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Unseen Damage????
last Wednesday I went on Zebs pre-ride of his tynong loop and spent the afternoon doing tailman duty, anyway- As those that know me, won't be surprised to know that I dropped my bike, nothing more than a simple drop going down a rutted track ,actually I was practicing rut hopping and my right foot came off the peg, weighting the left side of the bike -so down we went  onto the left radiator, everything looked fine, well it cracked the fairing, but that's only cosmetic. Yesterday(sat.) I went for another ride and  metioned my silly off to Freddo, he came and had a look at the damage- only a cracked fairing right?, he then pointed out the radiator laying back against the "rocker cover"(for want of the correct word), there was a small gap so I thought things would be okay until I could have a good look - As it turned out all was good, but I was supposed to go riding today also,and as todays ride would be somewhat more demanding I hummed and harred about not going, it took a lot of willpower on my part but I decided to cancel, sorry Frankie I feel like I let ya down.
  So today when I pulled the faring off for a better look and to straighten the radiator mount I discovered that the radiator had infact been touching the petrol tank and had worn into the tank -not enough to hole it but there is certainly a good rub mark there, how long would it have taken to hole the tank is anyones guess but this now brings me back to my question -- Unseen Damage??. I guess it just goes to show that a minor drop can have more sinister consequences, so thorough inspections are always necessary and there isn't  any room for a "she'll be right" attitude.
 

Don't feel bad Johnny, you didn't let me down, I would have liked ya company mate but there's always a next time,I haven't been for a ride for a while & was looking forward to it, I thought it would be a good idea to service the bike & also put the battery on the trickle charger,I had the alarm set for 6 am, after breakfast& a bit of house cleaning before Pommy Matt & Jake arrived I went out to the garage removed the trickle charger & put the seat back on then I hit the button & all I heard was click click, time for a new trickle charger me thinks, anyway after a few k's the battery got a bit charge in it to use the button again, I'm really glad it worked as I needed it quite a few times.

We found a lot of narrow tracks when I work all the tracks out I'll be happy to share those great tracks with anyone that want's to come along, it will be giving the fact that I'm getting on in years a easy & a good opportunity for those of you that would like to ride those overgrown tracks at a slow pace, not riding for a while the balance was a bit of a problem in the first hour or so, fell off 3 times because of the balance, so ya can't class that as a crash ;D
Jake & I & Matt doing sweep went into another track we spotted as we were doing a bit of road riding not very in there I came to a very rutted steep decent being a bit on the warm side I didn't want to go down, while I was thinking about it I see Jake behind me but no Matt, so I got on the 2way, Hey Matt were you he said that a tree had fallen on him, my thoughts were that he over cook it & hit a tree, when he finally came he said that a half burnt out tree fell on him hitting his arm & then the back off his bike & knocked him off the bike, how lucky was that it could have fallen straight on top off him, good to see his number wasn't up yet, we carried on a bit more not knowing where we were & then we ended up coming out on the track we started on, I got no argument when I said it's getting a bit hot now & there's some coldies waiting for us back at home, thanks Matt & Jake for coming I enjoyed ya company & I hope it was worth the trip.     

 :) i am pleased you got to go out for a look/see in your new neighbourhood.. still a bit bummed I missed it though..Isn't it ironic that we were only talking on friday about what happens to the burnt trees out your way and that they are just left until they fall down and then one does exactly that, unfortunately onto Matt and his bike, or was he just trying to one-up Gary  ;D ;D ;D ;D.

Unseen Damage or Wear on dirt bikes is ongoing.

Giving the bike a wash after a ride allows you to have a good look around. I also take the tank and seat off about every third wash to clean under them and check for unseen damage.

In my younger days.

After washing my bike I used to pull up a chair & while having a smoke I'd look over my bike & relive the days ride, you'd be surprised the things you see, like missing bolts, that's the most common, I've had the odd broken spoke as well.