Rotten luck this week

Riding home last week and my rear end felt like something exploded underneath the bike. There was no damage to the bike except for this.



Not sure what I hit but it looks like it should be fairly easy to patch. It might take a little while before I get to fixing it as this happened the next day.





Effn developer opened up the sewer line while preparing for a new development and then we had 6" of snow that promptly melted and sent lots of water, mud and rocks into the line. We were lucky and only got 2 inches in our unfinished basement. Others on our street got 12" in their finished basements, including some friends who just finished their basement a month ago.

 

No doubt your luck sucked. The only positive is that your basement was unfinished.

 

Shucks that is unlucky.

A flooded basement is never fun, but at least it was accidental and even if it is also possibly down to incompetence by the contractor hopefully in time you can get it fixed by claiming on the contractor's insurance.

However I am unsure what could have caused the hole in your first picture? The edges of the hole seem suspiciously round and deformed inwards - almost as though it has been hit by a bullet.

Assuming your exhaust is not ridiculously loud and the area this happened in does not have a reputation for the locals taking pot shots at passing bikers - then you may want to try and ascertain the real cause of the damage - just in case it happens again.

You mention that you were headed home when it happened so if you were travelling fast at the time I guess the hole could have been caused by a freak impact from a really sharp stone or a piece of metal thrown up from the front tyre. In daylight I tend to be able to spot and avoid most sizeable hazards but as you were on your way home I guess this may have happened after dark, in which case it can be very difficult to see debris lying on the road. Either way it looks like you will need more than a Band-Aid to fix that.

Take care




SkiMad

 

Like Stewart said - silver lining on the unfinished basement.

Any more details on the exhaust incident to try and diagnose what happened there? That's a crazy hole. Like skimad said it looks like a bullet hole almost...

 

Excellent excuse to drop that boat anchor, I mean, stock exhaust, and get something a lot lighter and better toned.

 

The patterning on the periphery of the hole suggests there may have been a patch there that did not stay.

 

I agree with skimad, suspicious to say the least. Looks like someone caused the damage with a counter punch or similar object.

 

It was daylight when I was heading home and I'm usually very observant about what's in the road so I'm still at a loss on what I hit. The hole is almost an inch in diameter and on the front/front left side of the collector on the bottom of the bike so I'm pretty sure it was something I hit and not something malicious. I was riding in the far left lane of a 3 lane freeway at the time so I don't think it was from anything thrown from another vehicle either. I think my only hope at finding what it was at this point is if it's still in the collector but I'm pretty sure I ran over whatever it was with my rear tire so I'll probably never know.

It's been over a week and I still haven't had a chance to pull it apart, in fact I don't even have a garage to work in right now since it's still full of contaminated items from my basement. I don't even have room for my bike, its sitting out on the driveway right now so it'll probably be another week or two before I'll have any time to look at it. An insurance adjuster from the subcontractor that caused the problem came by everyone's homes yesterday to look at the damage but was very clear that they had not accepted responsibility yet. I think they were just trying to get an idea of how much loss there was so they can decide how much they want to fight paying out. We've already got a lawyer lined up for when that happens.

Anyway what full systems is everyone using on a 5th gen? I have a 2 bro's slip on right now which I'm OK with but I wouldn't mind switching out either. I'll probably just pull the collector and have it patched in the short term since it may be a few months before I have some free money for farkle.