I went to a middle school parking lot in my neighborhood this morning to practice with my bike. First time riding no incidents...no problems, and even though I never made it out of 3rd gear is was still fun, except one mechanical problem,which I will address later. Anyway, I get home park it in the garage, and then I decide I want to face it another way, as I'm turning it I lose my footing and drop it on its left side....[][:-][&o][&:] I picked it up and drove it down the street at about 10mph to see if there was any damages that make it not safe to drive. So this is what is going on:

- As I'm riding I feel a vibration, and the frequency increases with speed, I'm assuming the chain is rubbing against the "shifter" where it connects to the "peg plate".My reasoning is because the little boot that covers the ball-and-socket jointconnection is worn to where the ball is exposed. Shifting to 2ndis very difficult, it goes into neutral, unlessI kick up like Jet Li. Is this a safe assumption, or could it possiblebe thetransmission orsomething else?

- As I was practicing I notice the temp was getting in the red, so I would stop and let it cool off, I did noticed the radiator fan fuse was blown so I replaced that, but it still went in the red. Is this normal for race bikes, or should I check the thermostat (or relay, I not sure which one it has) and the fan itself?

- I have flushed mounted side signals in the front on the side fairings.After dropping it,the fairing around it cracked and fell out, which I noticed had been broken before and semi-repaired with adhesive. What type of adhesive should I use? Will a two part epoxy, work on fairings?

Thanks in advance guys.

 

Expect to drop your bike even more.

 

^ I've never dropped a bike.

Vibration: The biggest vibration my bike had was the gas tank rumbling against the frame and the back of the airbox, put some sticky sided foam strips along where the tank touches the frame and the airbox and that will make the vibration go away. If that doesn't solve it, something else could be loose.

Heat: You were probably going slow a lot, and even sitting still for some time. Even though our bikes are liquid-cooled, it will over heat if you arent getting good air-flow through the radiator.For a precautionary fix, flush the radiator, add new coolant and check everything out,

Fairing crack: Find somebody that does plasti-welding and have it repaired that way. Some 2-part epoxy's work okay but it's not very strong. If you plan to keep the bike for a long time and maybe make it beautiful again there are a couple of online stores that sell new fairings for our bikes, such as www.airtech-streamlining.com

Hope this helps, good luck.

 

I've been told that quite a bit today at work, and I here when they drop it's usually something real stupid that causes it.

 

I hope you didn't just jinx yourself ...jk.

As far as the vibration, would that have anything to do with not be able to shift into 2nd without problems because this happen right after I dropped it. The vibration is on the left foot peg.

 

I had problems getting into second as well, the cause of that could be a few things.

A: You bent your shift lever - first thought.

If it's not bent

B: Your chain needs adjustment (it does help)
C: You need to adjust your shift lever one notch down so it's easier to pull up on (you're not reaching way up for each gear)
D: You just need to get used to shifting harder

It's hard to go from 1 to 2, because there is a big gap in between (neutral). I still miss 2nd every once in a while and get stuck in neutral, you just have to be firm with it.

I cant really help much more unless I was riding the bike, online diagnostics are hard!

 

Thanks man, I'm not sure what the shift level is, but I just order the manual, and I'm going to check it out.

 

shift lever* not level, it's the thing you shift with your foot :P

Just adjust it so it sits in a good position for you to lift up on, IE. not too far up that you have to literally lift your foot off the peg to upshift, and not too far down that you have to crank your ankle right forward to get your toe under it.

 

The first time I got on a bike I was on the freeway within an hour. Learned by doing. Then my buddy told me that if I get caught without insurance and a llicense bad things will happen to me and the bike. Took one of those training courses and while they werelecturing about the technical aspects on gasing, turning, etc, I was just thinking howDANGEROUSit was to learn the way I did.My point is: Ifyou don't have your licence -get it, if you don't have insurance - get it, and if youdon't have goodsafety gear - get it.

About dropping your bike some people will and some people won't. I have dropped mine a couple of times but at slow speeds when I was first learning. It is much easier to drop it the slower you go. Once you go a little faster the bike wants to stay up. Maybe you should practice without the fairings for a while.

As far as your problem, I was tell people to get afactory manual. Then do a full inspection. The bikes chassis are strong enough to take on small incidents. If you are worried about it, you can always take in to a professional to fix.

Good Luck

 

Thanks for the advice. Practice with out fairings, that a good idea. As far as the other stuff it's all covered, and insurance at $314/year, I couldn't complain. I have my permit which I have to have for 30daysbefore getting licensed, and it's registered. I couldn't take the MSF course until I had my permit. So I'll be taking that inexactly 2 weeks.I'm not leaving my neighborhood until I'm confident with several things, such as; my friction point out of first, turn radius at slow speeds, etc.

Thanks again.