Cold + Gravel + 75" on new tires =

Bike goes down. Pulling out onto my main st. Not heavy on the gas at all, nice and careful like. I've done it at least 10 times this season on the old tires. New Metzler M3's on last night. Pull out this morning and whoosh! back tire disapeers as i straighten the bike out of the turn. Go down, bike does a 180 on the frame slider (hell yeah fram slider!) broken mirror, skuffed tranny cover, small skuffs on the kick stand and swingarm. NO plastic damage! Fram sliders = best investment ever. That and full riding gear. Jacket, Pants, Boots, Helmet Gloves. No damage to any of it. Man are these bikes light when you are pissed off. I just scooped it back up, rode to my driveway. Checked the damage, ran inside to grab some tools to take the mirror off, and then rode it to work. Now i got to get some of the epoxy we use at work and glue it back together. My plan today was to get it inspected! I guess I'm part of the "club" now.

It's good to hear your alright, and that the bike road away with minimal damage... what frame slider are you using?I'm in the market for new ones... for reasons that i, personally, did not make .

well it happens you know...so don't be hard at all on yourself if you are. welcome to the club!
 
 

Hey man, glad your ok and the frame sliders worked for you too.

It's a distinguished club ya know. Glad your OK and bike is OK 2.

Well i bought the same tires and took em for a scrubbing on sunday for 35mi. Went easy out of my driveway and all the turns i made even took a couple twisties. The first thing i did was scuff em up with some 2k grit sandpaper to make sure nothing was left on it.

Glad your ok and glad i bought vortex frame sliders instead of that bolt in shit that the guy i had on before me had.
 
I hope you can still make it down here sunday maybe i can check the bike out lol. If not ill have to get up there and take some pics. Im surprised everyone is sliding on gravel wtf is going on?

I read this in the morning and slid around a corner at lunch... lol. I wasn't going fast and I didn't loose it but WTF??? It is still in the 40's here. I couldn't believe it though I had been braking on them quite a bit before it happened.

Rather, I have Vortex sliders, probably list about 1/4" off of the bottom corner of it. Anyways the glue didn't work, but i did pass inspection by moving the right mirror to the left. It looks ridiculous and it sticks strait up in the air but it got me passed inspection. Anyone have an extra left hand mirror lying around? Blue, I'll be scrubbing the crap out of them tonight with some sanding sponges. (I work at Saint Gobain, Formally Norton Company so i get all my sand paper and grinding wheels for cheap or free). The only thing i can think of is that i got a little chain grease on the tire while i was putting it back on. Or maybe i rolled over some in the garage. I'll be riding some tonight tho. I got to find a garage thats open late to change my clip link out for a rivet type. I never did by the chain tool. Blue, if you want to meet up some place that would be cool.

Yea sunday is supposed to be 55 i posted in the other thread to meet up with people would be great.
 
Where did you go for your inspection and did they bust your balls about a plate light or its alright? I have an undertail and no tail light but havent really passed cops at night or anything so idk. I got hooked up for my sticker last yr i might do that again but no sure.

i just got back from a ride, me and my friend, we had been cruisin around for about 20 miles and went out in the country, hit the second nice curve... i get out of hte curve and on the straight away, over a hill, and look back and hes not behind me... i slowed down and waited and he never came over the hill.  so i turn around and go back thinking "o crap..." and hes standin the side of the road and had low sided out.
he said he slid on somethin but we couldnt find any gravel or oil in the turn and ive went around it at least 10 times this year so i think it may because he got new tires put on earlier today... its just weird cuz he got them put on in anderson... which is about 35 min away... and we had done all the other riding so he had at least 50 or so miles on the tires.

You need between 150-200mi i believe on a tire to be properly scrubed. If it was 35mi straight driving the sides would still be a bit slick. I took mine for a ride and did a bit of waving/weaving in my lane to get the sides warmed up a bit then rode some twistys and it felt ok, i wasnt agressive or anything or normal and never felt like it was going to slide.

People really need to be a lot more carefull with new tires.

I found the culprit! A spot of what looks to be smeared axle grease on the inside of the tire. I can see where the slide occured in the grease spot. So word of caution! any time you mess with your axles and regrease them (as you should) check for grease on either tire where you may have touched it and not even noticed. Time to scrubbed them good!

glad to hear ur alright and I'm installing frame sliders tmrw before the first ride of the season!

i had my chain replaced yesterday and the mech. got chain wax on the tire. i took'er really easy on the home. once i got home i put it on the rear stand, grabbed an old rag and some rubbing alcohol.........started the bike, kicked it into 1st and let the rag/alcohol get the wax off.

