Crash in Destruction Bay, YT

wow, how did the fork break ? Has this happened on other beemers ?

you are one tough cookie. hope you heal well and fast

Good grief. :huh I'm kinda speechless, looking at those pics, but I'm glad you're doing okay. Heal fast.

You should have bought a Pegaso. (that's a very narrowcast inside joke-back to the real thread)

That looks to be a very odd failure-did you get the bike second hand from the wheelie king? Heal up as fast as you can and try again, we'll be waiting.

I don't know you, but a mutual friend said you had wrecked.

So sorry to hear what happened, and sorry to hear you sustained injuries for what appears to be a mechanical failure.

Hope you heal well.

What did BMWNA have to say about the forks ?
I hope you are up and riding again very soon.
All the best.

Wow! I'm so sorry you crashed, and it looks like there's nothing you could have done (that you didn't already do) to prevent it or see it coming. I'm glad you weren't hurt worse and hope you heal quickly. I am actually getting surgery on my hand soon from my ninja 250 get-off, so we'll both be in casts.

Btw everyone, redbaroness actually lent me that motoport jacket and I crashed in it twice, so it's been down 3 times now and it looks it it has held up pretty dang well. I guess I must have cursed it as an unlucky jacket :O

Get better soon!
Greg

I think it may have taken a starring role in its last crash, though - I believe the various medical professionals who worked on Red Baroness's injuries between Destruction Bay and Seattle have pretty much turned it into cleaning rags...

Get well soon!
ATGATT! Not just a way of life, the way to keep living.
Glad to see you writing on the forum and heal quick!

I had an Arai XD helmet, joe rocket meteor jacket(with all the pads and armor),joe rocket ballistic pants, gericke boots, and vance and hines leather racing gloves with gauntlets. Comfy gear and waterproof too.
I was crossing a patch of gravel (like hundreds I had already crossed)which was very deep and loose and I let off the throttle because of all the warning signs about hitting workers and the front end sunk in and sent me tumbling. It was my first crash ever with close to 20 years of riding. The pain wasnt so bad and my legs didnt hurt at all so walking away wasnt too hard. When they put in the chest tube for the collapsed lung ...that was pain like I had never felt in my life!:eek1 Feel OK now, the shoulder is sore when I move it wrong and the ribs are a little sore now and then but not bad enough for pain killers. Hope yours heals fast.

Lee

Have you called and/or sent along these photos to this dealership yet? How long ago were these "inspected"? If the bike was given a clean bill of health prior to leaving on this trip, I'd be mighty peeved with the dealer that said it was good to go. I don't know if there is any recourse, but I'd certainly ask that some sort of independent investigator have a look at those forks to determine if the fracture is new or if it have been "growing" for some time. There may be an indication of where the initial failure was.

Did the bike exhibit any warning signs or just let go? Based on the day before crash wheel pic, there doesn't seem to be any indication of fracture, at lease there's no apparent oil weepage.

Glad you are able to post about this. This could have been soooo much worse.

Here's hoping you have a fast recovery and are back on 2 wheels sooner than later.

Anybody out there with foundry experience see what
looks like hydrogen porosity (those little bubbled spots)
and unusually large grain size in the casting where the
axle bosses sheared off?

I have none, but noticed the bubbles and roughness. We have an 02 Dakar. I don't know what to think.

Nope, they took it off ine one piece. I took a deep breath and told them to pull it off. Might have cussed a bit.

My left glove was the only piece of gear that needed to be cut off.

I crashed a couple of months ago at a rally and it might have been an outcome of that crash. The BMW dealership replaced the front fairing mounting. To be honest, there were no visible signs of any damage in the forks then or during the 3500 miles of my trip (no fork oil leakage or anything). I am loathe to blame them for this.

Thanks, Greg. That jacket was brilliant. I am SO glad I took it back from you for my trip. I'm pretty sure a crash like that would have shredded most branded gear.

Good luck with your surgery!

Joe Rocket. I have very little faith in that gear. :

So sorry to hear about what happened and now I begin to realize why the hospital strapped me in like a corpse and refused to let me move before they had checked that everthing in my body worked as it should.

Heal well, my friend.

I have to say that that's the biggest indicator that this isn't something the dealership who inspected the bike could have picked up, and that it almost certainly isn't related to the Trollhaugen crash either, is the fact that there was no fork oil being lost. If there was a crack that had made it as far as the outside world anywhere in that part of the fork assembly, even if it only opened up when the bike was moving, then there would be fork oil being forced out of there under pressure and it would be coating the brakem the tyre and the front of the bike.

Even the day before the crash, it would appear that there are no obvious signs of any cracks or evidence of fork oil anywhere outside the forks. However, when the forks failed, there was clearly still plenty enough fork oil inside them to leave a slick on the road.

My first thought was that the handling issues Red-Baroness experienced were directly related to a crack opening up and flexing, but of course this is a casting, so it wouldn't flex much, it would just shatter. But what would add up is if the crack opened up on one side on the morning of the final day, and this caused a loss of damping oil from one fork leg, which would do unpleasant but not catastrophic things to the handling (like riding with one blown fork seal). If that was the case then from first crack spontaneously appearing in the lower fork leg to the whole assembly catastrophically failing would have taken only a very few hours of riding on smooth pavement.

It's tempting to blame the Trollhaugen crash, but in that crash the bars weren't bent, the controls weren't smashed, the front wheel wasn't buckled, the brake calipers and disks weren't damaged, the forks didn't lose their damping oil, in fact apart from an indicator being smashed and the fairing mounts being damaged the bike was essentially good to go and was ridden off the mountain! The gyrations the bike went through might seem, spectacular, but the forces the forks experience hitting a pot-hole at 60mph must be much greater...

The bars didn't bend, they completely sheared off. We had to do a hacky job of bolting them back on, but yes somebody was able to ride it back for me when I was feeling braindead.

Oh right - but was that just the bolts holding the bar risers in place giving up the ghost?