Gixer thou head on with HD

That looked nasty.

ultimately though the bike crashed. All crashes are different, who know the exact stresses on a bike crashing at 30mph, compared to any other speed. It all depends on where its hit, how, and how it land back on the road.

Yeah so maybe that particular bikes frame had a production fault, but I cant imagine it being a design fault otherwise we'd be seeing stories like this everywhere.

[northwind]

Or alternatively the story might not be totally accurate. Not sayinghtey're lying, just that these things can be very confused and the collision speed could easily have been higher than they think...

Likewise with the race story, all you have is the rider's assumption that the frame broke before the crash. Again, noit sayig he's lying, just saying he might be wrong.

That aside, if the guy had actualyl kept control and not locked the rear, he wouldn't have crashed- since Harley boy got back into his own lane. I shouldn't be too critical since I've done exactly the same thing (without lowsiding though) but without knowing the guy it seems like another case of untrained american on litrebike syndrome.

Both these incidents have been discussed at length on various other forums and the concensus has been that whilst both are unfortunate the statements accompanying the incidents are so full of holes that you cannot believe either of them to be accurate.

If you think about it, regardless of how poor the welds are, doesn't it seem a little strange that it breaks both sides of the frame in one go without anyone seeing any cracking or complaining about strange handling leading up to it? Sorry, that just doesn't happen!

On the other hand, how many people have seen what happens when an SV650 has a big front end impact? I've seen plenty of the carb'd bikes break the welds that sit about six inches behind the head stock.

The fuel injected bikes don't tend to crack there, they tend to crack on the lower spars between the seat and foot rests and the central spar that goes across the front of the air box tends to break as the frame distorts under the impact.

I've seen a number of both occur both on the road and the track. I even bought a fuel injected bike from a breakers that had been hit a stationary object head on at 20 mph. Even if it had been hit at 60 mph I would still have been surprised at the amount of frame damage. On the other hand I've also seen some very spectcular offs result in no frame damage at all. I guess it all depends exactly where it gets impacted.

Originally Posted by Mike1234

If you think about it, regardless of how poor the welds are, doesn't it seem a little strange that it breaks both sides of the frame in one go without anyone seeing any cracking or complaining about strange handling leading up to it? Sorry, that just doesn't happen!

Having been a welder in my lifetime, I can honestly say the pictures on 1 tail show a totally ****e weld as upsetting as this may be it is a very very poor weld and could have cracked both sides at once quite easily.

however what we do not know is --- what did he hit and how many wheelies has he slammed it down from etc etc .

But no taking it away that weld has ZERO penetration and penetration is critical in more ways than one :P

Originally Posted by amarko5

Having been a welder in my lifetime, I can honestly say the pictures on 1 tail show a totally sh*te weld as upsetting as this may be it is a very very poor weld and could have cracked both sides at once quite easily.

Given that those welds are no better than most of the ones I have seen on other Suzukis are you really suggesting that the bike can just fall to pieces with no warning at any point?

Having seen a number of bikes where welds have failed and spoken to a number of people who had ridden damaged bikes without realising only to notice large cracks half way down the weld on just one side after finding the handling very strange then I'm afraid I find it very hard to believe that they would have absolutely no warning at all as claimed in one of the articles.

Originally Posted by Mike1234

Given that those welds are no better than most of the ones I have seen on other Suzukis are you really suggesting that the bike can just fall to pieces with no warning at any point?

Having seen a number of bikes where welds have failed and spoken to a number of people who had ridden damaged bikes without realising only to notice large cracks half way down the weld on just one side after finding the handling very strange then I'm afraid I find it very hard to believe that they would have absolutely no warning at all as claimed in one of the articles.

Obvioulsy without being at either of the incidents to see and or data log exactly what was happening on the bikes at the time no one can really be sure what cause the bikes to break like this....

Yes we have all seen bikes have damaged frames in serious accidents but these werent..... and thats what concearns me...

It doesnt put me of another suzuki, however i wont be getting a Gsxr.. (yeah like i can afford one any way)

Im just glad no one has been serioulsy injured as a result of this... yet.....

Originally Posted by 454697819

Yes we have all seen bikes have damaged frames in serious accidents but these werent..... and thats what concearns me...

But that's the point I was making, I've seen frames snap from relatively light crashes and have seen bikes escape with just a bent subframe or two after cartwheeling down the track.

It doesn't mean the welds are dangerous just that the bike got twisted in a particular way. Given how strong the forks are on the GSXRs the amount of force going through the headstock in an awkward crash, even at low speed, would be immense.

Would either of these bikes ever realistically fail without an impact, i.e. whilst you were riding them? Nah, that's just not going to happen!

Originally Posted by Mike1234

But that's the point I was making, I've seen frames snap from relatively light crashes and have seen bikes escape with just a bent subframe or two after cartwheeling down the track.

It doesn't mean the welds are dangerous just that the bike got twisted in a particular way. Given how strong the forks are on the GSXRs the amount of force going through the headstock in an awkward crash, even at low speed, would be immense.

Would either of these bikes ever realistically fail without an impact, i.e. whilst you were riding them? Nah, that's just not going to happen!

ahh i seeeeee!!,

And yes i agree with you about the not failing whils riding a long under "normal" conditions.... but there again..dtranger things have happened....!

I wonder how many wheelies you can do before the frame gives up then

[jambo]

This is all stuff that I'm sure suzuki is looking into. I have a point to make though, while the 2nd bike looks like the crack is down the weld (I have to accept other people's comments on quality of welding knowing nothing of it myself) The 1st bike's frame looks like it has broken at a different point on each side of the frame, so maybe not the welds?

As said many very strong and wierd forces involved in crashes, time was forks were thin and bent taking a lot of force off the frame like a crumple zone. Moddern USD forks are so strong they transmit almost all force to the headstock and so can bend / shear a frame. This was brought up a few years ago with a report in bike mag about the increasing numbers of frames being written off.

I'm fairly sure I heard that a frame expert had discredited the bloke's story abouth the frame shearing at the track and that it must have happened on impact with the wall. (Handing on from MCN but can't remember what week)