Suspension collapses while riding at 70
 

Thanksgiving morning ride was to Santa Barbara and on the return trip we had just switched bikes. ExarKunONe will likely have his own version of events, verified by his brother who was following him.
But the best expanation is that ExarKunONe liked the shorter rear torque arm so much he tried to "borrow" it while riding down the highway. He is after all a motorcycle mechanic by training, how he undid the inside nut and pulled the bolt out of the front mount using his right toes while riding the bike must be a trade secret.
Enough said that he did all the right things and got the bike safely stopped, without dirting up his Vanson jacket or brushing the wax off the BCR. It happened to be on a long straight with us riding only 70, this a mile short to hitting Alisos Cyn Road (a local favorite twisty) where it would have been messy.
Bike is 04BCR with 6500 miles on it, first ride since track day at Buttonwillow. Bike will be out of commission until every nut and bolt is retorqued and locktited. tm1100s you missed another interesting ride and thanks again for your help at the track. ExarKunONe hope you don't mind if I put wooden stake through it and burn the Harley hat. ingmar

loctite and safety wire every dam thing on it! My torque arm has nylocs at each end AND is saftey-wired. these things shake like a paint mixer on amphetamines!

Wow, glad he was able to stabilize that burro before it decided to kick him off.

Mine are lock tited and lock nuted, good idea on the safety wire, ill add that.

Does the factory call for loctite?
:)

Parts list call out special nuts. Seems to be a void in information on manuals regarding these pieces.
ExarKunONe got it stopped well. And todays his birthday so we may not hear from him right away. The rear suspension rotated and dropped until it was sitting on the hugger, U joint was at an awful angle and somehow didn't lock up. ingmar

Yikes, that could have been a lot worse.
Glad all are ok. I'd advise loosening/pulling back the rear boot to be sure the front of the rear drive housing is OK.

Acid; what this guy experienced is what I was looking at and considering when I drilled the (non-oem) ft&r brake anchor arm bolts. I used slightly longer ones with thin locknuts and then a hole behind them for safety wire. I used longer bolts and locknuts because I didn't torque them to the interference fit value the CD calls out; I wanted a 'full-floating' arm thet did NOT use the bushing's rubber as part of the suspension compliance function. I'm convinced my suspension is smoother this way, similar to the way japsikkles were back in the day. If I were to go down this path further, I'd press out the rubber bushings and use roller bearings with hardware to capture the bearings.

JonyRR

I'm still thinking that roller bearings are not the correct way to go. Either self-lubricating bronze or Nylatrol bushings.

But I heartily agree that using rubber as a "compliance" component is nuts. The stuff starts breaking down the instant it comes out of vulcanizing, and solvent-based compounds like WD40 only accelerate the breakdown.

Moyb; rmemeber, this is NOT the paralever pivot point, but rather the paralever anchor arm, so there should be no interference fit at all and whatever bearing schema is used shouold NOT impart any percentage-of-spring-rate to the equasion. Perhaps oilite bronze is a better material here, the trick is to NOT load the joint under compression at all, rahter have a solid connection with no friction on the up-and-down stroke. Bronze would be better here, maybe, but anything's better than that rubber bush:)

when you think of all the things that can go wrong with a bike, it makes you want to stop thinking!

I thought I had a flat tire. The back of the bike dropped down like a foot and then I heard a "Thump thump thump". Kinda suprised to see the tire was fine but the u-joint was bent like a line on an Etch a sketch.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1132988826.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1132988881.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1132990784.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1132990849.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1132991113.jpg

Crazy sheize!

This is ounding like a good mod, really we should do a kit on this,
RapiDo or ????
The bearings will take the load? no shock absorbsion is required on the forward eye?
This is getting scary, im going shooting today, way safer.
Still a really good thread.

Glad you two are safe.
Ingmar,
check all the body and frame bolts as well as the rotor,brakes, and wheel bolts.
jeff

thanks for everyones concerns. Spent 7 hours on bike today, retorqued, locktite, little grease. Marked every nut & bolt on completion, got to know bike real well. The bolt that took a hike, will now have red locktite and safety wire as will the opposite end.

acid;
'This is getting scary, im going shooting today, way safer'
yeah, me too. Watched a 25MM bushmaster on a Bradley this weekend courtesy of some friends in the WARNG. I need one of those for all the cellphone-deepthroaters on I-5. They'd only cut me off once....:)

That bolt has an elastic stop nut or a deformed thread lock nut from the factory does it not?

If so, they have a limited useful life and should be replaced not reused. An experienced mechanic should know that.

OEM is a deformed stopnut, good for exactly one removal-replacement cycle. I used fresh SS nylocs on aftermarket longer SS bolts, drilled for safety wire outboard of the nylocs. I ran the nuts down to barely snug so the arm moves freely in it's mounts to 'float' the arm, as I believe the rubber bushing-in-the-suspension-equasion is stupid.