Help find the bent bit

Munchies · 10 Jun 2018 at 13:32

Is the only way to find a write off marker to HPI check? (no need for finance / any other info)

For anyone interested;
just over 2 years ago my ZZR got written off, I received a payout from the 3rd party's insurer, but it took me 2 years to get the bike back. With no information (if it was given at the time of the claim I have forgotten) regarding category it was written off as / their engineers report.

I contacted my insurer once I got it back requesting the engineers report and write off info, they put a request in to the 3rd party, but have got no where after 4 weeks, and i'm kind of fed up with waiting, is a HPI check my only / best option?

As for the damage, the reason i've been dragging my feet and not done a HPI check / just got on with rebuilding it, I fear there is frame damage, a vehicle reversed into the left side of the bike, and obliterated the plastics on the left, now when I turn the bars, full left lock the bar touches the tank. Anyone with hopefully something simple that could be wrong? Or is it almost guaranteed the frame is bent?

If the frame is bent it should be a CAT A / B, and not something I want to mess with. So have been uhmming and ahhing the last few weeks, putting off starting anything, in case it is. Time to pull my finger out.

EDIT: After typing that out I had the bright idea of going through the ad process on Auto trader, they are showing it as a CAT C. So am I right in thinking there 'should' be no frame damage? Unless missed by the engineer of course. Time to get stripping in the coming week I guess, and see what's what.

unKle · 10 Jun 2018 at 15:21

I would be inspecting the area around the headstock, checking that the frame lugs are still there and intact (Other than the obvious things to check for - bent clip on, twisted forks).

If one of the lugs have been damaged, which is very likely if the bike has been pushed over when reversed into, then it won't stop the bars hitting the tank.

If a frame lug has been damaged/snapped off, it is a fairly simple repair procedure for a professional welder, but labour intensive. Frame has to be stripped down bare.

As for CAT C, I believe that's a financial write off.

Munchies · 17 Jun 2018 at 14:06

Thanks for the reply, finally got some shelving put up and managed to strip the front end this morning. The lugs are in-tact as is the frame lug, however some extra lugs appear to have been stuck to the triple tree lugs, soft aluminium and they were rather... Squashed.

I can't see anything obviously bent (a fork / bar) and given how far out the steering is I think it would be a fairly obvious bend on those. I need to get a hex tool to remove the front wheel before I can start investigating further the forks / headstock really.

Bars turned to the right

Bars turned to the left

with everything removed something looks REALLY out of line.

I am confused as to what those blocks of aluminium were doing on the triple tree stops, as without them the bar is still nowhere near the tank when turned right. I loosened the stanchions one side at a time and twisted them, kind of expecting them to not want to twist freely if there was a bend but both sides twist just fine.

Munchies · 25 Jun 2018 at 19:23

Ok, so I got around to tearing the entire front end off, and am none the wiser as to what's going on. Hopefully someone can come along and point out something obvious i'm missing.

so, with the forks removed I noticed the bottom yoke is catching the top rad mount on the right side when bars turned right, not on the left, so it's sitting lower on the right side. Yet as far as I can work out the bottom yoke appears to be perfectly straight.

Note the pictures are taken after I started reassembly, to see if simply putting it back together again would fix it, with fork tubes in place, it still rubs, if you pull the bars over that mount to the right they are about the correct distance from the tank at full lock. Turn left, still fouls the tank.

So i'm sat here thinking it's either the steering stem, which I can't believe would bend before anything else. Or the steering head. I can't see anything that looks obviously out of shape and honestly I don't think whatever it is that is out of shape is more than a couple of degrees out so finding it is proving difficult.

Anyone have any bright ideas as to where to go from here? How to check the steering head is good? I'm a bit loathed to go and buy a second hand stem unless I can find one with bearings on maybe, even if they're shot, because I don't want to be replacing the bearings, only to find the stem isn't bent leaving only the frame as the culprit?

TallPaul_S · 26 Jun 2018 at 00:09

If the forks are straight, and the steering stops aren't gone then and the bars aren't bent it's just going to be that the forks were twisted in the triple clamps.

Take 2 pens side by side in the air, and rotate them ever so slightly the opposite way to each other. That's what your forks will have done. It's very easy for them to get knocked out of shape when the bike goes down on one side. With the top triple clamp rotated slightly to the left, and the bottom one to the right, you'll see the bars touching the tank and the steering off centre.

Dogbreath · 8 Jul 2018 at 22:46

Munchies said:
Thanks for the reply, finally got some shelving put up and managed to strip the front end this morning. The lugs are in-tact as is the frame lug, however some extra lugs appear to have been stuck to the triple tree lugs, soft aluminium and they were rather... Squashed.

That looks like lead to me, which would explain why is squashed so much. In fact they may have been self adhesive wheel weights at one point.

Since they seem to have been added at some point, it suggests something was bent before you bought it; possibly the two lock stop lugs on the bottom yoke.

Tefal · 17 Jul 2018 at 16:12

Cpuld it be something as simple as the steering stops have just broken off on one side

Dogbreath · 23 Jul 2018 at 23:23

Tefal said:
Cpuld it be something as simple as the steering stops have just broken off on one side

Looking at a pic of a frame eBay it looks very much as though the stops on the OPs frame have been ground down at some point, which would explain the problem. Unlikely that both sides got broken by a similar amount, but not impossible I suppose.

Frame could be repaired by welding, but probably easier just to add some spacers to the lower yoke, though ones made of something harder than lead...

Munchies · 28 Jul 2018 at 10:06

Having been through the bike a bit more thoroughly, and having looked at new frames after Dogbreaths picture, the bike is somewhat more molested than I first realised. Have decided it's really not worth rebuilding as it's in quite a state under the skin. Frustrating really as it rode okay before the accident. Though it has made me much more aware of where to look, and what to look for, when buying second hand bikes in the future. Thanks for your help.