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I had an interesting experience yesterday. I got in a hurry putting my bike back together after doing a rear wheel swap. I wanted to take the bike to work. Since I work afternoons, I had about an hour to do it so I figured I had plenty of time. I've had the rear wheel off several times and thought I could do it in my sleep. One thing I usually do is loosen the lower left shock bolt to assist in removing and replacing the rear caliper mounting bracket. I know that I had pushed the bolt back in but somehow I forgot to tighten it. I got called away for a few minutes and then returned to the garage to finish tightening the rear axle and putting the left saddlebag back on. I finished in plenty of time to still take a shower and make it to work on time. I was pretty happy.
Now I am driving to work and I just got off the expressway and I am approaching a red light. I use the front brake and rear brake. All of a sudden, I hear a loud band from underneath and I felt what appeared to be an impact of some sorts in my feet. At first I thought my front tire had kicked up something in the road and it hit the underside. After the light changed green, I started to accellerate but was having a hard time doing so. At this time the sick feeling hit me and I remembered that lower shock bolt was never tightened. I found a safe place to pull over just after the light to see if I could find the problem. All I had was the tool kit from the bike. I put the bike on the centerstand and climbed underneath. Now I see that the rear caliper mounting bracket had rotated way forward and was pushed up against the rotor causing the rear wheel to be impossible to rotate. I loosened the axle in order to get a little free play. Finally I got it loose enough to get the bracket in the right spot. Now I started to try and get the lower shock bolt pushed in. Nothing I tried would work. The pressure from the springs was too much. I even tried putting it down on the side stand to compress it a little but no luck. I needed something to pound it in. I called a buddy who was at work and asked him to meet me since I was only about 3 miles from work and bring tools. During this only one car stopped to offer assistance even though this is a pretty busy stretch. Since I already had my buddy on the way, I thanked him but told him I was ok. My buddy shows up with the tools and I start working on the bike. My buddy was wearing his work uniform so he was unable to help me. I was just glad he was able to bring the tools so I didn't care. About this time, another goldwing ( I will call him JW) was passing by and immediately stops to lend a hand. I had already pounded the shock bolt in far enough to start grabbing the threads and into the caliper bracket. I had to use the 14mm ratchet with the extension to finish. The standard toolkit would have been a bear to get this bolt tightened and I am glad to have had access to the ratchet. Mental note: always have a few extra tools that may be needed.... So now the shock bolt is tight, I get the rear axle tightened, I rotate the left muffler back up and get that tightened. Everything is done. I thank JW and he sticks around for a few minutes just to make sure evereything was ok. Now I am ready to head to work. The bike fires up ok and I start to move ok, no binding. I go over a small bump and now I realize there is something else wrong. It bottoms out and I hear a mettallic clinking. I keep going a little futher and hit a bigger bump and felt clunking from under the seat along with it bottoming out even worse. I pull over and pump up the air shock to 50 psi figuring that this would take the pressure off the left side. It worked pretty good and I was able to finish the ride to work. Since it was a slow day at work, I was able to tear a little further into the bike to see if I could find what was wrong. I didn't want to tear into it too deep on the street. Now I take off the seat. The top shock mount looked ok. Next I take off the left saddlebag. Now I see the problem. The rod inside the spring on the left shock was completely snapped in two so the only thing working on that side was the coil spring on the outside of the shock. It turns out that when I hit the brakes getting off the highway, the rear caliper grabbed the rotor and thats how the bracket rotated forwards. The impact of the caliper on the shock bent the spring on the shock and broke the piston rod. This was a very expensive mistake because I have the Progressive 450 IAS shock. Since there was nothing I could do, I buttoned everything back up and decided if I take side streets home I would be ok.
After work, I start the slow journey of 15 miles on side streets home. Since it is around 11:30 p.m., there wasn't a lot of traffic so I could take my time. I carefully keep avoiding as many potholes as I can but have to cross several sets of railroad tracks along the way that aren't in the best condition. Then I get to the last mile and a half and the road is completely torn up because of resurfacing work going on. I finally get home in one piece but noticed that the bike seemed to be bottoming out pretty bad again. Once inside my garage, I decided to let some off the pressure out of theright shock. I checked the pressure and it was at 0 psi. I try pumping it back up. I get it to 20 psi and can see it quickly loosing air. At this point, I was so aggravated at my stupidity that I couldn't think straight. Now I am probably looking at replacing not only the 450 IAS shock but my air shock also.
So the point of my long story is to make sure that when working on your bike, take your time and make sure ALL the bolts are put back on and tightened properly because if not, the results can be very expensive and hazardous. I am lucky that all that happened was I have to replace parts. What if this had happened on the expressway and the rear wheel locked up? I know that I am not the first person to make a mistake like this or the last. I just wanted to give a reminder to others and by writing this, it will stick in the back of my mind.
