OK, Hub got another tech question for you. I was out on my CBR1000RR about an hour ago. Was doing a left hand overpass, I'm guessing maybe 100 mph or so. I have the bike leaned over pretty good in the right lane and I'm sweeping around a slower moving vehicle in the left lane. No time to react, I hit a wooden board pretty near full lean. The bike seemed to handle it fine and I road back home at reduced speed. Put the bike up on the track stands and look it over. My worst fear is realized, ding in the front rim bead area on the left side. Tire is almost new and has an impression from the bead at point of impact, kind of a smiley about 3 inches long. Definitely must replace the tire but what about the wheel? What other damage should I be looking for here, forks, steering neck, stem bearings, wheel bearings? Rotors look fine, I can see no runout with a visual and normal brake drag, maybe two revolutions with a hand spin.

* Last updated by: Kruz on 4/26/2013 @ 7:22 PM *

I'll try to get a pic of the rim, hard to see anything, very minor but I can see the bead of the rim has a bit of runout, only visible really when you spin it, you can see a hop right there at the impact point.

Hey Kruz, A friend of mine bent a wheel on a pot hole and his insurance covered it, after all it was a accident. Not sure what type of insurance coverage you have but keep it in mind.

Liability/comprehensive only, this is on me, trying to decide if I need to replace the wheel. Wheel is not bent, just a flat spot on the tire bead lip on left hand side. Tire sidewall is not cut but left an impression in the rubber. I can't post pics from my iPhone so sent them to Rook to post for me.

Good recovery, Kruz. It's not luck but skill. We're done with the rim and tire. If you rather salvage the wheel, there are a few specialist out there to service that ding. Between you and I, take a wing of a plane and buckle it till you find the weakest wrinkle and it collapses. Lets go straiten it out and fly it and match hours to a non-wrinkled wing [model]. Lets also make it fly in the eye of the storm and that is what we will use it for, for the remaining hours of that puppy's life.

Around and around she goes, I'm more of a Ton'er kind of rider, so say we might stress crack the wrinkle coming back? I like to use a simple coat hanger [example] as that wing/rim/fork tube needing a straightening out some. So get a coat hanger or welding rod, bend it, then bend it straight again.

See the S bend? The bend is more like a short chicane or a wiggle. So it never really straightens out. Yes, I've bent back my share of fork tubes and reused them as per customer. The metal crease is scary in my eyes. The metal changes structure and I rather run fresh new parts. If someone wants to salvage it, sure it may never explode and all that breaking or chipping off. I'd offer it with the ding and see if you can salvage your money back buying a new one.

Would I salvage it, run it @ speed limit speeds? Yes. Would I use it when Ton'inn? Nope. I guess the rim is out of the way.

Next is bearings vs. shock springs. How much ding we have? Go to some city park, down the beach, pack some sand up and have some big rubber hammer to bring? Slam that ding out on some packed sand so the bottom gives out? That's meguyveer speaking rather than shipping it out. But say that's the deal. How much ding do we have? Did the springs take out [said pounds of] stress out of the bearings at the wheel? We need to spin the axle in the forks. If we can do that, slides in and out fine, we have the axle not so much taking the brunt on the way up the bearings. I'm thinking the front end is fine, no side load on the discs to distort.

Moving up to the steering bearings. How much ding did we leave here? These puppies are pretty soft and me packing the front end on [first] schedule: showed shadows of a ding. Not enough to center the forks you try to keep it there: then you have major divots she just hangs there. Even if a slight touch is to move it from center, she is trying to move out of that divot you can feel it happen. Here I'm thinking the fork springs, the axle, the combined bearings at the top and bottom took very little if not much of a hit at all.

If say the tire took a scrubbing and that's what it looks like, or say you had a warm enough tire to be soft and the lumber lobed one into the goo? Yes, you might [have] popped the tire off the bead, but you didn't. Yes, you might not feel a thing with the tire, or else it would have broken internally and caused it to leak. You rode it home, so if you let it sit and it holds air, sans how severe the rime is bent not to hold air, it's one more salvage call. Will the tire bubble at that area you keep an eye on it and the pressure?: sure, go shred. I'd square the rubber with the abs moves, so again, not a kind of Ton kind of tire for me. I'm all fresh up front.

I can't post pics from my iPhone so sent them to Rook to post for me.

coming right up bud. Glad this was just a riding bang up.

Wheel ding

wood in tire

* Last updated by: Rook on 4/27/2013 @ 12:02 AM *

Glad to hear your okay Kruz! Feel your pain, you were riding my favourite bike the cbr. I read that Hub suggested scuttling rim and tire for new. I agree. Though when I look at the rim, it appears to have only suffered scratches. New tire, murphy's law something is bound to happen. Take care buddy, I'll stay tuned to read what the Dr. (Hub) says

Thanks Rook for the assist.

