Damn road debris

[tmcgee]

I ran over some sheet metal in the left lane of I-95 coming through Providence an hour ago. It was a looooooong piece that covered the whole lane, and there was no way to swerve around it. The other two lanes were also littered with unidentifiable parts.

The tires and all felt okay, so I kept going. 40 miles later, I pulled off Rte. 128 in Braintree to go home and the distinct smell of oil was very strong while waiting for the light at the bottom of the ramp to change. Woops, smoke wafting up from the bike too. Hey, it's me.

Two miles to go and the tempertaure guage was reading a little high. I pulled into the driveway and got off the bike to take a look. The center stand was saturated with oil and dripping, with oil film all over the rear of the bike. I lost a lot, there is no oil showing in the sight glass even with th bike tipped. Kneeling down for a closer look, the oil filter didn't look round anymore. Yup, there's a hole punched right through it. It could have been worse.

Never thought I'd need a skid plate...

[aps45819]

Cool, damage done to the cheapest part. Go buy a lottery ticket.

[VtSTROM-K5]

Tom that is VERY lucky >>> thankfully You didn't loose control of the bike and end up getting yourself hurt:confused: or worse (I've ridden thru Prov-it-isn't ) & that it wasn't the sump or oil cooler!! Glad everything turned out in your favor;)

[crowtdog]

You didn't mention the oil pressure light coming on. So there was still enough oil to keep the pump happy. But boy, it's not much of an early warning system. Seems that by the time the oil pressure light comes on you're pretty much screwed.:(

[Keith Falkner]

tmcgee,

You used a word that triggers a memory. Hugh Downs (famous and clever news reporter, commentator, sidekick, and all-around talented talking head) was covering a disaster scene with a wet-behind-the-ears assistant who was a walking and talking disaster himself. This jerk absolutely could not open his mouth without showing the world what a dimwit he was.

As this bozo produced malaprops, mangled names, and other sophomoric catastrophes, Hugh's patience with him dwindled and dwindled. Finally, the novice said, "Hugh, what I find really striking is the great amount of derbis."

Yup, he said it. Derbis.

Hugh winced, and announced a commercial, whether it was time for one or not.

When the camera came back to Mr. Downs, he was alone.

----------------

End of stupid story. I hope your V-Strom gets a new oil filter and a general checkup, and that nothing else was damaged.

"Coulda been worse." Gosh, have I ever heard that a lot of times!

Keith

[PonchoV]

Do you have a 1000 or 650?
Your rear tire could have given you 0 grip.
Check your rear brake pads.
Look on the bright side, you won't have to lube your chain for a while.
Glad to not hear about you later.

[tmcgee]

You didn't mention the oil pressure light coming on. So there was still enough oil to keep the pump happy. But boy, it's not much of an early warning system. Seems that by the time the oil pressure light comes on you're pretty much screwed.:(

I'm still replaying this, Dave. What you said was just starting to occur to me. There appears to be NO early warning at all. The light never did come on.

30 miles after hitting whatever it was, when I got up to rte. 128 and downshifted for the ramp, the shifter didn't feel right, like the rubber was missing. I looked down and it was still there, hmmmmm, and I started thinking about slippery pegs and maybe going with some motocross pegs at some point, but wait a minute! The roads are dry, so why is it slippery? I hadn't had a whiff of oil yet.

After I got off the highway, pulled to the light and knew it was me, I realized there must have been damage back in Providence. At that point, I was thinking about adding an oil pressure guage and I forgot there even was an idiot light.

I haven't pulled the punctured filter off yet and I'm hoping that's the only damage. I don't think there is any oil left in the bike right now. The drain pan I put under it has a 3 inch puddle and that's it. Considering that the road between Providence and rte. 128 is a very fast road and I took it between 80 and 90 (slightly faster than traffic) , I'm lucky I didn't seize the sucker.

[tmcgee]

Do you have a 1000 or 650?
Your rear tire could have given you 0 grip.
Check your rear brake pads.
Look on the bright side, you won't have to lube your chain for a while.
Glad to not hear about you later.

650. The rear brake pads are saturated. Definitely have some cleanup to do.

[tmcgee]

Just ordered the skid plate from amotostuff. I'm a believer now.

Radiator cover reseach is next.

