I just finished putting a headlight and turn signals on my new (to me) 1979 Suzuki GS425. I took it for a ride up to the university to work on our formula SAE race car a bit. While working on the car, my buddy asks if he can try my bike out in the parking lot. He was going to take his bike course in a couple of weeks, and I know he's ridden dirt bikes before, but a little while ago, so I figured there would be no harm if he did a couple of slow runs around the lot. Anyway, I start the bike up for him, warm it up, and let him get on. He puts it into gear, slowly takes off looking pretty good, and then starts getting close to the other end of the lot. Then he panics, death-grips the handlebars, and instead of stopping or turning, he ACCELERATES, goes onto the curb at a diagonal, and dumps the bike into the grass.
Total damage: bent headlight housing and brackets, bent signal lights, and something in the fork or triple tree is bent (handlebars are a little to the right when riding straight). He feels really bad for doing it and is more than willing to pay for damages, or even another bike of similar value, but I really feel stupid for letting him take it out without any real experience. I'm going to get the bike checked out tomorrow to see if it's safe to ride back to the city I'm currently living in (about 300km away from calgary), but it felt solid on the short ride home.
Moral of the story is, if your friend asks if he can ride your bike, ask if you can ride his girl in return...
Anyone know if it's possible to "align" the front wheel to the triple tree?
Jacob
