What sort of damage and costs am I looking at?

[ital916]

Hey all,

Was riding home on a poorly lit road today when I hit an object of some sort on the road. I don't know what is was, and I never saw it coming due to no lights on the road and zero visiblilty from thr rain I was riding through. Luckily I maintained control of the bike. Long story short said object ripped my front header pipe clean off the bike. I rode home with a bike that sounded like it ran on bubble power from hell, in the process distrubing everyone on the way through remuera *man I felt like a dick haha*.

Anyway, drove back in a car and found the header pipe, its got a big bend in it and a massive gauged out spot where the pipe connected with the object. The screws that are on the cylinder head are bent/missing. What sort of costs do you reckon I'm looking at here as well as the sort of things I should be looking for in the morning, e.g. cracks etc? I'm guessing I need new header pipes?

Anyway I got home in one piece so all is good.

Ride safe all

Drider

[Ixion]

Is the header chrome, or black? And are the cylinder head studs (they're called studs) bent or actually ripped out?

Probably not a biggy. Unlikely to be any damage to the head beyond the bent or sheared studs. I've ripped exhausts off before now off road, it's usually just an hour or two with the welding torch. May not look so pretty though.

[ital916]

one stud is mangled, the other stud is missing. The headers were chrome, then black and now the front one is a mix of black/chrome and earthy tones with said bends and gouges.

[maybe]

What ever it costs is cheap to what could of happened, to hit somthing that hard to do that damage and not get hurt I would be buying a lotto ticket.

[FJRider]

To drill and re-tap studs, bugger all really. A larger hole size may be needed, but no big deal. Your header pipes needed replacing anyway... they were dirty...

[AndyOnTheFlyingBrick]

hope its not too expensive! your lucky said object didnt connect with your helmet etc

[sinfull]

Biggest thing would be if the stud can be drilled out and tapped in place !! Hate to see the barrel have to come off for that !
Did ya find the object ?

[CookMySock]

You musta hit a cat. Did you hear it rrrreeeeeeoooowwl ? Lucky it didn't get near your tank or it woulda ripped a long gash in it with its claw, lol.

Steve

[HungusMaximist]

Fuck, where you've been riding Dush?

You've been riding down Abotts way or something?

Glad that you're O.K and didn't end up falling on your face...

[ital916]

Haha never found the object...I'm just happy that I found my header pipe but looks like a need new ones in the end anyway. I hope the barrel doesn't need to be touched...as barrel out = dollars *mind you I don't know much about the studs that hold the headers in place*

I will find the extent of the damage in the morning with light. In the end ten figners, ten toes so all good. :laugh:

[ital916]

I really wanna get a motard now haha.

[Ixion]

I'm assuming it was the front header pipe . Those studs can probably be reached in situ. If it was the rear header, thats a bugger because they would be a terminal prick to get at .

[xwhatsit]

Why didn't you stop there and take the header with you lol? Remuera... jeez... neighbourhood like that, I'd be surprised if it was still there when I got back! XD

I reckon this is all a bullshit story concocted to cover Dushy crashing yet again but being too embarrassed to admit it! :laugh: Or maybe it just fell off and then he rode over it? The object you hit was your own pipe :lol:

You won't need to pull the barrel off, the exhaust pipe exits from the cylinder head, so don't worry about that. If you were careful not to get shavings in the exhaust port (easy, as the port slopes downwards), it would be fairly simple to just helicoil the undoubtedly mangled thread in the head where the stud got ripped out, without taking anything apart. A new stud would be like $2, max, wouldn't it? If you find out the stud diameter, if it's 8mm MF I've got the helicoil (not Helicoil, it's some 3rd party one) tap and drill for that, just buy some coils for $10 or whatever. Save yourself $50 getting the full kit, just borrow the tap/drill/insertion tool from me.

Can you pull dents like that in headers? With brass instruments they block off one end, then pump it full of sand whilst heating the outside of the horn until they just pop out. Exhaust piping is thicker though.

Time to paint it all black!

[PirateJafa]

Of course the situation probably wasn't helped by the fact you'd dropped the forks an inch just so you could put those clipons on. :rolleyes:

[Ixion]

Actually, an inch drop on the forks would increase straight line stability (think choppers), so it might have helped here.

[PirateJafa]

No, I'm afraid I worded that badly. The forks now extend up a inch above the triple-clamp - thus lowering the front end of the bike.

Personally I'd've thought he'd've realised this could happen when he said his pipes were bottoming out on speed bumps a month back when he did it.

[ital916]

Haha no xerxes i didn't crash, the pipe did get pulled off. The reason i didn't stop is a) it was dark, b) where the hell am I gonna put a hot header pipe c) I didn't know the extent of the damage so getting home with the bike still being able to run was priority, not finding the header pipe. Oh and jafa, the front header was bottoming out slighty on bumps not enough to rip it off.

[PirateJafa]

Mate, any form of bottoming out, "slightly" or not, is going to be putting a fair bit of impact stress on the header mounts. When it happens repeatedly...

I thought you were meant to be a engineer?

[ital916]

I am you poo, thats why I looked at the pipe, examined the amount it was bottoming and ascertained that it would be all right. What I didn't factor in was riding into a big object. The pipe was fine, I had given the bike a once over not long ago. Anyway, enough is said, I'm getting it fixed and don't question my engineering logic into disrepute as even the best of us can get it wrong. See you at the chiller tonight, you bringing your new bike.

[xwhatsit]

Seeing your bike, I did notice the clip-on situation. Those are quite wide clamps on the clip-ons, meaning you've got the forks pushed up quite a bit -- why not put them under the triple clamp and keep the forks at a more normal level? I've got the forks lowered on my bike too, but not by such a huge amount, and only to quicken up the steering a little. Having it so low that the pipes touch the ground easily would worry the hell out of me -- how are you going to hop curbs in heavy traffic?

[PirateJafa]

Seeing your bike, I did notice the clip-on situation. Those are quite wide clamps on the clip-ons, meaning you've got the forks pushed up quite a bit -- why not put them under the triple clamp and keep the forks at a more normal level?

The fuel tank on the SRV wasn't designed with clipons in mind.

[xwhatsit]

The fuel tank on the SRV wasn't designed with clipons in mind.
Er... it's got fucking huge cut-outs in the tank for them. Hell of a lot better than the provisions I've got on the RS.

EDIT: Maybe not. My memory doesn't seem to match up with Google Image Search :D Still, the clip-ons on it now are already across the tank, what difference does them being 50mm lower make?