Digging into a wreck.......

Surprising what you find....

We threw my newly acquired 2012 write off up on the bench today to start having a bit of a dig and find out what might be damaged and what might not.

The most depressing thing is that the frame is utterly untouched. There is not a mark on it and it is as straight as a die. Despite this it can never be put back on the road. It's a crying shame. Likewise the forks, wheels and swingarm. All as clean as a whistle. All I can think is that the owner wanted it written off and there may be reasons for that.

One of the first things I noticed was the tail tidy.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I thought it looked familiar. It's well made and solid.

Then I lifted the seat and my heart sank.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Yeah. It's got one of those filters and the ridiculous air box cover delete that does less than nothing apart from emptying your wallet! In fact it makes them run worse. At least it leaves the ATS in place. More than can be said for epsilon minuses that fit pods.

By this time I was getting suspicious and a cursory inspection showed that bit of aftermarket cabling visible to the left of the air filter going back and being connected to the number plate light connector. I knew what that portended. I was right.....

Off with the 'Wings' and there stuffed in on the RH side was this tiresome excrescence.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Yup. It's got a Pox Commander and Auto Parp fitted. I guessing it'll have a Rexxer map in the ECU as well, although why it would need a map if it has the wonder-tuner on it I'm not sure. Anyway that'll all be moving off and going in the bin unless some mug wants it? Anyway it looks like it's had the full So-Cal Wonder Treatment. No wonder he was happy to write it off. It's got one of those stupid, straight, pretzel replacements too.

Other, crash related, damage is pretty insignificant. there is a small scrape on the bevelbox that will polish out fine and another on the oil cooler. The rear brake lever is toast as is the RH rocker cover and plastic protection. The headlight lens is cracked, (Although the bucket is untouched!) and the decorative bar ends are a little bit scuffed up.

That ain't gunna buff out!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

But that will!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Lifting the rocker cover exposed these little beauties!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

And surprisingly little grit and gravel! We'll still be pulling the sump tomorrow for a clean out and look see. When we drained the sump about ten litres of water from the recent rains poured out before the oil, which there wasn't a lot of, so I hope the bottom end is OK. If it isn't I have spare cranks.

Two nice scores for M-E-E-E-E are the U-Beaut CARC reaction arm and the very nice pair of shorty Pazzo levers for brake and clutch. Throw in the fact it has a pair of barely scrubbed in Corsa Sports or whatever they're called on very pretty wheels and I'm more than happy. It's got the shitty wave brakes I hate but I've got another set of 'Conventional' Brembo I can fit when I set them up as my 'Spare' wheels. Not as nice as my RSV4 discs but they'll do.

Anyway, there's more digging to do but it would be really nice to put this one back on the road. It's a bit of an oddball as it's got a black frame! I think that that probably means that Giuseppe pulled the nearest frame out of the pile without looking as I didn't think any of the 'Plain' coloured bikes, 1200's at least, ever we're supposed to have black frames? They were an 850 and Tenni thing.......

Sadly, I don't think we'll be able to.

How did 10L of water find it`s way into the engine ?

Through the hole in the rocker cover. It was parked outside in the towing yard and the weather here has been beastly for months! We've had more than the average annual rainfall in six months and there's no sign of it letting up any time soon.

^ My apology, wasn`t paying attention
O-dark thirty here

I"ll take the Power Commander and Autotune off your hands if you don't want it. I'll make a donation to your favourite charity if that works

Fine, do you want the mid pipe too? I'll swap them both for your factory pretzel. You pay shipping.

I have a spare factory pretzel and I can send it off to you now, if you PM me your address.
Once you have the shipping charges, I could Paypal you the money for shipping.
Thanks so much

No worries. We haven't pulled it off yet as we're wanting to get it running before we go any further but when we do it's yours, I think I'm getting the far better end of the deal.

I strongly advise against the wretched things. Remapping is a MUCH better option but if you want to waste time with it you're welcome. Do you want the shitty 'Non Pretzel' as well?

Yes please, that's very kind of you

How about the airbox lid delete thingy? I draw the line at offering you the K&N air filter. I wouldn't do that to my worst enemy!

Look, I'll fling all of the 'Tuning' munt in a box and it's yours. We may even have another PCV + AT around somewhere but I think we probably chucked it away during a clear out. If you want the airbox lid delete plate can I have your airbox lid as well? It's not vital but if you aren't going to use it I will find a need at some point.

Getting back to the wreck? Well Michael dropped the sump and we thought we'd check the big ends as it might of run on its side for a bit. Glad we did.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I've got a set of 'Red' shells on the way fromEurope but this will delay starting it for a couple of weeks. If we get the time we can pull the PCV and AT off in the meantime but work is picking up a bit as the end of winter is just around the corner.

Oh scratchy, scratchy, just in time, I would venture...

Thanks so much for your generosity. Yes, I'll take the airbox ring as well and I have a spare airbox lid you can have. Just let me know when you want to send it all over, how much the postage is, and I'll pack up the mid pipe and the lid. Thanks again

No worries. I'll even throw in the ECU if it's got a non stock map in it. Then you should have all the crap that's supposed to make it work.

Try it. Then try a decent log built map and you can assess which is better.

Let me know when you want to send it off and I'll send off the pipe and the airbox lid at the same time. Let me know how much postage is. Thanks so much

Will do. You're welcome.

Just to resurrect this for a minute. Bryan, we finally got a couple of hours to push the wreck back on to the bench and stripped off the PC/AT and the rest of the GT stuff. Sorry for the delay and I realise it's probably the end of your riding season now but you can use the winter period to try it out on your bike.

I can't remember if we exchanged emails or not and I certainly didn't get a postal address I don't think? If you can PM me your shipping address I'll fling it all in a box and get it off to you by the end of the weeek.

The pretzel you can send to me at.

65, Osborne St.
Bungendore. NSW. 2621
Australia.

Would you like me to bung the ECU in as well or are you familiar enough with mapping that I can just send you the map BIN file before I overwrite it? I'll happily send the ECU if you like, I have spares, just send me a working one back when you've swapped them.

I don't need the ECU, but thanks for the offer. Thanks very much for your kindness and I'll send off the airbox lid and the pretzel by the weekend.
My address is 32888 3rd Ave, Mission BC Canada V2V 1N1.
Thanks very much

Well Michael just called me. The wreck runs! And runs very nicely! What a shame it can't be re-registered here.

Anyway, just as an indicator of exactly how ridiculous it was that this low mileage bike was written off I'll list what it needed.

Parts.

A rocker cover. An indicator lens. A bar end. A set of grips. Rear brake lever and toe peg. A set of big end shells, (But the damage there may not of been accident related and I'll bet that if a less diligent shop had taken the job on they wouldn't even of checked them and it probably would of run fine, for a while at least.).

Other stuff.

The oil cooler housing needs a bit of bog and paint. The tailpiece needs rubbing back and repainting. The seat needs re-covering. A mirror has grazes on it. The bevelbox has a small amount of scratching that could be sanded back and repainted if I could be bothered, but I can't!

All in all I reckon repairs, including parts and labour? Probably a bit less than $2K.

And they wrote it off! The previous owner must of really hated it after spending all that money at GT and finding it ran like a thirsty munter.

Arse!

S'OK. I'm pretty sure I can send it to NZ and register it there. I'll take it for a gallop around the North island and then a gallop around the South Island and then sell it for someone else to enjoy.