a ZXR400 (several years ago)... but she kept on goin, covering the insidfe lane in oil and blue smoke... didn't throw me off though (just as well at 125mph, yes yes, bad me)

I know of 2 people who have had rear linkage failure in NZ over the last 2 - 3 years...

Deano

11th October 2010, 12:42

I took an ER185 to a bike shop as it wasn't running quite right. When I got it back the muppet had stuffed the choke and it was very hard to start from cold. I had to try crash starting it down my street at the bottom of a hill.

I had the throttle open trying to crash start it and when it kicked in it kicked in big time and spat me off into a parked car.

Pixie

13th October 2010, 08:25

Has anyone here had a crash due to a mechanical failure on the bike? For example, a break lever snapping, tire blowout, foot peg breaking etc.

I would expect a break lever to snap.

You know...the name 'n all

avgas

13th October 2010, 08:40

5 x I took off with disc lock on.
One of those times was a wheel-stand that ended abruptly on touchdown.

but I don't think you mean that type of mechanical failure.

quickbuck

13th October 2010, 09:19

Crash due to mechanical failure?
Yup, last Saturday.
Binned the Ninja 250R at Manfeild because the tyres didn't have enough mechanical grip on the white paint......

Well, actually another one was a certain other bike i know of had a 20 year old hose to the oil cooler split, and spill oil onto the rear tyre and resulted in a crash in Splash.

Conversely, i have seen a CBR Superbike rider save the bike in the same situation when the crank case split.

As for a road going situation, yes it is all possible, but you will almost always find there was a human factor leading up to the mechanical failure in the first place.

One example I can think of is a 1988 Ninja 250 I took out for a ride, and then it almost killed me when it spat oil all over the rear tyre.
Reason was because the sump was full of fuel. They do this when the vacuume tap in the tank fails, along with leaking float jets....
So where is the human factor you ask?
Who should have checked the oil level before the ride???? Yes, My Fault.

onearmedbandit

13th October 2010, 09:33

The air intake grill on the front of this Ducati fell off, got sucked into the fuel system and jammed it flat out - He was about 6 months on crutches.

Wow, did it affect his clutch, brakes, kill switch and ignition too?

This one freaks me out a bit, although it didn't happen to me, rather my brothers mate back in the 80's. Coming home on his Katana at night at about 140km/h round a bend in the country, when his headlight failed. He tried to remember the road (it was cloudy so not much natural light) and make it around but hit shingle on the side of the road and down he went.

I figure if that's going to happen, there's fuck all I can do about it.

imdying

13th October 2010, 10:00

Wow, did it affect his clutch, brakes, kill switch and ignition too?lol... he probably discovered it when he went to slow down, you know, as he was fast approaching a corner!

onearmedbandit

13th October 2010, 10:23

lol... he probably discovered it when he went to slow down, you know, as he was fast approaching a corner!

True, not a scenario I had thought of.

imdying

13th October 2010, 10:45

I think that happened to the PB editor on the new F4 recently... scared the shit out of him :laugh: If you've not read that issue, I'll dig it out.

ralley

13th October 2010, 12:01

Took my GSX-1100 in for a service, turns out the ham fisted mechanic left no free play in the throttle cable. Went to do a low speed turn at the end of a cul de sac, as I got close to full lock the cable tightened and the bike shot forward. Dropped the heavy bloody thing in front of my girlfriend who was about to come on the back for the first time. Surprisingly she's my wife now.

At a track day in South Africa there was a horrific accident at the end of Kyalami race track straight - bike never slowed and went straight into the wall killing the rider. They found a brake caliper further back on the track - he'd been working on his own bike and hadn't torqued it down.

Rob.

grbaker

13th October 2010, 12:48

Seen a loose chain jump of the sproket and wrap itself around everything causing rear wheel lockup, brown undies and a near crash. :shit:

jimbo_on_travels

14th October 2010, 18:35

Was riding over the 'takas recently with a guy on a Hyo GT250 - he said he had binned it coming down the Wainui hill Lower Hutt side due to the front brake lever snapping off.. :shit:

Apparently the bike had been dropped on its side in the past and the previous owner must have bent the lever back in place (and making it weaker). I think he's incredibly lucky to tell the tale, walking away with a punctured lung and two cracked ribs :sick:

meteor

15th October 2010, 12:23

Some idiot keeps planting trees where I want to ride at woodhill that keep jumping out at me! Doh

george formby

15th October 2010, 12:29

Seen a loose chain jump of the sproket and wrap itself around everything causing rear wheel lockup, brown undies and a near crash. :shit:

+1 on that, Aprilia Pegaso. Mental break down rather than crash was the consequence. A mate seized his Cagiva mito flat out & managed to stay on but he had eerie talent. Another mate was warming up his beautiful GS1000 prior to a buyer turning up, pulled away & immediately dropped it due to the disc lock still in place doing untold damage. Not a mechanical failure per se but i wanted to share. He still made the sale...:blink:
Ooh, i had a very sky, grass, sky, grass, crash when the spokes collapsed on my DT 400's front wheel, more sky, bike, grass for a while really, I was caning it.
Ah, the good old days.

cheesemethod

15th October 2010, 16:14

The air intake grill on the front of this Ducati fell off, got sucked into the fuel system and jammed it flat out - He was about 6 months on crutches.

How did the grill get through the air filter?

Corse1

15th October 2010, 21:16

Years ago I had a Speedo nut fall off and lock the steering on me 900 boldor causing a slow speed off.

Also had a throttle jam wide open on an XT500 in first gear that ended in a flip:facepalm:

Ive had a couple of mates miss gears lately going into tight corners causing them to run off the road. One round the east coast and one on the corro loop. Its mechanical but not the bikes fault:shutup: