Laid her down... Not running. :(

[fintip]

So it rained here last night, and on my way back home from Jiu Jitsu, there's two lights that turn yellow/red in unison, without about 200-300~ feet between them. I happened to be just at that odd distance where you either have to speed up or hit your brakes moderately hard at the light, so I decided to speed up a bit for the first and brake for the second. There were two cars in front of the next light, so the distance was shorter still. I would have been fine on dry pavement, but...

...my front tire is a NOS that I got for free that, while having good tread, doesn't seem to do well in the wet, and is 8 years old.

...and my rear brakes don't work. I have rebuilt the caliper, replaced pads, and have taken apart the cylinder and put it all back together--caliper was seized, but wasn't the only issue--when I finally took apart and inspected the rear brake cylinder worked--for 3 days, before losing pressure again. Was intending to buy new seals and rebuild it soon, but hadn't gotten to that yet.

...So my front tire cut out from under me.

No injuries to me--martial arts are actually good for something, my instincts landed me sliding on my ass, safest position probably available. One tiny (negligible) scrape on my knee, one on my ass. But the bike... Seemed fine at first, but no start.

Pushed it over to a gas station.

Sounded all good when trying to start it, but no 'bite'. Huh. Try push starting it, and can hear that it's not trying to spark at all.

Second round of inspections--oh. The ignition timing cover? bottom half is broken off. Pull out my factory tool kit, and am able to unscrew the remaining two screws thanks to the fact that I had just had it off earlier in the day to do a valve shim swap...

Bad news. The spinning brass (? gold colored metal?) part is bent, the sensor has been ripped off, and there's two sets of wires that have bare ends. Thus the no spark--no rpm info coming in to the TCI.

Other damage: front fairing (front left side ground off), and givi rack (snapped). Gauge shroud crack. Inner fairing vent panel. Front wheel seems slightly disaligned, but I'm fairly sure it's not a bent fork as there was no trauma to the front, and will just be a matter of releasing tension at the triple tree and realigning.

Anyone have a donor bike that can contribute the timing bits and a cover for my bike? I don't have a running vehicle until I get these parts. Name your price. -_-

Glad I invested in putting new bicycle tires on my Dahon recently... Looks like I'm going to be getting a lot of use out of that for the next week (at least) (being optimistic).



A kind soul heard the bike skidding (luckily it stopped before running into the car ahead of me), came down. He was on a scooter, but had more than 30 years of motorcycling under his belt. We talked a bit. He said he had a truck and a ramp if I needed it, gave me his number. When I realized I wasn't going to be driving anywhere that night, he came by and picked me up, drove me home.

(For better or worse, I love Texas.)

Guess I'll be getting some hours on my project bike in. Wishing I had been working on it recently right now.   

Anyways. No injuries. Clear path to running again. Don't even have to buy a new helmet (no head contact to anything). All in all, not a bad crash at all.

[FJ_Hooligan]

Kyle,
Glad you're okay!

I might have the ignition components.  I'll check when I get home. Verify the year, '86?
I don't have an extra cover.  Check with RPM (do I really need to type that?)

[FJmonkey]

Kyle, glad you are OK. I don't have the spare parts that you need so I hope others can scrounge up some 86'/87' parts. There seem to be enough of them around. 

[Steve_in_Florida]

Kyle,
Yeah, that sucks big time, but at least you're O.K.

Life does that to keep you on your toes. You'll be back up and running in no time. Sorry I can't help you out with parts.

Steve

[Pat Conlon]

+4 glad you are ok, most important..... Yea, Texans are like that....very good folks, the best.

When repaired, you really need to get rid of that old, dry, hard front tire, although you know this already.

Send Randy @ RPM a email and see what he has in his big goody box of used parts.

Cheers lad, you have a good attitude!  Pat

[fintip]

Thanks guys.

Some pics:
Cover remains plus some bits I went back and found in the road...

[Flying Scotsman]

If there's a good side then at least the engine cases did not get damaged.I will take a look on Sat when I can get to the garage.I may or may not have some parts.

[fintip]

That's the truth, scottsman, I'd be making this my project and the other bike my soon to be daily rider if that were the case!

[fintip]

Did I mention that the rain was so bad that flooding killed at least one man last night and it seems several thousand homes were destroyed in the area?

[movenon]

Glad you are Ok and here to talk about it  ..  On the bright side it is fixable and lot of used parts out there. Another good reason for Rentec's..
George

[aviationfred]

Kyle,

Sorry to hear about your get-off. Glad that you are ok. For your bike, I have a spare rear caliper that was functioning when I removed it from my bike. I have a spare Pick-up coil and plates that are for an 89'. I know your bike has a dual pick-up with a different rotor and the 89' has a single pick-up. Maybe you can use some of these parts to get yours back going.

Fred

[fintip]

Rentec's have been on my wish list for a long time, believe me. (I have an FJ wish list. It's a few thousand dollars long. wishlist.com/kylebaker, haha.)

[movenon]

Rentec's have been on my wish list for a long time, believe me. (I have an FJ wish list. It's a few thousand dollars long. wishlist.com/kylebaker, haha.)

Wishlist is good ! Pretty boring if you don't have something to look forward to. Someday we will talk about the happiness bell curve.. 
Kind of touching on the subject is a quote from Richard Pryor,  "Cocaine is Gods revenge for having to much money". If you have something to look forward to then be happy 
George

[Paul1965]

If there's a good side then at least the engine cases did not get damaged.I will take a look on Sat when I can get to the garage.I may or may not have some parts.

I saw his garage, I think he's got the parts 

[Capn Ron]

Thanks guys.

Some pics:

Well THERE'S your problem!!! 

Glad it was only motorcycle parts that got damaged... 

Cap'n Ron. . .