Foolishly Tempted Fate
 

With the gusty weather yesterday, I commented to a customer in the shop that normally I put two ties round my bike cover when it's forecast to be windy...but I'd just put one on last time I locked my bike up.

So, of course, as I drove down my street on my way home.....there's my bike, lying on the floor, with the cover almost completely pulled off :evil:

It was quite obvious the wind had got up inside the front of the cover - where I would normally tie a second strap - and hoiked the bike over.

With the help of my neighbour (the same neighbour who had assisted my forced re-entry of my own house the previous day :oops: ) we got it back upright. He said he'd seen it lying there, but didn't want to mess with it, so waited for me to come home. Good job he helped, because it was just a few inches from the wall outside my house, and I couldn't get behind the bike to pick it up on my own.

Bar end and mirror are scuffed, no obvious damage to tank, can or rear brake lever. There was some oil on the floor, and it dripped a bit more out when we got it back upright, but I think that's stopped now.

I'm hoping that having the steering lock on didn't cause any damage to the front end when it hit the floor.

The moral of the story is....never tempt fate by saying "I hope this wind hasn't blown my bike over!".

Jo -> It's just not my weekend!

Bugger Jo. :cry:

I'd lift the tank, take out the air filter and make sure that any oil that possibly found it's way up there is cleaned out.

:?

<Blissful_Ignorance>

Could oil in the air filter cause a problem then? And is it likely to have got there?

</Blissful_Ignorance>

The crank case oil breather hoses go into the bottom of the air box. With the bike being laid down for some time it's quite possible that oil has travelled up the hoses into the air box. This oil can very easily clog up the air filter causing running problems. Not to mention oil going down into the carbs themselves.

Ahh....ok :shock:

Whilst lying on the pavement examining the underside of the bike (not that I'm gonna be able to spot what's right or wrong :roll: it just seemed like the appropriate thing to do :D ) I noticed three things:

1. The underside of my bike is filthy...I mean absolutely filthy....but i class that as a 'protective layer'
2. The bottom of the lower fairing (on the side that had been on the floor) looked like it was kind of 'melted'. Actually melted is the wrong term....the surface layer of the plastic was peeling off. Dunno if this is just down to a complete lack of maintenance/cleaning on my part, caused by the fall, or due to it lying in a bit of oil for a while. Anyway, you can't see it unless you lie on the floor, so I'm not fussed about it.
3. There's a small black rubber hose covered in old oil hanging down just behind the lower fairing on the right hand side. I'm assuming this is meant to be hanging down, and not attched to something :?

Please excuse the highly technical language that i'm accustomed to using when talking about bikes :wink:

As tomorrow is my day off (Hurrah!) I think I'll give Jim from the Cavalry a call and get him to come and give the bike a quick health check.

Jo

1. Don't worry, mines like that too and no ones going to see it unless you're keen on wheelies, stoppies or crashing.

2. Can't help i'm afraid.

3. Yes, it's supposed to hang down, it's a breather (from the tank I think) but my K5's got 2 side by side.

HTH

Bad luck about it blowing over BTW. My Aprilia used blow over regularly in gales cos it weighed next to nothing. No such probs with the SV so far...

whoops, that's tempting fate isn't it?

Now don't say I didn't warn you [-X

Doh!
Allt he good advice has already been given :wink: So I'll just post to say "Bugger" check the oil level if you lost some, and glad it wasn't worse.

Jambo