[jackpiner57]

Holy sh*t Tom. Glad to see you're OK! I hope the bike isn't too buggered up. After replacing the oil and filter, I would give it a good washing, use brake cleaner on the rotor and replace those pads. Then I'd lay on the floor and do a meticulous inspection. Then I'd thank God for letting me live to ride another day.:D

[larolco]

You're lucky.

I once had the entire exhaust system on the van in front of me fall completely off and slide sideways across my lane. This was on the highway at about 100 kmh. I launched off the muffler (on a cruiser) and got airborn. I came down so hard I collapsed both mirrors. In retrospect, I think it was the right decision not to swerve. I pulled over, reset the mirrors, caught my breath, and went on my way.

Not the sort of thing you expect.

The engine should be fine if there was still oil in it.

Some friends and I tried to seize a 350 Chev once. We took the oilpan right off, poured a couple of gallons of gas in the tank, put a brick on the accelerator, and fired it up. It ran out of gas before it seized.

It was all very anti-climactic.

[tmcgee]

As long as there's a pint of Guinness left in the engine, it's happy.
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/730/img0212uf2.jpg

Filter close-up:
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/5513/img0213lm7.jpg

There is no other visible damage than the filter and the hole was small. The underside of the bike needs a good wash. The rotor and brake pads in the rear were lightly coated and brake cleaner seems to have taken it all off. The rest of the can of cleaner was used getting oil off the rear tire. I need to pick up another couple of cans to clean the exhaust pipes.

[RedAnt]

Just ordered the skid plate from amotostuff. I'm a believer now.

Radiator cover reseach is next.

Curious about your new skid plate. Hope to see you again this year and do some comparison to mine. When I bought mine it seemed like the best protection and it gave me the option of highway pegs. The one you bought wasn't available yet, so it wasn't an option. This new one looks a lot like the Tonn's one I put on my DRZ400s. On the DRZ I was surprised at how much louder the bike was with the parabolic plate echoing ALL the engine noise back at me. I would be interested to know if yours behaves similarly.

I'm glad to say I don't think I've ever needed mine yet, but I bought it because I'm likely to do some offroad and that area looks really exposed (oil filter & radiators). I also liked that I could still buy a center stand with the one I bought, looks like your can too.

Glad to hear you're fine and the bike also appears unharmed.

[tmcgee]

Curious about your new skid plate. Hope to see you again this year and do some comparison to mine.

I'm sure we'll do at least one ride together, Rob. I'll post here about the skid plate when it's installed. I also ordered the SW-Motech radiator cover yesterday.

58 degrees here now. I'm making my way through the pile of new add-ons that's been collecting for a few months. Kisan Tech made a few bucks off of me lately.

[larolco]

Great pix there. Looks like you got off lucky!

[USMC V-STROMMER]

Glad to hear it caught your oil filter and not your toes! Imagine looking down and seeing that slice in the end of your riding boots....

[tmcgee]

Glad to hear it caught your oil filter and not your toes! Imagine looking down and seeing that slice in the end of your riding boots....

I've had the end of my boot peeled off before. The bruises took 8 months to go away.

[RedAnt]

I'm sure we'll do at least one ride together, Rob. I'll post here about the skid plate when it's installed. I also ordered the SW-Motech radiator cover yesterday.

58 degrees here now. I'm making my way through the pile of new add-ons that's been collecting for a few months. Kisan Tech made a few bucks off of me lately.

When first thinking about your incident I felt good that I've used Rotella since mile 60. I'm not sure it would make a difference, but it makes me feel better starting in mid winter AND if anything like this ever happens to me.

BTW I went to look at a Strom with my step brother and it had one of your new skidplates. It looked nice and a little bit more open than my loud one on the DRZ. Still wonder how it will sound, but now I know that if you combine it with aggressive knobby dual sport tires it looks the part of a huge off-roader.

I'm hoping to get a few rides up the Maine coast in, so I'm sure we'll see each other this year. Sounds like you have a nice pocket of warm down there, Hopefully it holds for the St Patty's Day trip and I can work out the logistics such that I can go.

[tmcgee]

It took about an hour to install it, with the usual issue of running around to locate the right tools. We'll see if it's noisy or not.

http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/2505/img0239tc0.jpg

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/1898/img0240ss3.jpg

http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/3316/img0241ey2.jpg

[VtSTROM-K5]

Tom, how will this affect the access to the filter for changes?:???:
Not that the hassel would negate the reason you got it in the first place:confused:
Just a curiosity question.....

