Explosive trip to Wanganui

[Freakshow]

Well I thought I had better let you know about our interesting trip to Wanganui this weekend.

This was our first real trip of any distance on my new bike :scooter: with my lady on the back. We took our new pannier bags that I brought off Ceebee13 all loaded with our gear and tried to leave at 9am but were 20 minutes late as we were busy arranging the bags so that Catherine had room for her legs and plenty of clearance for the exhaust etc in the end the back of the bag were hanging off the pack rack for extra clearance.

Well everything was going just fine until about 7km out of Otaki, where I heard a loud Pop/bang.:shit: Of course alarm bells go off and I am checking everything, I feel no change in handling or drop (blown tyre etc), engine tone normal, however I did see in my rear view mirror a cloud of colours in the air from some kind or explosion.:gob: So I pull over straight away.

The car directly behind pulls over right in front and come running. We get off to find the Pannier bag above the exhaust has the tail end of it completely blown out of it and half empty!
We start collecting all the contents that have been blasted across SH1. My Oakley’s are a flat melted piece of plastic, my Puma’s are melted and half missing completely. Spare Visor, Towel, pants inners all half melted plastic. My leather man and pocket knife are sitting on the road and too hot to pick up my hand.
Once we collected everything off the highway the guys in the car had explained that they has just noticed the bag was rubbing and smoking on the exhaust, and the car of tyre panda which was on the top of the bag must have shifted and the back end exploded causing what was described and an impressive explosion.
I am not sure what happened to cause everything to shift as there was plenty of clearance but some lessons were learnt and we were very lucky as there are so many ways this could have gone. Lucky I had the pack rack on in the end as we managed to strap the other bag on the back and expand it to take the stuff that did survive. Everything else was thrown in the bin. The rest of the trip went well and was quite uneventful in comparison.

So the moral of the story is using arosol cans fore extra propulsion is not as effective as first thought. but looks fairly impressive.:innocent:

[Trudes]

Holy Shit man!!! I'd say you were quite lucky (well, your lovely lady really) that it didn't explode upwards!! Glad it was just material damage and no skin was involved.

[ceebie13]

Wow!! Never ever heard a story like that before. I guess the Oxford promise of a "lifetime" guarantee doesn't mean "Bomb-proof". More importantly, glad to hear you were both OK.

[Beemer]

At least the broken bits are replaceable, body parts are not. Weird set of circumstances though, and you're very lucky it didn't get caught in the wheels and cause an accident. I was following someone down south a few years ago and the water bottle she had tucked into her cargo net slipped out and landed on the road in front of me. It hit the ground and burst, gave me a hell of a fright as I had no idea what it was!

[Skunk Control]

Umm... glad you three are all right (people and bike) BUT now i really want to cry :weep:

[Macktheknife]

BUGGER!!! Bloody lucky is the first thing that comes to mind. Glad you guys are ok, hell of a way to start a trip though huh!

[yungatart]

With that kind of luck, I'd be heading for the Lotto shop...

[oldrider]

Shit a brick, I keep a "Pando" and a can of "chain oil" under the seat, I could lose some valuable equipment if that went off like yours did! :shit:

Mental note to ones self: Check that it cant catch fire! :sick: You were lucky. :yes: Cheers John.

[scumdog]

I've had to use a bottle of lemonade to put out a saddle-bag fire on some random dudes bike at Amberley a few years ago - looked like a top-dresser as he cruised up the road streaming smoke after him.....

Fire was again caused by zorst too close to bag, down-filled sleeping bag was the main culprit for the smoke.

[apteryx_haasti]

Sheeeeeeeeeet!

Glad to hear that story had a happy(ish) ending!

[Freakshow]

Everyone was alright luckily and all I am left with is a melted shell with a rather large hole in the end.

And does any one have any suggestions on how I am to get this melted plastic of the can??

[ManDownUnder]

LMAO... mate that's cool!

Sorry to hear about the damage and mess but it's not bad damage and mess if you think about it LOLOL!!!!

[vifferman]

I've had to use a bottle of lemonade to put out a saddle-bag fire on some random dudes bike at Amberley a few years ago - looked like a top-dresser as he cruised up the road streaming smoke after him.....

Fire was again caused by zorst too close to bag, down-filled sleeping bag was the main culprit for the smoke.
I test-rode a VT750 a few years ago. When I got back to the shop, the pannier bag was smoking. Ooops...

And someone I worked with had some friends with a Harley, that had the pannier catch on fire on the motorway and leak their clothes all along the road. D'Oh! They would never have known, except someone flagged them down.

The point about securing your luggage so it doesn't end up in the back wheel is important and worth noting. I had a friend with a VFR800 who was happily riding along the highway. He came to being loaded into the ambulance, and was told that apparently his bag went into his back wheel at ~120km/h. Not only was his bike severely fucked over, so was he.

[vifferman]

And does any one have any suggestions on how I am to get this melted plastic of the can??
Scrape it off with a wooden or hard plastic scraper (i.e., anything softer than your zorst). Follow up the last few remnants with a scotchbrite, then metal polish.

If it's stubborn coming off, use a hot-air gun or similar to burn it off.

[dawnrazor]

Wow, that could have been a case of "fire in the hole" for your lady!

