Post accident delierium sets in - what to do?

[sportsguy]

As some of you have discovered, I was a very bad bike parent yesterday.

I ran into the backside of a friend's bike. Obviously accidental, but heart, and plastic, breaking non-the-less. His new KTM 1190 went down, but all the armor did it's job. he did a niffy super hero dance as he jumped away from the bike. I was left in stunned awe at the crunching sounds of plastic.

Yesterday, my immediate concern was for Dave. Tagged from behind, he had no idea what was happening. (We were leaving a parking lot, he was lead, me behind. I watched him look left, then lean right and move forward. I looked left and as I rotated my head back to the right (while releasing clutch and easing into the throttle), I realized too late Dave was slowing, not accelerating. Handfuls of clutch and brakes ensued, my front end dove for the ground, but the scant few feet between us, even at less than 5 mph, wasn't enough to avoid the inevitable. CRUNCH. Totally an accident, and an avoidable one, at that, had I had more separation, been sooner to look back, Dave had accelerated as I thought he was, etc.

And while I'll square him away as he reports back on what needs mending, I'm also left with fixing my beloved Tenere.

Which has me thinking...is now the time for change?

No, not a new or different bike. I love this thing.

But, if I end up with a fender that needs painting, and the cowl needs painting (which it does to get rid of that huge scratch it's sporting), am I that far away form a full bike recolor? I mean, what's left? The tank?

And so, the gas tank...might now be the time to send it to someone to expand it? Add maybe another 1/2 gallon or so of fuel? That'd get me easily over the 200 mile mark for range. Right now, stock ECU and big ass pannier in the wind, I hit 200 either just before or just after reserve, depending on speeds and happy switch positioning. Damn near ran out yesterday, in fact, going 21 miles into reserve on the Ten. never been that far into reserve before then. In fairness, we were riding aggressively at times, so using more fuel was expected. But once offroad, I can expect the lower end of economy in many cases, so the argument for a bigger tank comes back to the front. Yeah, it's added weight, but a half gallon or so more of fuel, on a what, 600 pound bike - no going to be noticeable, IMO.

But then again...who to send the tank to for a retrofitting? How long will it take? Do I really want to monkey with this?

...and upon completion, what color to repaint in? Flat tan? Metallic dark green (like our blue, but green)? Maybe that metallic red form the FJR last year (or the year before)? Some nice brown shade?

Or, do I just unbolt, rebolt and then live with the scratch on the cowl, saving myself a ton of time, and some money...and start carrying the extra fuel canisters I have?

Guess I have another "hobby" for the next few months...

 

[klunsford]

Sorry to hear about your incident. Back in my younger days (early twenties), I had a friend run into the back of me. Tore me up more than the bike when he ran over my leg to make matters worse..... If it's more gas and range that you want. I am more inclined to add a tank to the rear portion of the bike, much less work and there are many threads on such a thing here. You aren't that far from a color change if you really want to go that direction. Give it some thought. Tank, fender, cowling and you are about there....

 

[sportsguy]

Sorry to hear about your incident. Back in my younger days (early twenties), I had a friend run into the back of me. Tore me up more than the bike when he ran over my leg to make matters worse..... If it's more gas and range that you want. I am more inclined to add a tank to the rear portion of the bike, much less work and there are many threads on such a thing here. You aren't that far from a color change if you really want to go that direction. Give it some thought. Tank, fender, cowling and you are about there....

That's exactly what had me thinking about it. As for adding gas - I used to have a one gallon rotopax on the rear shelf, but put a Happy Trails top box up there for storage. I have pannier-top bags that can carry a combined 1.5 gallons of extra external fuel in cans, so just "taking more gas" is covered. But do I want to do this the easy way, or the hard way? That's the real question.

 

[klunsford]

There are several aftermarket tanks out there that can add I think up to 10 gallons to the tank. That seems kind of extreme. Rode a friends GSA with the 10 gallon tank and it felt so top heavy during slow maneuvering in the parking lot. Most times I am ready for a break at about the 20 mile range. My 2014 ES will easily get me there and it's not broke in yet. For open road long rides. I just strap a two gallon pack to her (External) just in case. That works for me though... Good luck in your search for answers.

