TieMyShoe
03-18-2007, 11:22 AM
A few months ago my rear shock started to feel a bit loose so my bone head move was to considered it a blown rear seal and called it a day. Bad mistake, on my part!! Another reason helped me to rushed to this conclusion other than I'm riding around like a pogostick, was a lack of information on my part in the way of a rear tire hugger I had fabricated from an F2 stock piece. So I could not get a good view of the shock.
Anyhow, I still had my RC to ride around with, didn't think anything of it. "I'll get to it one of these days"(famous last words), use it only when I really need to. SO it parked for a while til I had both the RC rims off the other day for some TLC and a buddy wanted to test ride a new to him, Ninja 250 that was having some overheating issues. Later founded out the tank was low on water so the sensor didn't know how hot it got to turn on the fan. Problem solved.
Back to the 599. We go riding in the hills on some super technical roads(Mt. Hamilton) with every type of corners imagineable in San Jose. Sweepers, hill climbs with sharp decreasing radius heading right into some uphill esses, and gravel on top of it all. Knowing full well that I had a "blowned" rear seal? I kept the 599 smooth and rolling nicely. No sliding her around gravel corner today for sure.
We had tons of fun til the end of the ride when we pulled over to let his baby ninja cool down a bit. I pulled over into the gravel and got my head gear off , put the kickstand down and TOOK one step away.
You ever get that really BAD sensation when you just step away from your ride that "something is just not right??" Well..needless to say, I had a few of them in the past. I just added another one to the list.
Taking that step away I felt the 599 tilted in my direction. "DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!!!! Along with all my spider sense tingling away but NOT even the Bat Signal could have saved the 599 from eating some gravel on her rear tail. :lol: I thinked I needed the secret decoder ring from the old cracker jack boxes to catched that one.
Now the fun part, Have you ever knew completely NOTHING til it happen. Like a really cute gurl in your elementry class that just thought the world of you but you didn't have a slightest clue because gurls had koodees back then??(sorry..I digressed).......... That one missing piece of information that finally drop like a ton of brick on your forehead?? YES SIRRRRReeeeBOB, when my banana 599 hit the ground I had in a blink of an eye, knew EXACTLY what the problem was.
My buddy start thinking it was a rider's error of not putting the kickstand fully down or soft ground...BUT nope...this one idiot of a rider figured the whole sheeebang in a split of second. Attempt to picked her up and on the kickstand proved I was dead on.
The mechanism on the rear shock at the bottom has gotten loose somehow and the whole darn shock was JUST sitting on top of the swingarm..that right boys and gurls. NOT connected :lol: The whole collar for the preload/height adjustment steps are GONE. Skidaddle. Skipped town. Took the red eye. Vanished into thin air ..you named it..it was Gone.
Then the next fun thought rushed into my mind.I really do must have someone upstair that likes to save my butt once in a while..or they have a great sense of humor to torment me like this. Damm..if I had just once jumped or powerwheelied off any small bump on this ride, I might have woken up in ER saying something to the effect of "hi , mommy, can I just have a couple of more minutes of sleep?..I promiss to clean my room...: :lol
So the moral of the story is don't be an idiot and check that problem out right away, try to ride with an overheated Ninja ,and dammm..the 599 looks good ALL SLAMMED OUT while I limped her home . A little part of me always like them OC boys choppers with the fat rear tires on solid rears suspension but after this little tastes of that riding style?? I'll pass:lol: :lol: :lol:
Anyhow, I still had my RC to ride around with, didn't think anything of it. "I'll get to it one of these days"(famous last words), use it only when I really need to. SO it parked for a while til I had both the RC rims off the other day for some TLC and a buddy wanted to test ride a new to him, Ninja 250 that was having some overheating issues. Later founded out the tank was low on water so the sensor didn't know how hot it got to turn on the fan. Problem solved.
Back to the 599. We go riding in the hills on some super technical roads(Mt. Hamilton) with every type of corners imagineable in San Jose. Sweepers, hill climbs with sharp decreasing radius heading right into some uphill esses, and gravel on top of it all. Knowing full well that I had a "blowned" rear seal? I kept the 599 smooth and rolling nicely. No sliding her around gravel corner today for sure.
We had tons of fun til the end of the ride when we pulled over to let his baby ninja cool down a bit. I pulled over into the gravel and got my head gear off , put the kickstand down and TOOK one step away.
You ever get that really BAD sensation when you just step away from your ride that "something is just not right??" Well..needless to say, I had a few of them in the past. I just added another one to the list.
Taking that step away I felt the 599 tilted in my direction. "DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!!!! Along with all my spider sense tingling away but NOT even the Bat Signal could have saved the 599 from eating some gravel on her rear tail. :lol: I thinked I needed the secret decoder ring from the old cracker jack boxes to catched that one.
Now the fun part, Have you ever knew completely NOTHING til it happen. Like a really cute gurl in your elementry class that just thought the world of you but you didn't have a slightest clue because gurls had koodees back then??(sorry..I digressed).......... That one missing piece of information that finally drop like a ton of brick on your forehead?? YES SIRRRRReeeeBOB, when my banana 599 hit the ground I had in a blink of an eye, knew EXACTLY what the problem was.
My buddy start thinking it was a rider's error of not putting the kickstand fully down or soft ground...BUT nope...this one idiot of a rider figured the whole sheeebang in a split of second. Attempt to picked her up and on the kickstand proved I was dead on.
The mechanism on the rear shock at the bottom has gotten loose somehow and the whole darn shock was JUST sitting on top of the swingarm..that right boys and gurls. NOT connected :lol: The whole collar for the preload/height adjustment steps are GONE. Skidaddle. Skipped town. Took the red eye. Vanished into thin air ..you named it..it was Gone.
Then the next fun thought rushed into my mind.I really do must have someone upstair that likes to save my butt once in a while..or they have a great sense of humor to torment me like this. Damm..if I had just once jumped or powerwheelied off any small bump on this ride, I might have woken up in ER saying something to the effect of "hi , mommy, can I just have a couple of more minutes of sleep?..I promiss to clean my room...: :lol
So the moral of the story is don't be an idiot and check that problem out right away, try to ride with an overheated Ninja ,and dammm..the 599 looks good ALL SLAMMED OUT while I limped her home . A little part of me always like them OC boys choppers with the fat rear tires on solid rears suspension but after this little tastes of that riding style?? I'll pass:lol: :lol: :lol: