First crash, fit those crash bars

Just returned form a two day trip to wales, which as always was sensational. Weather brilliant, never mind being mid October, roads were epic. One blip to the trip was a low(ish) speed low side. This was my first ever crash/fall on a motorcycle and first things first, no serious injury, just a little bruised. I wear proper kit all the time, and even at this low speed my Dainese leather gloves almost wore through.

Cause of crash was going into a reducing radius corner a little too quick, not fast by any stretch, crashed at around 20mph, but what caused it was target fixation on the bike in front, which also got the corner slightly wrong but recovered, causing myself to make the same error but compounded, tried to save, but hit gravel on the side of the shell grip road and the front end washed out. I broke my own personal rule when riding with someone else or a group, which is, ride your own ride, I didn’t this time a paid a relative small price.

Gutted the bike has suffered some cosmetic damage, she is my baby. Pictures below. All damage on right side. Scuffed bar end mirror, scuffed valve cover, bent and scuffed engine bar, bent rider footpeg, bent brake lever, bent rear brake lever, scuffed pillion peg , scratch on rear plastic under seat, and small scuff on CARC.

In summary, I’m glad that the bike is fitted with engine bars, if it wasn’t, I think the engine might have suffered some serious damage. Thankfully most of this can be sanded and painted and even replaced. It may cost a few quid, maybe hundreds, but it’s not catastrophic to a bike which is becoming very rare.

Get those engine bars fitted!

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Glad you were OK! Shows the benefit of proper gear.

How did the fall transfer to the mounting end of your crash bar? I assume these are mounted to the frame? No warping there?

glad you're okay

bioman wrote:

Glad you were OK! Shows the benefit of proper gear.  

How did the fall transfer to the mounting end of your crash bar? I assume these are mounted to the frame? No warping there?

Good point. Not actually checked this yet, but will once the strip down starts. Thanks for raising this.

It's one of the reasons my feelings are ambivalent about crash bars. They tend to re-direct forces to bits that, if they break, will write the bike off.

Having said that Grisos crash well generally. A V11 spine frame you can write off by dropping it off the sidestand pretty much. They're terribly fragile.

Glad your Ok    I thought those crash bars were sat too far forward, I have a set, none to impressed with your rocker cover damage.
They're not mounted to the frame they're spaced off and offset forward to the front engine mounts, a really heavy slam would likely bend the offset.
Good job your only a young un, us olders bounce less well, we old fat fuckers tend to just splat

Bit late now but still available, no one else seems to have any except ugly shaped ones on ebay :-
Carc crash bar £64 inc del [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Sorry to hear about your off, but glad you're okay.

Have managed to source a new valve cover. Is there a specific paint for the black plastics?

Sorry to hear about your crash

Hope that is your last as well as first

Street wrote:

Sorry to hear about your off, but glad you're okay.

lcjohnny wrote:

Sorry to hear about your crash

Hope that is your last as well as first

I would have repaired that valve cover with some proprietary metal filler, sand and re paint.
Dont bin the old one as they're not cheap! Only time to replace is if holed, badly cracked and maybe needs alloy welding. Unless you find a super cheap one.
Imagine all the 1200 motors from any of the Guzzi's built a similar time will be the same though are critical on the spark plug hole.
Tube in rocker no top of tube O-ring, hope you checked? Spotted a stelvio 1200 plastic rocker trim on ebay but now can't find the f*ker.
Am sure someone better qualified has a paint code, though looks looks like a straight gloss black unlike this white which is pearlised.

Hi there, glad to hear you and the bike are ok. Interesting though. I had a fall at 50mph ish after hitting gravel when following someone. I suffered about the same damage as you. Replaced head cover, foot peg and oil cooler cover, as well rhino bar end (mirror survived with minor scratch!). Luckily no frame damage. I have since put the same crash bars as yours. I therefore doubt they are going to be effective seeing your damage and I also have grave concern as to impact it would have on the mount points on the frame.

I've been thinking about this issue.
Because of the danger to the frame from crash bars I don't think they are necessarily a good solution.
What I'm considering is a composite protector bonded to the edge of the tappet cover.
I don't know if this is a good idea. A similar solution is what I used on my GRiSO after a low speed spill and damage to the tappet cover and plastic.

What I'm thinking of now for others is something like this about 6mm thick. Any opinions would be appreciated

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I like it. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of a sacrificial valve cover protector.

I had thought about replacing the plastic protectors on the 1100 GRiSO and the 1200 Sport (both 2V engines) with a CNC'd alloy one (even Titanium perhaps or some 6000 grade Al alloy). Even though these are supposed to protect against a tip over or going down the road, I found them way too fragile and sacrificial to the extent that it collapses and damages the outer plug cap AND the spark plug.

Unfortunately I lost my access to these facilities a few years ago. The OEM part needs to stick out another 15 mm or so, to be really effective. Sigh.

Good work on the design Evans. I think it'll fly. Be prepared to sell a few pairs...

I'll take 10 when you make them.

The black plastic trims on the 8V are dirt cheap, €11.30. Not really worth replicating. CF is also an electrical conductor. The actual purpose of the trims is a second defence against the spark earthing through your knee if the plug cap goes west.

evansnows wrote:

I've been thinking about this issue.
Because of the danger to the frame from crash bars I don't think they are necessarily a good solution.
What I'm considering is a composite protector bonded to the edge of the tappet cover.
I don't know if this is a good idea. A similar solution is what I used on my GRiSO after a low speed spill and damage to the tappet cover and plastic.

What I'm thinking of now for others is something like this about 6mm thick. Any opinions would be appreciated

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I'd order a bunch if these were to ever become a thing! But maybe a bit thicker than 6mm.

I'm in the process of sorting these. Pete is sending me covers and plastics to mould from.
Mine already have my protectors bonded to them so I can't use them. (The film is teflon release. After removing the part and teflon film I bonded the whole thing on with Sikaflex. An unforeseen  advantage. from Pete's comment is the carbon fibre is isolated from the aluminium)

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As a basic black pigmented fibreglass the new ones  will take me about 10 minutes to make and about NZ$5 of
material. Sending one pair from past experience will cost around NZ$30 !
Thus it's best to make a batch and send to anyone interested in distributing them in their country.

I intend to experiment on one set wrapped in carbon fibre and with a half round bronze rub rail on the top edge. Time will tell whether that works. I hope so as I believe it is as good as it can get and should save the cover from a slide.

If anyone wanted to make their own, once I've made mine I could duplicate the moulds and send them.
I'm a pensioner and will make them for anyone who wants but perfectly happy for someone else to take them on if they want.

Happy to make them thicker if preferred, each layer of glass is 1mm.

Just to clarify. The new ones will not extend over the plastic cover as mine does.
I'm intending to make them to fit over the plastic on the outer side.
That's why I need the plastics as well as the covers to make my moulds for them to fit.

Pete Roper wrote:

The black plastic trims on the 8V are dirt cheap, €11.30. Not really worth replicating. CF is also an electrical conductor. The actual purpose of the trims is a second defence against the spark earthing through your knee if the plug cap goes west.

My Henderson has exposed plugs and magneto ignition. A sharp turn while wearing shorts can get exciting, especially if you're a bit sweaty. Damp blue jeans aren't much better. Your voice will rise a couple octaves for a bit afterward.

evansnows wrote:

Just to clarify. The  new ones will not extend over the plastic cover as mine does.
I'm intending to make them to fit over the plastic on the outer side.
That's why I need the plastics as well as the covers to make my moulds for them to fit.

Sounds like an excellent solution and I am definitely interested.