Wolfman, you have to look very close but the damage area is just below the arrow on the sidewall in that lower picture. The light tan fibers are wood fibers from the board so you can see the impact zone. It is very light damage but the bead lip is flattened. If you look closely, the gap is slightly uneven where the tire bead seats.
OEM replacement wheel is $500.

OK Hub, it's a fairly minor ding but still considering replacing everything.

Ahhhh yes, ok I see it.
Bummerama Kruz,
As the priest at the church that I always neglect to attend says, "not a problem that money can't fix!" A lesser rider would have put the bike down!
Peace,
Wman

OK Hub, it's a fairly minor ding but still considering replacing everything.

BST

this was a stroke of luck, my friend!

Rook,
Cash or Kruz's life,
hmmmmm thinking cash!

Sometimes overkill is the right move, but who knows...

Sometimes spending a little cash is the best option, especially when your butt is on the line. I took it into the local Honda dealer and had the service manager personally check it out. He said the forks and bearings are fine, slight ding in the rim bead area but not bad. Recommended I change the front tire if I'm going to be pushing hard so I had him spoon on a new Michelin Pilot 3 while I waited. Spin balancing showed 10 grams out of balance with no weights which he said was excellent. One hours worth of time and $207 and I was on my way. OK, bottom line is this could have been much, much worse. Bike feels great, took it up to 100 mph on the way home so I'm good with it. HubMeister was pretty much in agreement with the S.M.'s assessment. Good job Hub!

Kruz, great news...2beans is nothing man.
Glad you and black are back in sync!
cheers.

Looks pretty minor. That's a easy cosmetic fix. I'd leave it alone or you may take out the finish. I had to spoke up a bent Harley rim with way more curve than that. You'll never feel it, Kruz.

No your right Hub, our roads are pretty crap down here, I can't feel any difference. Playing with tire pressures on all my bikes right now to find what works best. Man, I Googled it and tire pressure is worse than an oil thread by a factor of ten. Lots of opinion and conjecture, manufacturers fall back on the old line to run the motorcycle mfgs recommended pressure i.e. 36/42 on the street which is a cop out but covers their rear ends. This is a one size fits all recommendation which will give you OK traction on the street but hardly optimal.

Track tires are stiffer in the carcass and can run lower pressures safely. Sport street/track tires have more flex in the carcass and need more pressure to protect the rims against damage like I got.

I'm going to try 32/36 on the BT-016s and see how that works for aggressive street riding.

mfgs recommended pressure i.e. 36/42

I go with 45 unless I am going to be turning hard. no sense in using low tire pressure for going straight down the road.

I forget what the racers use, but they are somewhere in the high 20's. Why? Wider patch with less air. These are race tire too, but figure it's compound not aspect ratio, seeing they need to run spec tires that match what came with the bike.

Wider patch with less air.

28 psi front and back made a great deal of difference track riding. That low of pressure feels sloppy to me on the street. I believe the great heat that is generated in the tire causes the internal pressure to increase a lot from a cold check. 28 psi cold = ~35psi HOT (just my guesstimate).

What to do boys, I'm 42F 42 R am I over inflating?
I'm 230 lbs. ?
Wman

Woffy, stay with 42/42 psi. Street putt is slow mph. Racing speeds, the tire grows from centrifugal force so the bike sort of sits as if at 42 psi. When braking, that patch has a wide plant so as not to washout at 42 psi.

Wolf, I dropped pressure on my 14 to 38/38 from 42/42. I like it, a bit more stick and still quick turn in. I think everyone needs to play around with tire pressures and see what works for them. I would not try to run street tires with cold pressures in the 20's, not made for that, track tires yes, stiffer carcass construction. Rook as I recall you ran those tires once at the track and they were destroyed, melted I believe you said, looks like they overheated and got greasy, just my guess.
7 psi pressure rise sounds like a bit much, I've heard 3 to 4 psi max rise is a good rule of thumb.

* Last updated by: Kruz on 4/28/2013 @ 6:01 PM *

I'm going to try 32/36 on the street on the small bikes, BT-016 tires and see how that works out.

* Last updated by: Kruz on 4/28/2013 @ 3:31 PM *

Hub and Kruz, thanks so much for the input. Right now they are at 42 and there is limited feel which is probably the stock rubber. I'll keep em at 42, once I get some decent tires I'll experiment with 38 and up. Thanks boyz.
Wman

Tried 33/37 tonight on the CBR, turn in took a touch more effort but the bike felt like it was on rails when leaned in. I'm thinking 33/33 might even work better if you're doing twisties on the liter bikes or 600, street tires like BT-016s I'm talking about. Might be cool to get an infrared temp gun and check tire temps after a run also.

I checked the Michelins and they recommend 30 front, 25 rear for a starting point cold on their track tires. Makes sense, big throttle openings on track will raise the rear tire temp more than the front along with pressure.

* Last updated by: Kruz on 4/28/2013 @ 6:09 PM *