I just did the same thing with a heavy grit sanding sponge tonight. Worked well, the wheel feels "sticky" all the way around. Prolly took 100 miles off though.

haha dam your not supposed to do it that much i just went around once or twice lol

So Since i went down the bike has felt kinda funny. Like the front end and back end are out of alignment. At first i thought it was me, but after 30 miles i was convinced something was up with the front end. I put it up on the stands and sure enough the front end is visibly out of alignment. When the triple tree is lined up square with the frame the front wheel looks to be off about 3-5 degress to the left (from the drivers seat) I took everything apart and reassembled 2 per the manual. The alignment got better but its still off. Now i have to wait till sunday to try again (i pull the forks completely out and put a strait edge on the shiny portion. Completely strait. I measured the distance the forks are extended about the triple tree to exactly 1.3 inches with calipers. Any advice i surely need it.

Have you checked your rim and axle for being bent? My guess would be the axle. Take the wheel off and spin it on 2 jack stands (if you have) spin it fast and slow look for any bends or any wobbling of any sort. Then take the axle out and put it thru the bottom of the forks and see if its bent at all by turning it.

If its not of that then maybe the steering nut needs to be tightened or the bearings in there might be ****ed up.

What exactly is the problem is it wobbling, is it pulling is it drifting whats it doing?

The wheel spins strait, the axle is fine. With the top triple tree centered on the bike (eyeballing it to the frame) The forks extend and the wheel is mounted. Now when you compare the wheel to the frame from the same position it looks tilted (i see more of the right brake rotor than the left) i placed a strait edge along the break rotor (flat surface) and ran it back to the fairing on both sides. On the right side of the bike, the straight edge strikes the fairing approximately 2.5 inches FURTHER back than the same procedure on the left rotor to the fairing. Indicating the same visual angle i see from the above test, that the wheel is tilted left.
 
I'm wondering if A) the triple trees are out of alignment forcing one fork more forward than the other. or B) a fork is bent somehwere after the shiney part, most likely at the joint. Although inserting the axle is easy and seems to allign well one fork to the other.
 
Blue, I'm gonna try to make it home for noon-oclock on sunday if you want to help me turn some wrenches.
 
Thanks guys.

Yea id have to come with the car though since its going to be cold. Im right up the street from saint gobain so i can follow you. Might have to take the forks completely out along with the wheel and make sure the triple tree isnt bent which if your saying that one side sticks out further then the front then it must be. Idk how true your forks would be then if the triple tree is bent.

Id like to come take a look though

After getting some crap on your tire, the best thing to remove it is dishwashing liquid and rinsing with water.  You can clean the rims too while you're at it.
 
As far as the alignment goes, let us know what you find.  It seems you've checked everything.  When you disassemble the front end, be sure to follow Hondas procedure to reinstall.  It's designed to help with alignment as I found out.  Use the OEM specified torque values.
 
But just in case, I'd loosen the forks from the upper and lower trees.  Check the steering stem nut, then reset the fork height and check that your preload is equal on both forks (stock is 3 lines showing).  When she's all back together, double check that your compression setting (on bottom of fork) hasn't moved and that they are equal as well.  Then recheck your rebound (top of fork) for the same.
 
Keep us posted.

Good News:
Bought a bigger socket set yesterday (for the steering stem nut) And got to working on it about 10 am today. Tore everything down (again) and took all the fairings off for good measure. Checked the forks for straitness again, good. Loosened the steering stem nut. Put the forks back in to factory height again(when i first took them off after the fall the right fork was about 2 mm higher than the left which was still at factory) Tightened them in to the correct torque(if you don;t have a torque wrench buy one, it's way better than guessing) Then tightened the steering stem nut. I put everything on that is necesarry to ride, no sense put on auxilarry shit only to have to remove it again, and took her out for a spin. Low and behold she goes strait, turnin is equaly easy to both sides, and pressure on the clipons feels even.
 
Bad News:
My stator cover has a small crack/leak in it. No oil on the floor after sitting for 4 days, and the bike has been up to temp 5 times since the accident. Only a small drop suspended on the cover. I will probably replace it on my next oil change unless it gets worse. Anyone got a stator cover?

Good Job on fixing the alignment.
Get that stator cover replaced.  I couldn't for the life of me figure out where my oil leak was coming from.  Turns out that I would only have oil seepage when the engine was running.  And you know when that was????  WHILE RIDING!!!
So after going through 3 of them, I said heck with it and paid 2X the price of OEM and bought an NRC.  Haven't dropped the bike since (at least not on stator cover).

Soft Scrub works awesome on the tires too. When I clean and wax my chain, I use it. Works really good. 

BlueJ and i rode an hour one way on monday afternoon to pick up a new stator cover and Gasket from Chaplin Kawasaki. It was the closest dealer to me that had them in stock at the time. May was it cold on the way back. Credit to BlueJ for riding the whole time and not stopping to warm up. I use snowmobile gloves in cold weather, all he had were some warm weather shorties. The front end is still feeling good, everything seems to be all set there. Now to drain my oil and put on the new cover. The mirror should hopefully be here soon. Then besides a scuffed frame slider, she will be good as new!