Broken left handlebar

[Jojje]

  Look what happened to this guy:  http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=257780970909261&set=o.109533257400&type=1&ref=nf
Look at pic and read his description:

Quote: "Our ,so called, Amazing Moto, has got an Amazing steering handle, wich has not the sufficient strength to support it own weight.How this happened, you may ask, and I answer you: I stopped the moto in a crosswalk, the moto leaned a bit more than it should and my effort to maintain the moto straight caused this. And then off course the moto fell off... A portuguese dealer had told me: "I'm sorry but your incident it's not an isolate case". Much more relieved that I am..."

Anyone ever heard of this? It makes me a bit nervous...

[jimmymac]

It's no big deal. My handlebar breaks off a couple times a week.

[Son of Pappy]

I have only heard of one, maybe 2 incidents early on, one of which may have been caused by canyon dancer tie downs, the other was during a quick stop.  There have also been a few broken as the result of AFTER colliding with something they shouldnt have.  I have always worried about cast aluminum and as I do ride aggressively at times I finally decided to go the LSL/Spiegler route.  Keep in mind, some 35000 miles and 4 trips to the track and nary a problem on the stock risers, I do NOT believe this is a major concern for the majority of riders, but for me it was a comfort/peace of mind thing.
Again, IMO it isnt something to cause widespread concern.  YMMV, yada yada, yada.

[MAN OF BLUES]

I'd have to walk out to look, but correct me if I'm wrong,....
doesn't it appear the fork tube is sitting a bit high in the top tree clamp;, so much so that it was pressing against the riser?
sure looks that way.

possibly someone added lowering links, and dropped the bars to the extreme, and never checked the clearances?

[Jojje]

It's no big deal. My handlebar breaks off a couple times a week.

Tell that to the paramedics...
(And what if that bomb goes of in your avatar)...

[MAN OF BLUES]

Tell that to the paramedics...
(And what if that bomb goes of in your avatar)...

it's what I said, he dropped the tripple trees, allowing the fork tube to rest against the riser, they should be flush, like this picture I found in HIS photos
should look like this:


not like this:


it's his fault. The sky isn't falling, he modified, and didn't pay attention.


amazing what you can find in someones facebook.....he had farkle-itus....


raise the bars, lower the bars, repeat....

[VirginiaJim]

There'll be no bombs going off on anyone's avatar while I'm around...

I don't remember any broken handlebars being reported here.  Course, my memory ain't what it used to be either.  We do lots of things to our bikes which could affect the components.  We don't know anything about the bike and rider in question so it's all supposition at this point.

And MOB is right about the fork tube being way out of position.

[Son of Pappy]

If my memory is correct the one that I recall broke when doing a panic stop evading a 4 wheeled monster in a parking lot, the other was a guy who admitted to using canyon dancers, but that was before the site was nuked by a KiPASS hating hacker who was bent on the ultimate humiliation onto all of COGDOM!

[shotgun]

The mushroom cloud in J'Man's avatar would seem to indicate fission has already happened. 

The handlebar.
The guy raised his fork tubes in the trees? Gasp! Oh My! Modifications!
Granted,mebbe he created a stress riser leting them ride against the bars. Not good.
The dude was just trying to keep it up from what I read...
Ya raise the tubes for quicker turn in.
If your getting 8,000 miles out of a rear tire,this will be of no interest to you.
It's still not very encouraging seeing the thing broke off.
Has anybody else worked any with the "powdered metal" castings? Frail is the word. You can file the stuff away like balsa wood.
It's all good in it's design loadings,get it outside it's parameters and I guess this is what happens.

[VirginiaJim]

The mushroom cloud in J'Man's avatar would seem to indicate fission has already happened. 

  I never noticed that...  Oh well.... bombs away!

[maxtog]

And MOB is right about the fork tube being way out of position.

Well, that depends.  It is not out of position if you WANT to lower the front.... that is why they are adjustable   Mine are considerably higher than that, but I also am running risers and also needed to lower the front to match the rear lowering link.

That said, if they do appear too high for the stock bars with no risers.  If the tube tube had been pushing on the bars, it could, over time, create a stress weakening that was only discovered during an extreme load, like trying to man-handle the bike from falling over.

We don't know anything about the bike and rider in question so it's all supposition at this point.

Exactly.

It could be a stress from improper towing or landing on it previously.  It is impossible for us to know the entire picture from just a picture

I would be lying,however, if I said I hadn't thought about if the cast aluminum (which is usually pretty weak/brittle) would snap if I tried to prevent it from falling.  The C-14 is heavy, and if you yank back on that bar really hard from the end, that is a TON of stress on it.