 

[TXTenere]

And so, the gas tank...might now be the time to send it to someone to expand it? Add maybe another 1/2 gallon or so of fuel? That'd get me easily over the 200 mile mark for range. Right now, stock ECU and big ass pannier in the wind, I hit 200 either just before or just after reserve, depending on speeds and happy switch positioning. Damn near ran out yesterday, in fact, going 21 miles into reserve on the Ten. never been that far into reserve before then. In fairness, we were riding aggressively at times, so using more fuel was expected. But once offroad, I can expect the lower end of economy in many cases, so the argument for a bigger tank comes back to the front. Yeah, it's added weight, but a half gallon or so more of fuel, on a what, 600 pound bike - no going to be noticeable, IMO.

First and foremost, I'm sorry to hear about your collision.

Secondly, I am intrigued by your comment above about almost running gas, and going 21 miles into the reserve. Each time the fuel light comes on, I always put only about 4.2-4.5 gallons into the tank, thereby leaving about 1.5 gallons in the tank when the light comes on. Conservatively, I figure that's over 50 miles. When you refilled your tank after "damn near (running) out" yesterday, how much did it take to refill your fuel tank?

 

[2112]

It's a bit of a bummer that, but it happens to the best of us, eh Littledave ? Still, why not take the chance to go for a new paint scheme - how about a Kenny Roberts yellow with black speed blocks ?

 

[True Grip]

Me, I'd bolt up and live with a scratch. My favorite bike at the Arkansas Rally was Pat's from the Yukon. He had the rattiest set of Alt Rider crash bars I've seen. Bike had lots of character and miles (like Pat) ;D I'm slowly working on mine except I found I break too! Sorry about the accident but I've learned something from everyone I've had. I'm with RoBo a Atl Rider pillion rack and a roto pax for those extended rides.

 

[sportsguy]

First and foremost, I'm sorry to hear about your collision.

Secondly, I am intrigued by your comment above about almost running gas, and going 21 miles into the reserve. Each time the fuel light comes on, I always put only about 4.2-4.5 gallons into the tank, thereby leaving about 1.5 gallons in the tank when the light comes on. Conservatively, I figure that's over 50 miles. When you refilled your tank after "damn near (running) out" yesterday, how much did it take to refill your fuel tank?

See, now THAT's an excellent question...and in my haste to clear the pump for the next rider, I neglected to look at the volume window. I know it was $14.07 to fill it, and we'll estimate it was $2.89/gallon, according to GasBuddy (which happens to have the actual station we stopped at included!).

That nets us 4.87 gallons (I was/usually run premium fuel -old habit, small cost difference on the bike). With a 6.1 gallon capacity, I should still have had, what, roughly 30 - 40 more miles, even if I was hauling on it... Funny thing was, yesterday, I couldn't recall if it was 6.1 gallons or 5.5 the bike held. Erring on the side of caution, the math had me within about 20 miles or so of sputtering to a halt. And lemme tell ya, when you're back in the tall pines with folks running bikes with bigger gas tanks, you start to wonder where the next station is a bit sooner than others. You've forced me to confront the truth though - I was worrying for nothing...LOL

But all this math has me thinking of another solution! TESTING!

Fill up the rotopax I have, strap it to the passenger seat, fill up the fuel cans and put them on the panniers and run the bike until it stops running. That'd be a nice long ride, would tell me exactly what to expect in similar conditions and give me a baseline to either add or subtract from depending on factors like weight, headwinds, speeds, etc.

I smell a post-repair experiment coming on.

 

[sportsguy]

OK, skipping the metallic red - looks like it's a standard 2015 color:

2015 Yamaha Super Tenere ES Candy Red

Nothing against it, but it's been done, and if I'm repainting, I don't want the bike to look like a 2015...I'll want it to look unique.

