Explosive trip to Wanganui

**Freakshow** · 12th February 2007, 09:52

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

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.

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.

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.

**Trudes** · 12th February 2007, 10:03

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** · 12th February 2007, 10:04

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** · 12th February 2007, 10:08

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** · 12th February 2007, 10:52

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

**Macktheknife** · 12th February 2007, 11:30

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** · 12th February 2007, 11:35

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

**oldrider** · 12th February 2007, 11:42

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!

Mental note to ones self: Check that it cant catch fire!

You were lucky.

Cheers John.

**scumdog** · 12th February 2007, 12:20

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** · 12th February 2007, 12:27

Sheeeeeeeeeet!

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

**Freakshow** · 12th February 2007, 12:28

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** · 12th February 2007, 13:34

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** · 12th February 2007, 13:45

Originally Posted by 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.

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** · 12th February 2007, 13:48

Originally Posted by Freakshow

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.