James87
24-07-12, 05:00 PM
Hi all,
Ive had a scare on my new bike, in fact quite a big scare so I thought I’d share it with you all and get some views and opinions as to what went wrong.
I’ve recently passed my DAS and have spent a good month looking at/trying different bikes. I didn’t firmly know what it was that I was going to get but the SV650 kept popping up. I looked at several half faired versions, which has some OK looks but something was missing. So I turned my focus elsewhere.
Whilst looking at another bike which I thought that I liked (er6n), I saw a lovely little black ‘07 naked SV sat amongst a bunch of verocious looking 1L sport bikes, I knew I was there to look at the ER6 but could not stop staring at the SV.
It turns out the only thing preventing me from really ‘falling’ for the previous 650’s that I looked at were the questionable looks, riding position of the S model. After having a go on this one however I knew this was the one. On top of the fact that there wasn’t a scratch on it and it had done 3000 miles with FSH, It had a few extras too such as a quill exhaust, tail tidy and Renthal bars which sweetened the deal at (3k).
So the next day I rode it home, and it was perfect! I had a sore face for a few days afterwards from grinning so much. This journey was about 30 minutes of riding. no dramas
So a week later, after being kept round the side of my house under a bike cover I finally found the time to take it out on Sunday to enjoy the amazing weather, I thought id take a trip to Hein Gericke in Farnborough to look at some kit as the bike trousers that I have are unbearable in the heat.
I was heading back the way I came after finding nothing that I liked in my size, and thought id ride through town as against the dual carriageway to get used to the ‘biting point’ on the clutch with the inevitable stop starting of urban riding. The bike seemed okay at this point but pulling away at junctions etc the bike felt quite laboured, kind of like when you pull away in too high a gear. I put this down to my inexperience and getting lost in the gears. Once I got moving again everything was okay.
I was travelling into the centre of Farnborough and was doing about 35 in a 40. I was on about 4.5k revs, nothing silly, as a noob I enjoy taking things easy. Nothing in front, a couple of cars a way behind. The bike started to feel extremely laboured, the next thing I know the front is violently going all over the place and then im on the floor sliding across the road. I wasn’t expecting to drop the bike going in a straight line. And I must say it happened very quickly, I took a whack to the head so now im looking at replacing the helmet, and im a slightly bruised. Jacket is a bit scuffed, and the trousers tore at the pocket. Thankfully im fine, investing in good kit paid off and no cars were coming the other way as I ended up on the other side of the road.
To say I was completely shocked is an understatement.
My initial thought was “did I hit some oil?” no. The road was clean.
There were a couple of nice people that appeared (not sure where from) that helped me pick up the bike and get it off of the road, they must have been the people in the car behind. They were just as flummoxed as I was as to what had happened. So we looked over the bike to try and work out what happened.
This is what we noticed:
There was a very potent burning/hot smell from the front brakes, I guess it smelt a bit like burnt plastic..
There was a lot of ‘bluing’ on the discs themselves as what happens to metals when exposed to a lot of heat.
There was an immense heat coming from the front wheel. I had my hand about 12-15” away and could feel a lot of heat coming from the front.
The tyre had blistered in the centre and slightly off to the side where I went over. (I’ve seen this on my dads back tyre after a track day – not sure if blistered is the correct term?)
My front brake lever was jammed behind the throttle cables. (impossible to say if this was a result of the crash or if this was like it before as the end of the lever is missing)
The brakes were rubbing making the bike hard to move around (until we managed to free the front brake from the cables)
My conclusion:
Somehow the breaks jammed/locked and it knocked me off
This scared the s**t out of me. Thankfully the garage I bought it from are going to repair everything and set it right like for like, for free.
Just as well because if this happened on the dual carriageway/if it was slightly busier on that road, I might not be here to tell you all this wonderful tale
So at the end of this rather large post/essay the question that I want to know is what the hell? Has anybody heard of something like this before? Can anybody think why the brakes might have locked up?
