MotoUtah: Motocross and Off-Road Riding in Utah

fgkell & I are going to meet at 10:30 am Thursday, 3/18/10, at 5 Mile Pass to ride for a few hours. If anyone is interested in joining us, let me know.

Dang, that would be nice... Thursday morning though, not a common time off for most.. I've got my head in transit to Slavens right now for some shaving. I'm going to be coming unglued to do some riding next week though!!

I'm game to ride Tue and/or Thur next week. I'm really interested to see how the head shave works out on your bike. If it help a lot, I might be tempted to have mine done!

Sounds good, I think I could pull off Thurs next week but it would have to be in the afternoon.

That should work--I just have to move some meetings around and then be back in time to get to a lecture at 7:30 (Gen. Petraus is speaking at BYU)

Frank and I had a really nice ride--for about 15 minutes until this happened:


Frank was a great help. Since he's new to the area and didn't know the trails, he lent me his bike so I could go back to the trucks and get a tie-down to use as a tow strap. At his suggestion we zip-tied the broken chain to the pipe since it was wedged in too tightly to free it from the countershafter sprocket:


We had quite a ride towing the bike back to the trucks. We each held on to one end of the tie down with one hand and steered our bikes with the other. Each of us recently had shoulder surgery so we had to be careful which arm we used. Uphills weren't much fun--quite an isometric exercise for the arm with the strap! But we made it back just fine and called it a day.

Ouch...

Dang that sucks.

Wow, that was quite an expensive fifteen minute ride! Why is it the major problems always seem to occur at the best time of the season?
Good luck and happy wrenching.

Thanks, fmxrider. I was planning to replace the chain & sprockets in a few weeks anyway before my annual trip to Moab for a week. This way I'll just be replacing them a little sooner than anticipated!

By the way, I've never had a chain break on me before. Looking back in my ride log, I got 60 rides out of this chain since Sept. 2008, which is ~120 hours. From now on I'll be planning to replace my chain at somewhere less than 100 hours of use.

Too bad I couldn't make it Greg, sounds it would have been the Three Stooges had I thrown my recently fixed shoulder into the mix. I had a bout with pnumonia & missed 2 weeks of PT, Wed my doc said the shoulder is frozen & gave me 2 weeks to break it up on my own before they manipulate it. Dragging a bike around with that arm may have done the trick? I am officially released to ride though. I'll see if I can swing next week, my wife & I may head out there for some mellow riding on Monday evening.

Clint

Hi Clint,

Sorry to hear that you've been sick. Good luck unfreezing the shoulder.

Hopefully I can get my bike repaired to ride next week. I'll pick up a new sprocket/chain from Rocky Mountain tonight or tomorrow. My main concern is whether the countershaft is bent. That would be a bummer.

Dang, you're lucky that chain did not remove your clutch slave, that right there is the reason they make those trick guards.... Glad nothing worse happened!

I had that happen on a four wheeler, and it broke the case, that really sucks. Lucky for me my friend was really good at welding cast aluminum. Man being towed on a bike is downright scary, I had about 3 miles of it one time, and hated every minute of it.

It was an adventure despite Greg's misfortune. Hope you get it fixed soon.
brraaappp

Wrfrk wrote:


no those guards usually make matters worse by giving the chain enough surface area to take out the slave cylinder and your center case. I never run those guards because I would rather replace a slave cyl than the center cases which are matched pairs and big $$$$

enmerdeur wrote:


Hmmm, that I did not know. I guess they are nothing more than fancy bling then and I won't be getting one now, you know you saved me some money, but cost someone somewhere!!

Hmmm, that I did not know. I guess they are nothing more than fancy bling then and I won't be getting one now, you know you saved me some money, but cost someone somewhere!![/quote]


It really depends what machine it's on, are you on a KTM as well? I can see on Gregs bike the slave could be at risk in that situation. In a CR250 for instance you don't have that issue, and I wouldn't ride without one.
While I have never broken a chain personally, I have seen two broken. One on a CR and one on a KX and both times the chain spooled off no problems. They call them case savers for a reason.

Knockdown Bar

Actually some, like this one from EE actually bolt to the fram at the chain roller and provide some pretty gnarly protection. I have never broken a chain myself either, but I've seen several. This wouldn't have stopped Greg's chain from binding like it did, but it sure could save the case and slave from damage.

It looks like the chain break caused a small crack in my case, which is just to the right of the partially crushed seal in this photo:

The oil seepage in my original photos is coming from this crack. Any advice on how to fix this would be very welcome.

YZ head wrote:


Frank towed me about 6 miles. Fortunately we found a route that didn't involve much uphill. Those were particularly tough.

I'm with you--I would prefer to not be involved in any more towing!

Major bummer, looks like you're going to need a new case or partial case if that's even possible....

Bummer Greg! Sorry bro

Yeah, that really sucks. When you mentioned needing just new sprokets and chain I was wondering where all the "bleeding" had come from other than a cracked case.
Far as what to do now: Purchase new case/cases. Not sure if KTMs are like the big four Jap bikes, but on those bikes most experts will recommend purchasing a "matched set" as opposed to just the left case.
Option the second, try to repair it with JB Weld. I don't know how well that will work in that situation however. Also, it apprears the collar on your primary has gotten pushed in and that's no good either.
I would also inspect the leading edge of your swingarm as it looks like it took some abuse too.
Sorry if I sound like the messenger of death. I've been through this (cracked case before I started running a skid plate) myself and I feel your pain.

Thanks, fmxrider. From what I've seen, on KTMs you have to get a matched set when dealing with cases. I'm still undecided about whether to try JB Weld or just replace the cases. I'll probably figure it out Monday.