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DL-650 dash melting..and other oddness. Thoughts?

3K views 13 replies 10 participants last post by  Wayward Son 
#1 ·
About a month ago I rode to a rally in W.Va. It was about a 500 mile ride in mostly rainy overcast weather...and while there the bike mostly sat outside my room because of that weather. One afternoon I am walking past my bike and see this...


That section of the dash is just melted! I thought at first that something inside the instrument cluster had gotten hot. Pulled the windshield and got the dash apart...nothing inside showed any evidence of having been warm. So buttoned it back up and rode the bike home without incident.

So....what caused this? I have a Cee Bailey windshield. The only thing I can think of is that somehow the shield acted as a magnifying glass....concentrating the suns rays. ??

I kept a close eye on this during the ride home and since then. There has been no further damage.

Whatcha got? :bom_ears:

The "other oddness".....on this same ride I pull off the main road for fuel and in attempting to turn the bike to park, find that my handlebars will barely turn to the left at all. I have full movement to the right but very little to the left. I am checking my tank bag for interference etc., and in looking down through and at the forks, find a bolt just laying on top of part of the forks (triple tree?)! Come to find out it is a sub-frame bolt...there are two of them and the second one is about half way out:jawdrop: Is this a common problem?

TIA............John
 
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#2 ·
This is not an unusual problem. There have been many cases reported here of melted dashboards. The windshield acts as a convex lens, reflecting the concentrated sunlight onto the dash. I have a small melted part on mine too.
Looks like yours took a pretty good hit.

I'm not sure how to avoid it other than orienting the bike such that it can't catch direct sunlight from the rear.

Not very practical, I know...
 
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#3 ·
As for the melting dash the only thing I could come up with is the magnification of the sun through the windscreen like you said. I've never heard of this before but I am pretty sure that it is possible. As for the bolts coming out that's possible with any bolt due to vibration but for a sub frame bolt to come out leads me to believe they were never torqued properly or re-torqued during the first service. How many miles do you have? Are you the original owner?
 
#4 ·
It isn't the sun coming through the windscreen but being reflected and focused by the off the back curve of it. It happens when the sun is behind the bike.
 
#5 ·
Thanks to all for the quick responses! I "think" I am going to paint the inside of the shield flat black from the bolt holes down. That would not interfere with vision and should fix the problem. The rest of the bike is black anyway.

@MetsFan....I am pretty sure that I know how the sub-frame bolts got loosened...by a dealer. FWIW the bike has a bit less than 10,000 miles and I have owned it a bit less than a year...second owner.
 
#7 ·
#8 ·
Come to find out it is a sub-frame bolt...there are two of them and the second one is about half way out Is this a common problem?

It's not uncommon if you google for it. Put thread locker on them and torque to the correct specification and it will not happen again.

..
 
#9 ·
That is my thinking, although I have not done it yet. The bike was giving me a heads up and I was too thick headed to realize it. I had noticed that when riding at night, my low beams looked like something was shaking.:rolleyes5: Sometimes I am a :bom_dunce2: The entire front fairing was what was shaking!
 
#10 ·
Had the same melting problem on previous bikes involving instrument faces and needles (expensive fixes). Definitely happens when the sun is behind the parked bike, as I've actually observed it happening! Never occurs while moving because the focused point of light doesn't stay in one place long enough to get real hot. The shield acts as a parabolic mirror and focuses sunlight to a point on the dash and instruments. The sun moves slowly and the melting results in a line across the dash. I've tried making dash covers, but they blow off in the wind. I've discovered the easiest solution is fitting an old t-shirt over the windscreen when parked. This eliminates the reflection completely. Easy to pack, just roll it up to stow, then slide over the shield whenever you park it. Just don't forget to install it or the melting will return.
 
#11 ·
i also had this happen to me in WV ironically! i was parked at seneca rocks for roughly 45 mins with the sun facing behind the cee baileys wind screen. i did not notice the melt spot until i was half way home to fairfax. i thought at first i might of had an electrical wiring issue but i realized that the lense was a magnified glass wanna be. i do my best to keep the bike in the shade and face it towards the sun and throw a jacket over it.
 
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