I had an interesting experience yesterday. I got in a hurry putting my bike back together after doing a rear wheel swap. I wanted to take the bike to work. Since I work afternoons, I had about an hour to do it so I figured I had plenty of time. I've had the rear wheel off several times and thought I could do it in my sleep. One thing I usually do is loosen the lower left shock bolt to assist in removing and replacing the rear caliper mounting bracket. I know that I had pushed the bolt back in but somehow I forgot to tighten it. I got called away for a few minutes and then returned to the garage to finish tightening the rear axle and putting the left saddlebag back on. I finished in plenty of time to still take a shower and make it to work on time. I was pretty happy.
Now I am driving to work and I just got off the expressway and I am approaching a red light. I use the front brake and rear brake. All of a sudden, I hear a loud band from underneath and I felt what appeared to be an impact of some sorts in my feet. At first I thought my front tire had kicked up something in the road and it hit the underside. After the light changed green, I started to accellerate but was having a hard time doing so. At this time the sick feeling hit me and I remembered that lower shock bolt was never tightened. I found a safe place to pull over just after the light to see if I could find the problem. All I had was the tool kit from the bike. I put the bike on the centerstand and climbed underneath. Now I see that the rear caliper mounting bracket had rotated way forward and was pushed up against the rotor causing the rear wheel to be impossible to rotate. I loosened the axle in order to get a little free play. Finally I got it loose enough to get the bracket in the right spot. Now I started to try and get the lower shock bolt pushed in. Nothing I tried would work. The pressure from the springs was too much. I even tried putting it down on the side stand to compress it a little but no luck. I needed something to pound it in. I called a buddy who was at work and asked him to meet me since I was only about 3 miles from work and bring tools. During this only one car stopped to offer assistance even though this is a pretty busy stretch. Since I already had my buddy on the way, I thanked him but told him I was ok. My buddy shows up with the tools and I start working on the bike. My buddy was wearing his work uniform so he was unable to help me. I was just glad he was able to bring the tools so I didn't care. About this time, another goldwing ( I will call him JW) was passing by and immediately stops to lend a hand. I had already pounded the shock bolt in far enough to start grabbing the threads and into the caliper bracket. I had to use the 14mm ratchet with the extension to finish. The standard toolkit would have been a bear to get this bolt tightened and I am glad to have had access to the ratchet. Mental note: always have a few extra tools that may be needed.... So now the shock bolt is tight, I get the rear axle tightened, I rotate the left muffler back up and get that tightened. Everything is done. I thank JW and he sticks around for a few minutes just to make sure evereything was ok. Now I am ready to head to work. The bike fires up ok and I start to move ok, no binding. I go over a small bump and now I realize there is something else wrong. It bottoms out and I hear a mettallic clinking. I keep going a little futher and hit a bigger bump and felt clunking from under the seat along with it bottoming out even worse. I pull over and pump up the air shock to 50 psi figuring that this would take the pressure off the left side. It worked pretty good and I was able to finish the ride to work. Since it was a slow day at work, I was able to tear a little further into the bike to see if I could find what was wrong. I didn't want to tear into it too deep on the street. Now I take off the seat. The top shock mount looked ok. Next I take off the left saddlebag. Now I see the problem. The rod inside the spring on the left shock was completely snapped in two so the only thing working on that side was the coil spring on the outside of the shock. It turns out that when I hit the brakes getting off the highway, the rear caliper grabbed the rotor and thats how the bracket rotated forwards. The impact of the caliper on the shock bent the spring on the shock and broke the piston rod. This was a very expensive mistake because I have the Progressive 450 IAS shock. Since there was nothing I could do, I buttoned everything back up and decided if I take side streets home I would be ok.
After work, I start the slow journey of 15 miles on side streets home. Since it is around 11:30 p.m., there wasn't a lot of traffic so I could take my time. I carefully keep avoiding as many potholes as I can but have to cross several sets of railroad tracks along the way that aren't in the best condition. Then I get to the last mile and a half and the road is completely torn up because of resurfacing work going on. I finally get home in one piece but noticed that the bike seemed to be bottoming out pretty bad again. Once inside my garage, I decided to let some off the pressure out of theright shock. I checked the pressure and it was at 0 psi. I try pumping it back up. I get it to 20 psi and can see it quickly loosing air. At this point, I was so aggravated at my stupidity that I couldn't think straight. Now I am probably looking at replacing not only the 450 IAS shock but my air shock also.
So the point of my long story is to make sure that when working on your bike, take your time and make sure ALL the bolts are put back on and tightened properly because if not, the results can be very expensive and hazardous. I am lucky that all that happened was I have to replace parts. What if this had happened on the expressway and the rear wheel locked up? I know that I am not the first person to make a mistake like this or the last. I just wanted to give a reminder to others and by writing this, it will stick in the back of my mind.