Thanks in advance,
James
Ive had a scare on my new bike, in fact quite a big scare so I thought I’d share it with you all and get some views and opinions as to what went wrong.
I’ve recently passed my DAS and have spent a good month looking at/trying different bikes. I didn’t firmly know what it was that I was going to get but the SV650 kept popping up. I looked at several half faired versions, which has some OK looks but something was missing. So I turned my focus elsewhere.
Whilst looking at another bike which I thought that I liked (er6n), I saw a lovely little black ‘07 naked SV sat amongst a bunch of verocious looking 1L sport bikes, I knew I was there to look at the ER6 but could not stop staring at the SV.
It turns out the only thing preventing me from really ‘falling’ for the previous 650’s that I looked at were the questionable looks, riding position of the S model. After having a go on this one however I knew this was the one. On top of the fact that there wasn’t a scratch on it and it had done 3000 miles with FSH, It had a few extras too such as a quill exhaust, tail tidy and Renthal bars which sweetened the deal at (3k).
So the next day I rode it home, and it was perfect! I had a sore face for a few days afterwards from grinning so much. This journey was about 30 minutes of riding. no dramas
So a week later, after being kept round the side of my house under a bike cover I finally found the time to take it out on Sunday to enjoy the amazing weather, I thought id take a trip to Hein Gericke in Farnborough to look at some kit as the bike trousers that I have are unbearable in the heat.
I was heading back the way I came after finding nothing that I liked in my size, and thought id ride through town as against the dual carriageway to get used to the ‘biting point’ on the clutch with the inevitable stop starting of urban riding. The bike seemed okay at this point but pulling away at junctions etc the bike felt quite laboured, kind of like when you pull away in too high a gear. I put this down to my inexperience and getting lost in the gears. Once I got moving again everything was okay.
I was travelling into the centre of Farnborough and was doing about 35 in a 40. I was on about 4.5k revs, nothing silly, as a noob I enjoy taking things easy. Nothing in front, a couple of cars a way behind. The bike started to feel extremely laboured, the next thing I know the front is violently going all over the place and then im on the floor sliding across the road. I wasn’t expecting to drop the bike going in a straight line. And I must say it happened very quickly, I took a whack to the head so now im looking at replacing the helmet, and im a slightly bruised. Jacket is a bit scuffed, and the trousers tore at the pocket. Thankfully im fine, investing in good kit paid off and no cars were coming the other way as I ended up on the other side of the road.
To say I was completely shocked is an understatement.
My initial thought was “did I hit some oil?” no. The road was clean.
There were a couple of nice people that appeared (not sure where from) that helped me pick up the bike and get it off of the road, they must have been the people in the car behind. They were just as flummoxed as I was as to what had happened. So we looked over the bike to try and work out what happened.
This is what we noticed:
There was a very potent burning/hot smell from the front brakes, I guess it smelt a bit like burnt plastic..
There was a lot of ‘bluing’ on the discs themselves as what happens to metals when exposed to a lot of heat.
There was an immense heat coming from the front wheel. I had my hand about 12-15” away and could feel a lot of heat coming from the front.
The tyre had blistered in the centre and slightly off to the side where I went over. (I’ve seen this on my dads back tyre after a track day – not sure if blistered is the correct term?)
My front brake lever was jammed behind the throttle cables. (impossible to say if this was a result of the crash or if this was like it before as the end of the lever is missing)
The brakes were rubbing making the bike hard to move around (until we managed to free the front brake from the cables)
My conclusion:
Somehow the breaks jammed/locked and it knocked me off
This scared the s**t out of me. Thankfully the garage I bought it from are going to repair everything and set it right like for like, for free.
Just as well because if this happened on the dual carriageway/if it was slightly busier on that road, I might not be here to tell you all this wonderful tale
So at the end of this rather large post/essay the question that I want to know is what the hell? Has anybody heard of something like this before? Can anybody think why the brakes might have locked up?
Thanks in advance,
James