 

[arjayes]

I think elizilla's custom yellow looks pretty freaking cool:

http://s559.photobucket.com/user/katherinebecker/media/Super%20Tenere/sidecar/DSCN2467_zpsu9gqzz0c.jpg.html

I owned a yellow 1972 Cougar XR7 back in the '70s. Something like this:

http://images.gatewayclassiccars.com/carpics/STL/5006/5006.jpg

Damn I loved that car! Ended up plowing it into a snowbank in Minneapolis one cold icy morning and got T-boned by a car coming the other way. Bent frame, totaled. :'(

My favorite stock Tenere color has always been black. Add some red trim/decals and it's hard to beat looks-wise (IMO). Kind of the inverse of the red you showed above.

 

[gaps]

Glad you and your friend are okay, been there, had that happen to me.... here's the story as I remember it.

It's 1976, I'm a big 13 year old kid on a 64 Montesa Scorpion and my friend Mike is on his Kawasaki 90. We're going about 40 mph along side the railroad tracks near home and as we approach a road crossing a police car parks across the tracks...I brake as hard as a 64 Montesa ever did, he does not brake at all and then I see him go over my right shoulder nearly knocking my bike from under me ....he sees sky, gravel, sky, me, sky...the dust settles and we're about 100 yards from the crossing so I get him on his back on his bike and we limp the back where we came from. And the cop goes around the neighborhood and waits for us.
I remember him rather bloody in the back of the cop car reading a Playboy mag with a smile on his face....If you're lucky you'll look back on this and laugh just like he and I do...and yep, we still ride together now and then.

 

[Dirt_Dad]

Glad to hear no one got hurt.

There's a strong argument for not fixing anything. Half the reason I don't take my Tenere deep into interesting places is because it is unblemished. You no longer have that issue. Go have fun and don't worry about it.

I haven't had your particular accident, but I have intruded on another bike in a most unwelcome way. The first time I was ever leading a group ride. Took everyone to a gas station about 15 miles into the ride. I'm sitting there waiting for everyone to gas up, my buddy sitting right next to me. I decided to take a picture of the group. I hop off the bike and start to walk away. Only get a step or two before I realize a kick-stand would have been a good idea. I can't stop the top heavy DL1000 handle bars from going into his spokes, but I was able to somewhat ease it down. Fortunately the 4 or 5 other riders came and helped me get it back up. That's when I cleared my throat and said, "Hi, I'm Dirt Dad, I'll be your leader today." :

 

[EricV]

::026:: on you both being ok.

Now, problem or opportunity? Lots of possibilities.

A. Bolt up new parts, touch up the scratch and ride.

B. New parts, re-paint.

C. New support, high fender mod, two front brake line mod,(s/s braid lines).

1. Expanded main tank, (why bother for less than a gal?).

2. Flat bed fuel cell w/mount for top box. A 2" high cell would
Hold 2-2.5 gals.

Comments from the peanut gallery:

Most S10s have ~1.5 gal reserves. I bent my float arm to make mine ~1 gal. High fender can be a generic dirt bike one for $35 or so off eBay. Bracket can be DIY or ask me for more info. Brake lines come in many colors and cost about $120 if you just pull yours and walk into an industrial hose shop and tell them what you want.

Lastly...ask yourself "would Rumbux crash bars have saved me money in this crash?" ;D

 

[sportsguy]

::026:: on you both being ok.

Now, problem or opportunity? Lots of possibilities.

A. Bolt up new parts, touch up the scratch and ride.

B. New parts, re-paint.

C. New support, high fender mod, two front brake line mod,(s/s braid lines).

1. Expanded main tank, (why bother for less than a gal?).

2. Flat bed fuel cell w/mount for top box. A 2" high cell would
Hold 2-2.5 gals.

Comments from the peanut gallery:

Most S10s have ~1.5 gal reserves. I bent my float arm to make mine ~1 gal. High fender can be a generic dirt bike one for $35 or so off eBay. Bracket can be DIY or ask me for more info. Brake lines come in many colors and cost about $120 if you just pull yours and walk into an industrial hose shop and tell them what you want.