[MAN OF BLUES]

look closely at the original pic he posted, and zoom it up to max...
I don't argue raising them without letting them come in contact with the risers will be safe, but allowing the forks to fully slide up there without caution, and remain in compression contact on that small concentrated edge seen in the photo, right exactly at the point of the fracture line, and also having that witness mark on the broken handle, is pretty evident.
By the way, I don't believe these are "cast". I am almost positive they are powder metal technology, but they are Forged, and likely heat treated afterwards... This provides a much higher flow strength, and resistance to deflection in only certain directions, and high compression strengths in others, but given a sharp edge to vibrate against in an area like that, will certainly cause microfractures, and eventual failure.
I pulled and posted a picture from the dudes website showing he had 2" risers installed at one time, and he likely did the lowering of the trees while he had the risers on, then pulled the risers, and re-installed the bars without giving a second look.....possibly even forcing them down with the bolts. We cannot say, but we CAN make educated assumptions on what may of occured.
Nonetheless, if the forks were in thier original position, I'd give it a thought, seeing them sitting as they are, I chalk it up to poor thought process' on installations amd mods.

farkle on dudes...

[C1xRider]

I think MOB is right, but I would not be surprised if the guy broke it while tightening the bolts after removing the riser blocks, or very shortly there after.

Probably took the risers off, and didn't think about the clearance issue with the fork tubes, since it was fine with the riser blocks.  Then cranked down on the bolts and POP!.

[B.D.F.]

I tend to agree that these bars seem to be strong enough for their purpose. There have been so few cases that it certainly cannot be any kind of built- in design problem.

For what it is worth, I think the bars are die cast aluminum. It would be a tremendously difficult shape to make from powered metal if it was possible at all. And powered metal parts have <relatively> low tensile or torsional strength, and a poor choice for handlebars. But no matter the material or manufacturing method, it does not seem to be a common problem. My bike even survived being tied down with Canyon Dancers (not my choice, the only thing available on the flatbed); I watched the handlebar stanchions flex as the C.D.'s were loaded but nothing broke.

Brian

look closely at the original pic he posted, and zoom it up to max...
I don't argue raising them without letting them come in contact with the risers will be safe, but allowing the forks to fully slide up there without caution, and remain in compression contact on that small concentrated edge seen in the photo, right exactly at the point of the fracture line, and also having that witness mark on the broken handle, is pretty evident.
By the way, I don't believe these are "cast". I am almost positive they are powder metal technology, but they are Forged, and likely heat treated afterwards... This provides a much higher flow strength, and resistance to deflection in only certain directions, and high compression strengths in others, but given a sharp edge to vibrate against in an area like that, will certainly cause microfractures, and eventual failure.
I pulled and posted a picture from the dudes website showing he had 2" risers installed at one time, and he likely did the lowering of the trees while he had the risers on, then pulled the risers, and re-installed the bars without giving a second look.....possibly even forcing them down with the bolts. We cannot say, but we CAN make educated assumptions on what may of occured.
Nonetheless, if the forks were in thier original position, I'd give it a thought, seeing them sitting as they are, I chalk it up to poor thought process' on installations amd mods.

farkle on dudes...

[stevewfl]

This thread is all win

[couve]

it's what I said, he dropped the tripple trees, allowing the fork tube to rest against the riser, they should be flush, like this picture I found in HIS photos
should look like this:


not like this:


it's his fault. The sky isn't falling, he modified, and didn't pay attention.


amazing what you can find in someones facebook.....he had farkle-itus....


raise the bars, lower the bars, repeat....

It's amazing the way that you're trying get excuses, to "protect" kawasaki instead the drivers.
For your information my moto it's the same way like it was bought, there were no modifications of any kind.
The fotos that are shown here, only the one with the broken bar belongs to my moto, the other fotos i don't know who they belong to.

So i don't understand what are you trying to prove...
If you'd watched carefully my foto, you had seen that there were no modifications.

I'm sorry for my english and hope that you have understood my story.

[Son of Pappy]

couve, welcome to the forum!!  Quick question, did you raise the fork tubes or did you get it that way and if so was the bike new or used?
As a heads up, MOB is one of the best, very knowledgable and technical but he does have a way with words, something he developed when he was wooing the girls in his younger years

[VirginiaJim]

Assuming it hasn't been modified, that left fork tube is way out of position.  I wonder if that happened during the incident in question and caused the handlebar to break.  If the tube was 'loose', possibly it impacted the bar and broke it?  I wonder what the other fork tube looks like?  We don't have a picture of that.

[mkorn]

My bike was a left over 09 that the dealer said they took to atleast a dozen shows and it was tied down with Canyon dancer II everytime.
it was even delivered to me that way ( i bought the bike in the winter).

i feel that mine have been pressure tested and have passed.   

[Son of Pappy]

There I was, braking hard from 130, entering a hard left hander, next thing I knew was there was no pressure coming from the left bar

This was something that had entered my mind often, hence my desire to get the rather spendy LSLs, which I got from www.murphskits.com ,    If I never pushed this hard, i would feel quite safe with what the factory provided.  I wonder if Rossi or Spies use cast bars?  Or any of the riders who frequent the track?  Hey Steve, ever consider getting cast put on yer track bike?