I Wrestled Her to the Ground :)

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FJRPittsburgh

Rally Addict
Joined
May 24, 2009
Messages
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Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Well, I dropped my bike on the left side on a sloped paved parking lot. It happened last Friday. I didn't actually drop it, but wrestled her to the ground fairly gently. This is my second 2008 AE and it has never been dropped until now.

When I bought the bike it had highway pegs installed which I never use because I don't find them all that comfortable to use. And those highway pegs came back to punish me. The hex bolts of the pegs actually attach to the crankcase in places. So as the peg hit the asphalt, it bent inward, dented my oil filter, and put a small crack in the crankcase cover.

I started her back up and what do you know? An oil leak. Sweet! I was 30 minutes from home and decided to ride her there paying careful attention to the engine temp. The oil light came on about 5 minutes from home and the bike and I arrived home unscathed. The engine temp never went above the normal riding range.

After careful inspection of the damage, I could see there was only a small crack in the crankcase cover. No other damage worth crying over except for 2 little scratches on my left bag. I never thought I would ever drop this bike. I guess I was wrong. I'm sure many of us have been in this same situation. I was backing in a circle on a sloped asphalt parking lot. Nice.

My brother owns the local Yamaha shop. They picked up the bike, ordered the crankcase cover and gasket along with a few hex bolts to replace the longer ones which were used to mount the highway pegs to the bike. The parts are scheduled to arrive on Tuesday and I'm planning to leave Thursday for EOM. Please Momma Yama, get the parts there by Tuesday. I can't miss EOM. It's just too important. :)

I could have ordered the crankcase cover, etc. and installed it myself, but have too much going on at work this week to mess around with it.

It's ironic how I've never liked the highway pegs and they came back to bite me. Without the pegs installed, there would have been no damage.

Life goes on......

 
Sorry to hear about the mishap. If the new cover doesn't come in on time, maybe the old one can be epoxied?? See ya in Lewisburg.

 
Sorry to hear about the drop (it happens) and the damage. Hopefully you'll get your parts in time, and will be heading to EOM with a big smile on your face. :)

 
Thanks Ray. I was thinking the very same thing. Everything can be fixed with the exception of my pride. Man, what a stupid thing to do.

 
Well that stinks, fortunately no major damage and you will be able to make EOM in all likely hood. I am looking forward to seeing your new shiny crankcase cover!

 
Well that stinks, fortunately no major damage and you will be able to make EOM in all likely hood. I am looking forward to seeing your new shiny crankcase cover!
I'll have the prettiest crankcase cover of the bunch.
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Sorry to hear about the drop (it happens) and the damage. Hopefully you'll get your parts in time, and will be heading to EOM with a big smile on your face.
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A big smile on my face and the smell of burning motor oil. I'll be passing out gas masks for the parking lot festivities. We'll keep the cigar smoking at a distance from my bike.
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Bummer, dood. But hey, at least you did it before EOM and not in front of EOM.
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Canyon Cages with Highway pegs are much more comfortable. Get your feet a good deal farther forward.

I had the Highway pegs on my 05 and I couldn't agree more with the comfort not being very good.

Sorry to hear about the drop, Sheet Happens....

 
I'll PM you my address and will take those pesky pegs off your hands so you never have to worry again.
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Seriously, these are big beasts and I know what's it's like to do that wrestling match with a bike where you know you are beyond the point of no return and are just trying to sacrifice your body to minimize the impact. It's a sad stressful few moments but sounds like you did the work needed. Glad it wasn't worse.

 
I'll PM you my address and will take those pesky pegs off your hands so you never have to worry again.
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Seriously, these are big beasts and I know what's it's like to do that wrestling match with a bike where you know you are beyond the point of no return and are just trying to sacrifice your body to minimize the impact. It's a sad stressful few moments but sounds like you did the work needed. Glad it wasn't worse.
Sure! PM me and we'll work out getting the highway pegs to you. I'm headed out now, but will look for you later.

 
The oil light came on and you CONTINUED to ride it? I know that big damage can occur in a hurry when there's no oil pressure in an engine. I believe you are right in that rising temperature would be a sign of significant damage occurring. However, I also believe that significant damage can occur without causing engine temp to rise. For example, one of the highest stress areas in any engine is the camshaft lobes. Unlike piston walls for example, they are lubed by the oil pump ONLY.

