MiDWaN

Friday, July 18, 2008

A screw can really screw you

Just recently I got my motorcycle to my mechanic in order to replace the steering bearings.

When I got the bike the next day, I noticed a screw was missing from the right clippon. No biggie, I thought, so I told the mechanic the next day and he replaced it for me...

It's been some time since then, during which the R6 was mostly staying safely at home, while the Thundercat was taking care of everyday city transportation. I used the R6 only for going on the track for a couple of weekends.

And that's when I noticed the steering bearing was feeling a bit loose again. Strange, I thought to myself, since it was so soon after replacing it. I didn't pay much attention to it, and just used up a few hours of my time to clean-up, remove the upper triple clamp and tighten the bearing myself.

I did notice that the forks were moving rather loosely back and forth, which seemed strange as well, but my mind never got suspicious.

Until yesterday that is, when the bearing seemed to be getting loose again after some hard braking.... At first I was bored, but a friend pushed me to get my act together and tighten the damn thing, especially since I was planning on riding the R6 for a trip the next day.

So I got to it, removed the upper triple clamp, tightened the bearing yet again, placed the triple clamp on the forks and pushed it down.... and the forks came up!

"Woa, wait a second!" I thought to myself... This is definitely NOT normal!

So I looked down a bit... and saw the lower clamp missing ALL of it's 4 screws!

Now, I'm not one to easily blame others, but in this case all indications pointed at the recent bearing replacement at my mechanic's. Those 4 screws are a real pain to remove or tighten, as they're placed behind the front fairing. In my mind it's clear: They were either not tightened or never placed back.

Of course my mechanic had a different opinion, declaring that there's absolutely no way they could have forgotten to place the screws back. So how did he explain the missing screws?

"Possibly removed by someone else"

How and why would someone remove those specific 4 screws, which are really hard to get to, from a motorcycle which has been kept covered and locked (except when ridden!) is beyond me. But even if I accept that possibility, however remote it may seem, why would someone desperately needing those kind of screws go into the trouble to remove them from the lower clamp and not from the upper, which is much easier accessible and would require far less time to remove?

Needless to say, I will try and do most of the work on the R6 myself from now on.