Disaster Strikes!
Discussion
Had a bit of a moment yesterday.
Braking from 1**mph (I wont type a figure, but there should be a 5 in there somewhere!) and once down to a low speed I used the rear brake. It was REALLY snatchy and the back locked up. I stopped and looked down and saw steam coming off the rear brakes. I assumed that the new pads (as I stripped and rebuilt the rear caliper on Saturday) were rubbing and had got hot. I thought id crawl it to my house 500 yards away and look there. As I was crawling through the village I heard a bang and saw brake fluid all over my rear wheel. I got home and what had happened was the frontmost securing bolt that holds the caliper on had worked loose, so the caliper had rotated backwards. This ground a
ing big groove in the caliper where it was scraping on the disc!! Of course when I then applied the brakes, it ripped the whole lot backwards, ripping the remaining mount clean off the caliper body!! The caliper luckily jammed itself on the swingarm near the hugger, rather than ending up in the rear wheel. Scary, the groove in the caliper is massive and the hole in the side is pretty big, you can see most of that side of the piston!!
I took some photos of the bike yesterday on my digital SLR so i've zoomed in and the rear bolts were definately both there and done up 15miles before one of them worked loose! Worn threads presumably, as they were done up bloody tight!
Damage:
Caliper, disc, caliper bolts, pads, caliper carrier (threads are very worn).
Counting lucky stars just now, might go and buy a lottery ticket!
Dave
>> Edited by Mad Dave on Monday 27th June 10:30
Braking from 1**mph (I wont type a figure, but there should be a 5 in there somewhere!) and once down to a low speed I used the rear brake. It was REALLY snatchy and the back locked up. I stopped and looked down and saw steam coming off the rear brakes. I assumed that the new pads (as I stripped and rebuilt the rear caliper on Saturday) were rubbing and had got hot. I thought id crawl it to my house 500 yards away and look there. As I was crawling through the village I heard a bang and saw brake fluid all over my rear wheel. I got home and what had happened was the frontmost securing bolt that holds the caliper on had worked loose, so the caliper had rotated backwards. This ground a
ing big groove in the caliper where it was scraping on the disc!! Of course when I then applied the brakes, it ripped the whole lot backwards, ripping the remaining mount clean off the caliper body!! The caliper luckily jammed itself on the swingarm near the hugger, rather than ending up in the rear wheel. Scary, the groove in the caliper is massive and the hole in the side is pretty big, you can see most of that side of the piston!! I took some photos of the bike yesterday on my digital SLR so i've zoomed in and the rear bolts were definately both there and done up 15miles before one of them worked loose! Worn threads presumably, as they were done up bloody tight!
Damage:
Caliper, disc, caliper bolts, pads, caliper carrier (threads are very worn).
Counting lucky stars just now, might go and buy a lottery ticket!
Dave
>> Edited by Mad Dave on Monday 27th June 10:30
I suspect the thread had probably been stripped by previous ham-fisted maintenance. Bloody lucky this didn't result in more than sweaty plams. Bearing in mind the bike's questionable history, I reckon you ought to invest in a proper dealer inspection to make sure there are no other potential nasties waiting to leap out and grab you...
Mon Ami Mate said:
I suspect the thread had probably been stripped by previous ham-fisted maintenance. Bloody lucky this didn't result in more than sweaty plams. Bearing in mind the bike's questionable history, I reckon you ought to invest in a proper dealer inspection to make sure there are no other potential nasties waiting to leap out and grab you...
You're probably right mate. Very worn threads.
The history of the bike isn't as questionable as I first thought. It's just the previous owner who didn't care for the bike as he should have, it was apparently near-immaculate when the shop sold it - I rang and asked them. Last April they sold it for nearly £4k!! In the service history I have receipts to prove this too.
Most of the bike has been stripped and rebuilt by me already! The engine is breathing heavily and using/leaking a small amount of oil, so that will probably need to be looked at sometime soonish. The front brakes have already been rebuilt (by a mechanic, I didn't want to chance my handiwork on the fronts!).
Ah well, these things happen I guess. Luckily it happened at 15mph rather than ten times that speed!
Dave
Broccers said:
Lucky to be alive Dave.
Heres an idea flog that heap and buy a really nice ZX6R
I might be tempted if I didn't leave my mate behind on his
hehe. I've managed to source a caliper carrier as it was knackered threads in that that caused all this. Im watching a caliper on ebay and have also been offered one via the 7R owners club. The brake disc is so far eluding me - haven't found a used one yet and a new one is £80 (EBC) or £100 (OEM). I don't even use the rear so I refuse to pay that much for a disc for it!
A friend had a similar experience recently on his VFR 750, just after having new tyres fitted. A front caliper started rattling, so he stopped to see what was wrong. 2 bolts holding a caliper in place had sheared off at the threads, due to ham-fisted overtightening by the tyre fitter.
He wasn't very happy (unsurprisingly) but refrained from thumping the monkey responsible. But he did get the job done properly with new bolts correctly torqued.
Beware of similar tyre fitters, I watched another monkey applying huge amounts of torque when putting a rear wheel back on somebody else's bike the last time I had new tyres. I watched very carefully when my bike was being worked on.
He wasn't very happy (unsurprisingly) but refrained from thumping the monkey responsible. But he did get the job done properly with new bolts correctly torqued.
Beware of similar tyre fitters, I watched another monkey applying huge amounts of torque when putting a rear wheel back on somebody else's bike the last time I had new tyres. I watched very carefully when my bike was being worked on.
always use threadlock on calipers 
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