Facebook Fodder

Seems like you may have a few other things to avoid in ‘them thar parts ya’ll’. Hitting one of these might ruin your day - luckily they appear to follow the highway code!😂


It's a shame that humans don't learn from him and use crosswalks! I don't know if it's a worldwide problem, but it certainly is a US problem.

There are places along US Rt 50 inside the Washington DC beltway where they had to put up high fences to keep people from crossing and causing accidents and deaths. Most of the pedestrians hit and/or accidents caused were where there was a crosswalk nearby.
 
Interesting security measure - permanent fixture disk lock. Never seen these before; save carrying a disk lock about. Posted FB - Mark

Not gonna stop a couple of big dudes lifting your bike into a white van but hey, if it slows the opportunist asshole down that’s gotta be a good thing. Steering lock and one of these may even see him move on to an easier prospect. Doesn’t look too bad in gold against the forks.

Let’s forget all of those stories (or memories) of trying to ride off with a disk lock fitted! C’mon, you know who you are!!😬

IMG_1156.jpeg



Can’t see them doing this as easily with the 961!

 
Last edited:
Got to feel for James across on the FB site - significant off here! :oops: Thankfully he’s ok - small wrist fracture only. Bike’s a write-off (SP - 180 miles only). He’s talking about it openly so I’m sure he won’t mind me posting here. Especially if there is a failure of some sort involved.

There’s talk on FB about a possible critical failure. James has’nt expanded yet, but has stated ‘a variety of factors led to him striking the small tree in front of the wreck’. Must have hit it pretty hard to shear the steering stem!!

Thoughts go out to James - hope ya get things sorted out quickly.

IMG_1174.jpeg

IMG_1177.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Got to feel for James across on the FB site - significant off here! :oops: Thankfully he’s ok - small wrist fracture only. Bike’s a write-off (SP - 180 miles only). He’s talking about it openly so I’m sure he won’t mind me posting here. Especially if there is a failure of some sort involved.

There’s talk on FB about a possible critical failure. James has’nt expanded yet, but has stated ‘a variety of factors led to him striking the small tree in front of the wreck’. Must have hit it pretty hard to shear the steering stem!!

Small tree - big impact. If it is a straight accident, I’m guessing at speed, highside (or bike flipped) maybe to come down hard enough to shear the steering stem. If there’s a critical failure involved (unlikely I think) hopefully the details will come out pretty quickly. Apparently Norton is aware of the incident though, so who knows.

Thoughts go out to James - hope ya get things sorted out quickly.

View attachment 117510
View attachment 117511
Holy crap ! That's not good .
 
Damn, I've seen many accidents, but never seen what looks like a steering stem failure.
If he hit something immovable, I would think the forks should be obviously bent, but not seeing that.
That sucks for sure!
 
The main thing of course is that James is OK. Just removed the bit of speculation from my original post. In hindsight, no real place for it here. Sure James will expand in due course.
 
Last edited:
James has explained further. There are still a few unanswered questions.

Certainly interesting to forum SP owners. Or is this just a straight accident. Not sure we’ll ever find out.

Facebook Fodder Facebook Fodder
 
James has explained further. There are still a few unanswered questions.

Certainly interesting to forum SP owners. Or is this just a straight accident. Not sure we’ll ever find out.

View attachment 117528 It is View attachment 117529

The main thing of course is that James is OK. Just removed the bit of speculation from my original post. In hindsight, no real place for it here. Sure James will expand in due course.
something very odd here: says he left the bike before it was recovered, so steering stem could have been removed by a passer by . Owner said he hit his head, so when was photo taken and by whom ?
Are TVS going to inspect the remains and determine how the stem failed, and whether there is other damage due to forks moving after stem snapped, to corroborate the failure mode??
 
something very odd here: says he left the bike before it was recovered, so steering stem could have been removed by a passer by . Owner said he hit his head, so when was photo taken and by whom ?
Are TVS going to inspect the remains and determine how the stem failed, and whether there is other damage due to forks moving after stem snapped, to corroborate the failure mode??
There are definitely a few unanswered questions Jan - doubt we’ll ever get the full story. Apparently the incident happened a couple of weeks ago; the bike is with the insurer.

Looking at the images though, it appears the impact has sheared the steering stem top (and bottom?) away from the headstock. As a result the entire front end has seperated. Pretty unusual outcome, but I guess possible. One of the FB guys noted a very similar outcome from a friend’s crash.

IMG_1171.jpeg

Couple of examples of steering stems failing due to frontal impact - certainly unusual though!

IMG_1188.jpeg IMG_1187.jpeg

James mentioned that Norton is aware of the incident. Don’t really know what that means, nor if Norton had opotunity to inspect the machine if a critical failure of some sort may be part of the scenario.
 
Last edited:
That bike hit an immovable object .. even 25mph would be enough to snap a steering stem, is it alloy rather than steel ?

My first thought seeing this post was hope the rider is ok, my second was such a shame, that's a mint bike, and my third was rather guiltily.. oh well, there's going to be some nice parts for sale soon on the used market..
 
That bike hit an immovable object .. even 25mph would be enough to snap a steering stem, is it alloy rather than steel ?

My first thought seeing this post was hope the rider is ok, my second was such a shame, that's a mint bike, and my third was rather guiltily.. oh well, there's going to be some nice parts for sale soon on the used market..
Should be steel , mine is.
 
Should be steel , mine is.
The bikes we have had apart are all steel. But this is not uncommon the way this broke. You see this often on dirt bikes. Also, on sportbikes, when they wheelie, they come down hard. Also, on bikes that have excessive rake. This is why checking the bearing play is always important. It is not relevant when you crash like this, but still worth mentioning.

There is nothing suspect about this happening. He is actually lucky if it didn't bend any of the frame because it can be rebuilt if the bearing cups are still round which I see the bottom one isn't!
 
The bikes we have had apart are all steel. But this is not uncommon the way this broke. You see this often on dirt bikes. Also, on sportbikes, when they wheelie, they come down hard. Also, on bikes that have excessive rake. This is why checking the bearing play is always important. It is not relevant when you crash like this, but still worth mentioning.

There is nothing suspect about this happening. He is actually lucky if it didn't bend any of the frame because it can be rebuilt if the bearing cups are still round which I see the bottom one isn't!
He hit a tree head on at 25mph , that’s pretty fast ! Yikes.
 
Back
Top