My 1500 went flying!

[Wingdad75]

It’s very rare that we have major wind storms this late in the summer. But last week proved to be vicious!! In swmo I received warning on my weather app of 80 plus mile an hour winds heading our way. My bike sits under our back porch and stays covered when there is multiple days I don’t ride. On the center stand it’s withstood lots of storms with no issues. Well with gusts well over 90 she went flying. Everything furniture wise and my smokers went as well. Our full-size basketball goal flew over 100 yards in the air never touching the ground. Well over 300 pounds! Super surprised we didn’t have roof or siding damage. My heart sank when I heard the bike go over. And it went completely horizontal. After the storm passed I went out to see the damage and was met with a huge oil slick under the bike. I instantly felt horrible. So I called my brother in law nearby to help me get her upright. After a few moments and some heavy lifting we got the bike back on two wheels. And to my surprise other than the right side mirror and the wind deflector everything was intact! But where was the oil coming from?? Well I quickly found where from. The front peg had twisted down under the sudden shock and weight and went into the valve cover. She was cracked visibly. And the lower bolt head was bent in a way that wasn’t parallel to the rest of them. So later the next day I pulled her into the shop and proceeded to pull the bike apart. Thank fully the only damage was the valve cover. And nothing else mechanically. With 94k I was really shocked how clean the engine looked. I’ve only owned since February. So I took the cover and bent bolt to work. I work in a machine shop and have a guy who can weld about anything. He brilliantly welded up the cover after I drill stopped the crack. I spent some time sanding down the outside and it actually looks hardly noticeable. The bolt was bent so badly I contemplated just replacing but decided to see what I could do. Made a jig in a vice and spent about 30 min tapping it straight. On the granite table at work the bend was hardly noticeably. So that evening I got the cover back on the bike and no leaks! I feel like I dogged a bullet on this one. Hopefully next time I will have more than 5 min warning and can get the back in shop before bad weather. Just a few battle scars and this bike really is built like a tank!

[C-dub]

Sorry to hear about your new baby. Great job, though, getting her patched up.

How about you smokers? What kind and how bad were they damaged if they were?

I have Green Eggs. An XL and a medium. My wife knocked the medium off the porch pulling a hose going after something. She didn't realize how much lighter it is than the XL. Fortunately, only a couple of brackets on the hinges were slightly bent and all ceramic was okay. Remove the brackets and tap them back to correct in a vise and good to go. Storms have not moved them, but being eggs they may not catch enough wind for them to be moved much.

[WingAdmin]

Actually a very common problem with the highway pegs - if you drop the bike, they often crack the valve covers. On mine, I kept the highway pegs at the very front, away from the valve covers, so they would not rotate into them and crack it.

[Wingdad75]

The last pic shows I moved them closer to middle of crash bars. They were all the way back where damage happened. I may move them more forward to see how it feels. Thanks for the info.

[4given]

Actually a very common problem with the highway pegs - if you drop the bike, they often crack the valve covers. On mine, I kept the highway pegs at the very front, away from the valve covers, so they would not rotate into them and crack it.

I removed mine for this very reason after reading about this a few years ago.

[WingAdmin]

Actually a very common problem with the highway pegs - if you drop the bike, they often crack the valve covers. On mine, I kept the highway pegs at the very front, away from the valve covers, so they would not rotate into them and crack it.

I removed mine for this very reason after reading about this a few years ago.

Here's where I put them on mine - no chance of them moving into the valve covers with them here, and they were perfect for my long legs:

Highway pegs

[4given]

Actually a very common problem with the highway pegs - if you drop the bike, they often crack the valve covers. On mine, I kept the highway pegs at the very front, away from the valve covers, so they would not rotate into them and crack it.

I removed mine for this very reason after reading about this a few years ago.

Here's where I put them on mine - no chance of them moving into the valve covers with them here, and they were perfect for my long legs:

20230514_174047.jpg

Thanks. Gonna have to give that a try and see how it feels.

[joeincalif]

You need to have long legs to reach them out there.

[Sadanorakman]

Two things:

Wow you got the aluminium welded, and straightened the bolt! Wouldn't it be lovely to work in a machine shop!

My knees get to hurting really badly after 4 or 5 hours in the saddle, so I've been considering some HW pegs, but hadn't ever heard of this issue: maybe I won't, as my legs are way too short to reach pegs mounted to the front of the bars!!!

[wezx]

Had a similar problem several years ago. Bolt end from the highway peg pierced the valve cover. I used JB Weld to patch the hole and no issues since. Figured I’d just have that as a temporary fix and get a new cover or weld the old one, but it has held up perfectly. In the right application JB Weld is some pretty amazing stuff.

[Pate]

When I heard about this possibility last year, I removed my highway pegs. I will try to put them where Wingadmin put them. That maybe a little too far for me... I quess they will then broke the fairing, but it's not so bad than valve cover.

[offcenter]

In the right application JB Weld is some pretty amazing stuff.

My "go to" epoxy has always been PC-7. Very similar to JBweld.
Waaay back around 1972, my brother went down on his Kawasaki Avenger and drove the shift pedal through the engine case. We fished the pieces out of the crankcase, cleaned them up, and put them back with PC-7.
He rode that bike for another year, then sold it to a friend of ours who was still riding it when we lost track of him and the bike. That stuff is amazing.

[Wingdad75]

Knock on wood it’s still holding together great.