[dmf109]

It took about an hour to install it, with the usual issue of running around to locate the right tools. We'll see if it's noisy or not.

http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/2505/img0239tc0.jpg

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/1898/img0240ss3.jpg

http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/3316/img0241ey2.jpg

Tom- sweet looking setup! I'd like one of those.

[tmcgee]

Tom, how will this affect the access to the filter for changes?:???:

There are two bolts up through the pan and into the mounting bracket at the rear of the bash plate. You can see them in oneof the pixtures. When you take those out, the pan drops down and there is plenty of room to get to the filter and drain plug.

[tmcgee]

On the DRZ I was surprised at how much louder the bike was with the parabolic plate echoing ALL the engine noise back at me. I would be interested to know if yours behaves similarly.

I'm getting a howl between 30 and 40mph that sounds like (and probably is) the rear tire, and I'm at a loss how to isolate the sound. I do have new tires in addition to the skid plate, and they were put on at about the same time, so I can't tell.

It's road speed related and does not change with a gear shift. If it is the tire, I've gotta change it or it will drive me nuts.

In addtion, I've bottomed the skid plate twice on the back corner in a rather gentle corner at the end of my street. I'm sure there's a bump there since it hasn't happened on other similar corners. Time to beef up the suspension, I think.

[Keith Falkner]

tmcgee,

You can instantly make the rear suspension stiffer, by turning the big knob on the right side clockwise. There seems to be lots of adjustment there. I have tried various settings and they all seem OK, with varying loads.

Good luck,
Keith

[tmcgee]

tmcgee,

You can instantly make the rear suspension stiffer, by turning the big knob on the right side clockwise. There seems to be lots of adjustment there. I have tried various settings and they all seem OK, with varying loads.

Well, I'm about out of preload, so a stiffer spring is really the way to go.

[VtSTROM-K5]

Tom, Uhmmm Not to sound like the redneck (that I am) but try putting gorilla tape over the 3 rather large punched holes on both lower outer edges of the sump guard. those angles look as tho they might whistle / howl ...:confused: then if the noise is still there you can look at the tires as a possible source.. MY .02

[tmcgee]

Tom, Uhmmm Not to sound like the redneck (that I am) but try putting gorilla tape over the 3 rather large punched holes on both lower outer edges of the sump guard. those angles look as tho they might whistle / howl ...:confused: then if the noise is still there you can look at the tires as a possible source.. MY .02

Nice try, Jack. Now that I've ruled that out, it's gotta be the tire. That's the only other thing that's changed. It's a Michelin Pilot Road. I keep thinking I put it on backwards so I must have double checked the rotation arrows 15 times.

[VtSTROM-K5]

It was worth a shot.:???: just din't think a Michelin would have that kind of Harmonics problem:rolleyes: But the next logical thing to do would be to swap the rear wheel & tire with another 650, ride both side by side and see where the noise is??? Yes? NO?
then the noise if it's from the tire would move to the other bike . If thats the case , well ...down shift ,Gas it and wave as you pull away!!!
Ok,Ok,Ok, NO. I was just kidding >:)..:mrgreen:

[RedAnt]

The first of two Stroms (my step brothers) I helped pickup this last weekend, had a SW-Motech crashbar and skidplate combo. It looks pretty nice to me and I do not believe he has had any noise. Although it sounds like yours isn't really the noise issue either.

http://www.sr.unh.edu/~rea/Gary/GaryBikePickup/.thumb800/20070324_111800.jpg

Since he's only had the bike a few days and everything is new to him, I hope he's not cornering hard enough to find out what touches down first.

On my DRZ the noise was much louder after installed my Tonns plate. The one I have on my Wee does seem to have a resonance around 4.5k rpms, but otherwise no new noises came with it.

[tmcgee]

It was worth a shot.:???: just din't think a Michelin would have that kind of Harmonics problem:rolleyes:

The best tires I've had were Michelins, but so were the worst. I love the way these tires handle, if they'd only shut up. :???:

Apparently, I'm not alone. This from rapidforum: "My rear MPR does this. Does not bother me."