[Alice]

Your name sort of says it all,....... would have been a freakshow to see,.......... things exploding,........ stuff strewn all over the road.

[Freakshow]

Your name sort of says it all,....... would have been a freakshow to see,.......... things exploding,........ stuff strewn all over the road.

Besides that feeling of Thank .... no one is hurt. I was most annoying to find my favourite (only) shoes sitting in the middle of the road with the front end blown off. Then I found flat black thing that I managed to identify by the golden "O" as my Oakleys.

People were asking why I was wearing motorbike boots and shorts to which I answered "my shoes blew up on the way here!"

["D" FZ1]

Definitely could have been a lot worse

[Paul in NZ]

That is an amazing tale mate...

I might even steal the facts for a little story.... ;-)

[avgas]

Bloody lucky mate.
I had something similar a few years ago when a helmet i had strapped to the pillion seat swung around and ground itself away on the back wheel. Didnt realize for about 20K.
Looked like i was riding a diesel with all the smoke.
Helmet was fudged

[Zapf]

yakes... shows you how hot the exhaust gas is.

Now anyone going to use all the heat for cooking. It might be a CB900 BBQ :)

[ajturbo]

Well I thought I had better let you know about our interesting trip to Wanganui this weekend.

This was our first real trip of any distance on my new bike :scooter: with my lady on the back. We took our new pannier bags that I brought off Ceebee13 all loaded with our gear and tried to leave at 9am but were 20 minutes late as we were busy arranging the bags so that Catherine had room for her legs and plenty of clearance for the exhaust etc in the end the back of the bag were hanging off the pack rack for extra clearance.

Well everything was going just fine until about 7km out of Otaki, where I heard a loud Pop/bang.:shit: Of course alarm bells go off and I am checking everything, I feel no change in handling or drop (blown tyre etc), engine tone normal, however I did see in my rear view mirror a cloud of colours in the air from some kind or explosion.:gob: So I pull over straight away.

The car directly behind pulls over right in front and come running. We get off to find the Pannier bag above the exhaust has the tail end of it completely blown out of it and half empty!
We start collecting all the contents that have been blasted across SH1. My Oakley’s are a flat melted piece of plastic, my Puma’s are melted and half missing completely. Spare Visor, Towel, pants inners all half melted plastic. My leather man and pocket knife are sitting on the road and too hot to pick up my hand.
Once we collected everything off the highway the guys in the car had explained that they has just noticed the bag was rubbing and smoking on the exhaust, and the car of tyre panda which was on the top of the bag must have shifted and the back end exploded causing what was described and an impressive explosion.
I am not sure what happened to cause everything to shift as there was plenty of clearance but some lessons were learnt and we were very lucky as there are so many ways this could have gone. Lucky I had the pack rack on in the end as we managed to strap the other bag on the back and expand it to take the stuff that did survive. Everything else was thrown in the bin. The rest of the trip went well and was quite uneventful in comparison.

So the moral of the story is using arosol cans fore extra propulsion is not as effective as first thought. but looks fairly impressive.:innocent:

that is why i NOW have leather saddle bags.....

[scumdog]

The point about securing your luggage so it doesn't end up in the back wheel is important and worth noting. I had a friend with a VFR800 who was happily riding along the highway. He came to being loaded into the ambulance, and was told that apparently his bag went into his back wheel at ~120km/h. Not only was his bike severely fucked over, so was he.

Saw the result of the same type of thing involving a sleeping bag, the rider managed to keep it upright from 120 to 0!!

Result?
One ferked sleeping bag,
One ferked expensive rear tyre (to the canvas)
One skid-mark about 70 metres long
One skid mark about 70mm long

[sels1]

Crikey FS, you were lucky it wasnt worse! In fact you have come out of it with a good lesson on luggage and a great biker yarn to tell at the pub.

I made up an aluminium bracket to keep to keep my bags off the zorst (high pipe on my bike) still managed to burn a small hole before making some alterations.
Tyre pandos - altho I have been carrying one in my topbox for a while, I think I would be loathe to use it now,having seen in action the tyre repair kit bike shops sell now, where you put a plug in the tyre and inflate it with a mini CO2 bottle. Dosent wreck the tyre like a pando does, and avoids your problem too.

[Freakshow]

Tyre pandos - altho I have been carrying one in my topbox for a while, I think I would be loathe to use it now,having seen in action the tyre repair kit bike shops sell now, where you put a plug in the tyre and inflate it with a mini CO2 bottle. Dosent wreck the tyre like a pando does, and avoids your problem too.

Well now that the can has gone I will have a look at that now!

[Wolf]

I'd heard that aerosol cans could explode but I had no idea of how impressively until now.

Glad you, your lady and your bike are all OK. That's definitely a worthy biker tale.

[BarryG]

As for getting the plastic off the pipe, get the engine running long enough to get the pipe to it's usual temperature, which should soften the plastic residue, then use a soft-ish (wood?) scraper to peel it off.

Cheers
Barry

[The Pastor]

Im glad I read this, tomorrow im goingon a ride with a few aresole cans in a saddle bag, i'll switch them over so that it dont go boom!

[Zuki Bandit]

Crikey mate, that must have given you the shits!