1 Oooh, 'Dat hurt Mon May 15, 2023 8:24 pm
jjefferies
Life time member
So my Red K75, 166,656 miles, seen in my picture needed some riding. First time out in a few months, aside: I'd been using Silver with only 66,000 miles. When I found that Red's speedometer wasn't working, took it home and took the instrument pod apart to clean the contacts. In the process I noted that one of the four 6mm bolts holding it on, had dropped out of the right side. I figured that it had fallen off somewhere in the previous 10K miles. In another post I described the project and that it wasn't the instrument pod but a connector under the right battery cover that was the actual cause of the speedo failure. Now Red was back together and I took it out for a short ride to check that all was good. So I rode out to Alameda Point, the old naval air station situated on the west end of the island directly across the bay from San Francisco. Putzed around looking at the various changes/projects going on to convert the area to civilian usage when I came down closed off road. Well it really wasn't closed off that well, just some of those moveable water fill able barriers that any bike can go around/through. But as there were workmen around and I felt compelled to be a nice guy and not violate the signs about the road closure. I wheeled around to the left to go back up the way I came when the unthinkable happened. From what I later deduced, the bike's forks didn't turn fully, the clutch was slightly jumpy and I was caught over balanced and dumped. Going down I felt my left knee and ankle take a hit. Instinctively I hit the kill switch and after a moment started to pick myself up. Now the embarrassing part. I've dropped bikes before. Not terribly often but it happens. But this was right in front of the Point's fire station. Before I even could pick myself up there were a dozen young virile manly fellows, doubt any of them were over 30, there to give me a hand up and righting the bike. As politely as a shaken old duffer can, I declined their offers of further help and managed to ride home (<15 minutes) before the adrenaline wore off. Once home and needing to park the bike back in the garage, I ride down the driveway past the house, take a hard left, stop, and then roll the bike backwards in a hard right into the garage. But the hard left wasn't that hard. In fact any left turn more than you would do in normal riding was blocked. For various reasons this had not been obvious previously in normal riding. So I went in the house and began the recovery business with icing of my left side knee and ankle, talked to a online nurse, then doctor, went and had x-rays made. Nothing broken just some painful bruising. At 78 bruising is always painful. Next day, went out to examine the bike. Left side case saver had torn free, breaking a bit of the fairing. And the fairing itself has a nasty break at the top front of the left side piece. Not that big an issue as I have another full fairing that after painting can be popped onto the bike. But examination of the forks and triple clamps found "AH So" that 6mm bolt that I mentioned having been lost from the instrument pod. It had landed on the lower brace and interposed itself between the brace and the fork stop. Hence the issues with hard left turn which is what I think took me down. Mentioned to the young ladies living next door that any fem's interested in prime males on the hoof might care to have bicycle problems in that particular locale.
Now the query for suggestions. The case savers if you have ever had reason to examine them are mounted at three points with cups filled with a rubber compound with a bolt coming out of the cup. I will attach a photo of the top mount. Anyway at all three mounts the bolts pulled free of the rubber mounting compound. I spoke with the proprietor of Smith & Company about obtaining some of the old rubber sulfide two part epoxy that they sold for years and was told that basically due to California's environmental laws coupled with manufacturers reorgs it was no longer available. That stuff was fantastic. He recommended 5200 Fast by 3M which I know nothing about. And so would like to ask of the assembled riders/mechanics if anyone has other suggestions or experiences with something to mount the bolts into the cups. I can clean out the old stuff but what to use in its place.
best regards
J.
Photo of the case saver mount
Now the query for suggestions. The case savers if you have ever had reason to examine them are mounted at three points with cups filled with a rubber compound with a bolt coming out of the cup. I will attach a photo of the top mount. Anyway at all three mounts the bolts pulled free of the rubber mounting compound. I spoke with the proprietor of Smith & Company about obtaining some of the old rubber sulfide two part epoxy that they sold for years and was told that basically due to California's environmental laws coupled with manufacturers reorgs it was no longer available. That stuff was fantastic. He recommended 5200 Fast by 3M which I know nothing about. And so would like to ask of the assembled riders/mechanics if anyone has other suggestions or experiences with something to mount the bolts into the cups. I can clean out the old stuff but what to use in its place.
best regards
J.
Photo of the case saver mount