Lastly...ask yourself "would Rumbux crash bars have saved me money in this crash?" ;D

Thanks all for the input, stories and feedback.

This morning I was surfing AlRider's site, and I think I'm just going to do what I was planning to do all summer - replace my Givis with the AltRider bars and add the under-headlight bar as well. Nothing against Rumbox, but I looked at the product (seen in person and online) and I don't think it's for me. Add in a wait time to get them produced and shipped and ya lost me.

No doubt they're good, but I'm particle to AltRider because...

1 - nothing form them has ever failed me
2 - I have almost the entire catalogue from them ON my Tenere now - why break a trend?
3 - they're local to me - so I could likely ride in and have them bolt them on for me while I shop for more shit in their store...LOL

Gotta be honest - the point about expanding the gas tank has hit home. For my desired increase, the cost/time/effort isn't worth it. I may build a false-floor inside the Happy trails top box and keep the 1 gallon Rotopax in there instead. between that, plus two fuel bottles of at least 1,000 mls each, that's gotta be enough gas for most "emergency" situations I'll likely face. otherwise, some basic planning ahead should tell me what I'll actually need (Dalton Highway-type stuff).

The idea of bolt and ride is strongly appealing for the reason stated (dissipation of fear) and for the time factor. I could even drill some small holes in the fender and on the cowl, and "stitch" the wounds with some stainless wire.

One thing that is certainly in my mind is looking at ways to strengthen the entire "dash" structure. And whether adding more strength is wise - maybe leave it as is to absorb issues like this, saving the frame from possible damage - crumple zone, essentially. That said, I've never been a fan of how the Touratech GPS mount for my Garmin Montana sits. It interferes with the full range of motion for the MadStad bracket and places some weight into just the right spot to flop around slightly and induce stress on other parts.

I had a dash made to fill some of the gap around the forks, which houses a switch for the light bar. I removed it eons ago to use as a template for someone else and never got around to reinstalling it. had I, I'd likely have more damage as the bolts used surely would have ripped the plastic more on each side. Time to switch to those push-in plastic things that hold the cowl in place already, methinks. Let those parts flex a bit more that my original design would have.

 

[oldbear]

If ya have the Altrider rak, a rotopak (2.5 gallon I believe) will bolt right on, giving you the fuel you want when you need it and no hassle with weight/bulk when you don't. It's a pretty sweet solution to adding "range" when in the thulies..

 

[sportsguy]

If ya have the Altrider rak, a rotopak (2.5 gallon I believe) will bolt right on, giving you the fuel you want when you need it and no hassle with weight/bulk when you don't. It's a pretty sweet solution to adding "range" when in the thulies..

While this is a viable plan, everyone seems to keep missing the fact that I have a top box mounted on the rear rack.

Unless... do they make something that fits INSIDE their rear rack now?

And Bowling Green, eh? We're planning to hop up there from Nashville while visiting in May. Going to hit the Corvette plant, collect another state and wrap our vacation in style.

 

[Ramseybella]

I mounted my Rotopax to my Trax side case of my Triumph Tiger like this, it worked out well and never had any issues..

 

[Joega]

Maybe instead of fixing bike focus should be on training and being more attentive to the surroundings and tailgating

 

[Shovelhead]

Maybe instead of fixing bike focus should be on training and being more attentive to the surroundings and tailgating

:

are you kin to that Fredbbgggbbgggb feller

 

[AVGeek]

:

are you kin to that Fredbbgggbbgggb feller

I know the wording may not have been the best, but I think the suggestion is sound. After my big accident on my FJR, the biggest thing that helped me get back on the bike (after I healed up and the bike was fixed) was going through training. Fortunately, the club I was hanging out with at the time had one member who had been a firearms instructor, and was developing a motorcycle skills day program (which he eventually turned into a business). I still take advantage of training whenever I can.