Forums > Motorcycle Discussion > Catastrophic Fork Failure

I read through all the posts on ADV, as well as the discussions over at the Chain Gang. It's one of those things I'll keep an eye on as time goes by.

I'm not sure anybody will ever know the whole truth about what happened in this particular case. All I know for sure is that every time I ride, I take a very close look at my forks.

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Scott (AKA GSlite. Isn't there some way to get your username changed?)

 

Holy shit.  Face plant city. Riding for 39 years and never seen that before.  Even on crashed and abused dirt bikes.

I'm thinking that she's the luckiest rider on the planet.  Can you imagine the carnage if that failure had happened at about 70 mph on a busy freeway.

What's the number of that accident lawyer on the back cover of the phone book?  It's time for some wealth re-distribution.

Note to self:  get out the microscope, some yellow watercolor paint, and check out the castings and welds on the bottom end of the GS's front forks.

Or just sell the damn bike . . .

C

 

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Another sunrise, These bright and crystal moments, Crow flies overhead.

Hope the rider is okay. Looks like porosity in the casting.

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1994 K1100RS & 2005 Harley Electra Glide

yeah- never seen that before. although it would seem that any design other than axle-at-fork-centerline would inherently have that going on, structurally, but doesnt...

Perhaps if there were no suspension to soak up what would be incredible jarring shocks to the system, i guess, but I've seen more failures at the frame steering neck than anything like that.

...That is a NIGHTMARE! I hit an auto head on and the forks bent, they did not break.

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There's only one like you, no way they could have made two - BW

The GS bikes seem to get an awful lot of abuse.  Folks blatantly overload them with impugnity.  Videos, like The Long Way Round or Down set a horrible example.

I am beginning to wonder if the abuse the GS bikes take isn't a factor in these final drive or suspension failures.

When I was interested in a GS bike myself a few years ago, a friend said "Don't buy one of those used.  They load them up worse than pack mules and every one of them's at least been to Alaska."  I'm starting to get the feeling that he was right.

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Die Entropie des Motorrads wird immer groesser. Most roaches are created unintentionally. IBA #27546

Yet another thing to add to my pre ride inspection, although the RT design should be OK.  Over loading can't be the reason for final drive failures since my RT failed at 17,000 miles and certainly has never been overloaded or abused.

Robo