Yeah I am OK, just getting the bike sorted again is the issue, bending that brake pedal straight is gonna be tricky.

 

If you unbend it slowly and carefully you may be able to do it... I am curious if heating it with a torch while unbending it would be a good idea or not - anyone have experience?

Good luck and glad you are OK

 

Schweet thanks Rick

 

Ouch!

Heat is the way to go - try a gas paint stripper gun on the lever off the bike in a vice -careful as you go. use slow leverage in small amounts as you bend

Watch for the hanger to have bent as well - you'll probably only notce if you unattach the exhaust and wonder why later why later it the footpeg mount doesn't align.

Lucky with the fairing not cracking around the indicator or is there damage hidden round the back? (on closer look you've got mini-cators, so that should be fine)

 

Ok heat works on mild steel and stuff... If you want to get that to straighten out its going to take a steady smooth hand and time. Like Rick B said A vise an adjustable wrench a ball peen hammer. Slow constant pressurewith the wrench and light tapping with the hammer. If you try to bend it too fast it will snap. Like I said slow and steady pressure. Not sure where you live but I would help if your not too far way.

 

Man do I know this feeling. With under 250 miles on my '03 I dumped it on the right side on a twisty mountain hairpin doing less than 20. Same thing, touched the front brake a bit hard and it just dropped. Damage looks the same as yours but I only had a little rash (and a bruised ego).

My rear brake lever was so bad it jammed the rear tire, I had to bend it back on the road. Took the toolkit and GENTLY bent it back and baby it home. I haven't re-bent or replaced anything since and it's okay for now. My fairing damage looked identical and STILL looks that way. A buddy said I'd probably dump it again so don't bother. I haven't.

I know man, just enough to **** ya off LOL. Oh well, I tell everyone it's my "custom" touch.

 

Shitty!!

Im sorry to hear about your fall.

 

Sorry about the crash. It sucks because it always takes so much work to fix it. I tipped mine over at 0.5 MPH once and ended up painting the whole thing blue!

I don't mean to rub salt in the wound, but you have way better brakes than a 4X4 truck.
For him to make a move that caused you to crash behind him suggests that you were either following too close, or not paying enough attention.

It's hard to be super focused all the time, but the consequences on a bike are serious. It could happen to anybody, but it's hard to blame it on the driver in front of you. The judgement would go in his favor.

Again, not to make you feel bad, just hoping to raise the consciousness and keep people safe.

 

Not to Stand on His soap box either but this is very true. I almost lost a friend cause he was following too close. Plowed into the back of a Ram 3500. Not pretty. all because he wanted to check out the tiny boppers in the convertible next to us. I Also learned a valuable lesson at the gap. A trucks Mirror caught my attention in a turn threw my entire line off and I run her off the road. I had some motorcross stuff going on but my dad was not so lucky. Spilled his bike. He's fine and he broke a brake lever but it hurt his pride and scared the heck out of me.

 

I had a similar accident last week. Blue caddy in front of me slammed on her brakes in the middle of a turn onto the next road. i was only going about 10mph, but instantly slammed both brakes. Rear tire broke loose. I am thinking at that point that I am gonna slam right into her. I tried to put my foot down to stop the bike from going over , but the next thing I know i am on the ground. Broken clutch lever, cracked fairing at the bracket, bent shifter....Valuable ******* lesson. Talk about adrenaline. I had just filled it up with gas and picked that bitch right up and wheeled to a parking lot. I feel lucky as hell that there was no car right behind me. Or that I went down rather than flipping off the side into her rear bumper. Need more following distance....

 

this brings up an issue that hasn't been discussed in a while.

Maximum braking force at the front doesn't happen until there has been enough weight transfer to the front wheel. A panic grab of the front brake will likely cause a loss of traction at the front.

It's something to keep in mind.

 

heat will help but it need to be a map gas torch or oxy acetalene, also with aluminum it can aneal it making it too soft so you get it straight but it can then bend from normal use, so your best bet is to try and straighten it first no heat, if it won't go or seems like it could break then use heat but only in little amounts, you don't really need to pre heat like on steel, good luck

 

That is what I was trying to get at. I'm sorry if I was miss leading in my post.. But yes you should not use heat at all if possible.

 

Thanks for all the advice, I managed to cover the fairing damage with a carbon fibre PVC, in such a way it seems original, and duplicated this design on the undamaged side as well. The brake lever no luck, they snap when u bend them back. Got one from Honda R1000.00 ($US100.00) On the positive side though, I discovered that the local Honda dealers in my region has written off most VTR cosmetic parts, as "dead stock", (Tank, fairings, Tails, etc), and they are compiling a list of these components for me from a selection of Honda dealers, I will pick this up for very little, and thus have a nice inventory of spares for any future mishaps.

Gerrit