What I don't know:

Does the oil light tell you that the oil has dropped below a certain level in the engine, or that your actual oil pressure has dropped off? Then... whether it dropped to 0 or some other number... who knows? All you had was a light to warn you. So without proper lubrication for the camshaft lobes (again, just for example) even for just 5 minutes, I'm wondering if you did indeed sustain some damage that you don't realize you have. Damage that may not have caused the engine's temperature to rise. I don't think I'm alone in wondering about this. I wonder how many would feel comfortable about buying my bike from me if I told them that this happened to my engine. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but weren't you rolling some dangerous dice there?

I write all this just to express what I think many are wondering. I know none of us, yourself included would endorse running an engine while the oil light was on.

Of course I'm glad the bike is still running and doesn't seem to have sustained any engine damage. We all know that the FJR engine is pretty stout. I certainly hope that your engine is indeed just fine. But I wonder about that.

Gary

darksider #44

 
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Sorry to hear about your drop. If gxxerjasen doesn't take the highway pegs, I'm very interested. I tried but wasn't able to send you a PM.

 
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The oil light came on and you CONTINUED to ride it? I know that big damage can occur in a hurry when there's no oil pressure in an engine. I believe you are right in that rising temperature would be a sign of significant damage occurring. However, I also believe that significant damage can occur without causing engine temp to rise. For example, one of the highest stress areas in any engine is the camshaft lobes. Unlike piston walls for example, they are lubed by the oil pump ONLY. Your engine light told you that your oil pressure had dropped off. Whether it dropped to 0 or some other number... who knows? All you had was a light to warn you. So without proper lubrication for the camshaft lobes (again, just for example) even for just 5 minutes, I'm wondering if you did indeed sustain some damage that you don't realize you have. I don't think I'm alone in wondering about this. I wonder how many would feel comfortable about buying my bike from me if I told them that this happened to my engine. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but weren't you rolling some dangerous dice there?
I write all this just to express what I think many are wondering. I know you wouldn't endorse running an engine while the oil light was on for any novice who might wonder about such things.

Of course I'm glad the bike is still running and doesn't seem to have sustained any engine damage. We all know that the FJR engine is pretty stout. I certainly hope that your engine is indeed just fine. But I wonder about that.

Gary

darksider #44

Agree with you Gary..... This did remind me of a funny story and prob something many have witnessed.....

When we were kids my father would tell us storys about how him and his hooligan buddys would all get together for a planned event...

The storys were all confirmed by his buddys and ridiculous laughter would ensue with them recounting the events.

They would all buy cars, many times for $50 way back in the day of course, and would have races in reverse....

But before the races started, they would all cripple their vehicles by doing what....!?!? Draining all the oil out of the engines !!!!

Whoever lasted the longest claimed victory, if the car wasn't taken out by either engine failure or damage sustained by other drivers.

They didn't coddle these cars during this race and were run WOT !! Many would run WOT 30-45 mins and some up to an hour.

In the end they would strip the cars and sell the parts and make more money then they paid for the cars to begin with...

It was comical to me..... and clearly the engines of old are not nearly as complicated as an FJR with oil needed for clutch operations tied in.

Point of my story - its amazing how long an engine can endure with very little oil.

I will not be playing this game myself, nor would I suggest it...

Just thought I'd share a good story...

 
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Wow, I'm sorry to hear about this.

The good thing is you didn't tweek an ankle, dislocate a shoulder, or sprain a wrist trying to keep her from going over.

 
Sorry about the drop, but glad you didn't damage your own self!

I wouldn't stress too much about the oil level light coming on 5 minutes before you could shut down the engine. The oil level sensor is way pessimistic, and there would be plenty of oil in there. As long as you didn't run 'er with the level way below the low level mark at the sight window for any substantial time, and the temp stayed normal, I can pretty much guarantee the slightly low oil level caused zero internal damage.

Yamaha engines are renowned for being bullet proof. Shame the case covers are not as robust!

 
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