| Author | Message | ||
     Koz5150 |
Everyone who thinks that I4 type bikes are so perfect and problem free should read about their problems to. The grass isn't always greener... 2005 Suzuki GSXR 1000 Frame Alert! Apparent frame defect may have contributed to crash May 21, 2005 While competing in a race for AMA sanctioned Motorcycle Roadracing Club Dan Sallis (MRA #63, AMA Superstock #48) crashed in turn one while Pikes Peak International Raceway. Dan was riding the 2005 1Tail.com Suzuki GSXR when the front simply washed out entering turn one. "I am not sure what happened because I was taking it easy and just cruising. I was comming up on a lapper and setting up to pass him on the outside when the front just went away." said Dan. Dan was in 3rd place when the crash occurred and he had been in running as high as 2nd in the race. Upon taking a closer look at the damaged Suzuki frame it is clear that the weld was inadequate as indicated by the photographs below. The break in right down the middle of the weld. Futhermore, when one takes a closer look at the weld it is clear that the weld had zero penetration for the majority of the welded area. "This all makes perfect sense now. This thing came apart on me at the top of turn one just as I was counter steering at well over 100 miles an hour entering the turn." Current owners of the 2005 Suzuki GSXR 1000 may want to have their frame welds inspected for defects. 1Tail.com will present the broken frame for inspection to the director of roadracing for the AMA at the event at PPIR later today.   | ||
| Mikej |
Buried in the archives are pics of a failed S2 handlebar. Welding is a serious business. One frame failure does not make for proof, but it does cause one to stop and wonder. Still looking at handlebar alternatives, and wandering over to the gixxer board to do a frame failure search. | ||
| Mikej |
http://www.gixxer.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=1558437&page=0&fpart= 5&vc=1
So it appears there is an active debate on the issue, and as to the cause of the failure. Back to the search. | ||
| Rek |
Even w/out the impact the only thing holding that piece together is a single tack. Either it was built on a friday, or some moron doesn't know how to weld. Rob | ||
| Kenb |
regardless of what caused the seperation it's an awful weld. the penetration of the bead to the parent metal is non existent. this is clear in photo 2. | ||
| Madduck |
I would bet that the frame is welded by robot, so there will be a significant number of welds just like the one you see here. Robots are real consistent. | ||
| Tom_b |
Inline 4 cylinders RULE. 70 yrs old and no frame breakage  | ||
| Mikej |
That thing is sweet, I hope you ride it a bunch. | ||
| Kenb |
what year is that henderson ? man a henderson 4 is my dream collectable bike. I've got a semi restored 52 ford f2 that i'm looking to get rid of and aquire a restorable henderson, what ball park are restorables in ? looking for a 1930 probably | ||
| Tom_b |
I WISH it was mine. It is a friends 1934. A member of the Sunflower antique bike club. It is rode regularly. Kenb, I haven't asked but I know he turned down $30,000 for it | ||
| Rocketman |
I know a guy in Hull, Yorkshire who has a Henderson 4. It was recently partly restored by a retired aircraft engineer in his 70's. The same fella that rebuilt my S&S crank as it happens. As for frame breakage, and forgive the kinda pun, but let's not get all bent out of shape. I hear HD are monitoring a similar situation with the current Sportster range. Apparently a handful of Sportsters have suffered cracking to one of the yokes. This is nothing new for any manufacturer and it's unfair to start a 'witch hunt' or comparison. Shite happens but it doesn't mean the bike(s) in question are any worse a machine for it no matter who makes 'em. They can and will be put right after all so let's keep our hair on. Rocket | ||
| Ingemar |
Apparently a handful of Sportsters have suffered cracking to one of the yokes. Being an admin on (one of?) the largest sportster forums on the net I can safely say that that I have heard of 1 guy that had that happen to his sporty. According to his story HD was very serious about it, and his triples were sent to the factory for investigation. Again, according to his story HD said it was an one-time incident. I just searched the new and the archived forum posts and I can really only find one incident about this. That's no garantee that there are more though. There have been talks going around that there were a few more cases from the UK, but I haven't seen these confirmed. |
