Hi chaps!
Apoliges for the bold lettering on the thread, but I need all of us to have a good look at this, for our own safety.
Some of you may recall my mate's bird, the one with the half fairing, from the pics of our latest outing.
Well this morning he called me uo, saying that for some reason his main stand was rubbing on the tyre, on one side. From what he told me, I thought, bent stand, no biggie, we'll swap it over...
So I put the kettle on and he arrives 15 mins later and we start removing the stand.. This is when I realised, while laying under the bike, that the whole frame spar that connects the left and right havd sides of the frame, had just broke off on one side and was allmost reay to break off on the other!!!!!

This is the are where the rear suspention linkage is supported as well as the main stand it self. I am sure that everyone understands the severity of this, as a collapse there would collapse the rear suspension, with god-forbid very very bad results.. Especially on a bike capable of warp speed...

Now this is not the first time I see this happen either. You know they say third time lucky and this is the 3rd bird frame I have known of, to fail at that point..
The first 2 where cases of damage due to extreme knocks on the rear wheels, onewas while cruising at 120kmh, on a bike that hit a pothole (a very deep one) and the other happened while my mate was 2 up with his gf, loaded up with luggage and all...
Both ocaassions (as well as this one) thankfully, ended up with no injuries, but you can easily understand this being down to pure luck...

So I want YOU to check your frame, asap. This area is usually very dirty from road grime/dirt/chain oil, so I encourage you all to grab some diesel, give it a damned good clean and inspect the welds down there as god as you can. Any sign of damage/cracking/w.h.y, get it immediatey proffesionally inspected!
You will make ypour life much much easier, if you remove the rear cans to do this. Mucho better access.

Re: my mate's bike, we have torn it apart (record time for me, 2 hours to fully dissasembled bike) and will be replacing the frame. Luckily I have a good spare one, my mate can use, so its all good still..
Needless to say this kind of failure gets you thinking in multiple levels. Its not so much a "what if?" process, its rather a "why the fack did they not foress this and make it stronger" kinda thing for me, at least...

Keep the shinny stuff up guys!
Cheers!
Chris

Good read, thanks for lookin out for us Chris. Mine is good

No worries man. Matey was just doing a lube up on the chain this morning, when the whole thing kicked off..
We were planning on leaving to put some miles tomorrow and I am sure that we would not have caught this before hand. And we aint shy on the go grip either...
Let me put it this way, I am convinced that the bike would not have made it back at this place from mine safely!!!
I'll post some pics up tomorrow, its too dark in the shop right now and no electricity there..
In the meanwhile, do it a favour to some fat bloke in Greece. Have a look! Its free and takes 2 mins to do quick, 20 mins if you decide to clean her up in the meantime too!

Do you have any pics or diagrams to show where to look? Thanks

forum 316.jpg

Originally Posted by Beaverbreath

Do you have any pics or diagrams to show where to look? Thanks

I'll get some pics tomorrow too, but here goes...
Check the area in the 2 circles on the bottom of the frame. Check them all the way around, or at least as much as you can...
I have also circled on the head stock area of the frame a couple of areas you may wanna check out. Along the welds on the side spars and on the inside, as well as on the bottom yoke housing, on the inside lip particularly..
These are all areas I have seen bird frames to fail...
Hope this helps,
Chris

Thank you for the pic, scary stuff. Something that most never think of.

Thanks for the warning, Chris. I will check mine tomorrow.

Thanks for the heads up elvetost

I'm seriously impressed at the speed you've stripped the thing down. You must know these bikes inside out.

Thanks Chris, it's the last thing we would expect. I did hear of this happening to the Goldwings around 2000; but the mighty Blackbird . Sure will be checking mine!

No worries guys!
I consider this place to be part of my extended "family". Take this a word of warning from a friend, just check it!

I want to be very clear about something here. I have seen over 5 busa frames and maybe another 5 ZX12r frames in pieces, much much worse than our boloved bird..
The bird's frame is indeed very strong, especially on the carbies. There is no question about this!
And also being an aluminium frame there is no "rot" to worry about...

It's just the fact that most of us, have bought our bikes used, hence with no clear idea or their history, unless you buy it off your brother or something...
That is where the scary part comes in...
Most of these kind of failures happen in crash damaged bikes. Nobody knows how a crash or accident can have a toll on a bike, hence the need to have top quality reapir work in cases like this. I am also sure you know that sometimes repair work is not exactly top-notch...
On my Z1000, one of the forks actually snapped in half and the other got bent as funk, when the previous owner had a n off. I bought the bike like that. The frame is 100% straight, it has been triple measured and inspected. The welds all held up great, there is no buckling, no distortion nothing at all!!!! Now compare it to my mates same year Z, that had the whole rear section of the frame bent, when he was rear ended by a cager....while stationary...
You just never know..
You do know that you have checked your bike up and made some fat bloke in Greece happy you did!
Cheers!

Wow that is some scary shit and I have hit more Pot Holes this Winter than any man has ever seen....I have a long extendable mirror that should hopefully inspect those bits..Cheers man/

thank you Chris was about to go for a ride,will be checking frame thanks again.

Oh yeah, potholes in Greece do come in Grand-Canyon sizes every now and again....and again....and again.. I think you get my point...
The nasty ones are the ones that the asphalt lip, comes with a sharp 90 degrees takeoff, just when you get out of it....
My mate Nick, the guy whose engineering shop I get to use for free, makes a very decent living just by alloy wheels repair work... He is good too!

danke, chris

Something else to add to my 'to do' list ... got back from my ride out today and my newish rear wheel bearings are fubar'd .... Cheers Chris