Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Hello. This is my first post, but I've been lurking for a couple of weeks. I haven't bought a bike yet, but I'm looking for bikes based on the advice I've found here. I'm also going to take the safety course before I buy the bike.

Anyway, I've never ridden before and I'm concerned about something I haven't seen addressed anywhere. How often does some kind of catastrophic mechanical failure come up while riding? I'm thinking of the (relatively mild) tire blowout I had in my car. I know people who've experienced a thrown rod. I've had my brakes completely fail while exiting a freeway!

Obviously proper maintenance can minimize these things, but surely they happen, right? These things happening in a car are bad, but I imagine on a bike they are beyond day-wrecking.

So has anybody had any of these things happen before? How did you recover? Are there any web pages that describe this kind of thing?

Hi and Welcome!


I've heard of folks having a blow out, but I've not experienced it myself. It usually happens from running over something. When you take the MSF they'll teach you about T-CLOCKS... Tires, Cables, Lights and electronics, Oil and fluids, Kick Stand. These are the things you check BEFORE EVERY ride. They also teach to rock your bike and check your shocks and brakes before every ride. If you do these things every time, you should catch any problems before they become catastrophic.

If your mechanic stays on top of things you have very little to worry about. Assuming you don't beat the "poo poo" out of your bike.

Blowouts are uncoming, flats are more common... in which case you hope that it's a slow leak.

On the grand scale, you should be more intimate with your bike, merely the size and accessibility of parts that you do need to check before every ride is so compact.

Keep up the regular maintenance, as well as pre-flight checks, and you should be able to catch and fix an issue should it arise.

As for completely catastrophic failure, well, isn't that why its called catastrophic? lol In an event like that skill and luck will play parts in how you get yourself out of that situation. You shouldn't have parts fail due to lack of maintenance.

Unlike a car, your front and rear brakes are separate systems so if one fails you still have the other.

As stated, blowouts are very uncommon.

Getting a flat is not necessarily catastrophic. I had a front go flat on me once. I just slowed the bike carefully and pulled over.

If you buy a used bike, before you go taking any trips I suggest you change out all the fluids and give it a good mechanical checkup. That way you know where everything stands when you start riding it.

When I got my "new-to-me" bike, the front brake got locked up and would not disengage. Luckily this happened while the bike was parked, but it could have been disastrous. It turned out the brake fluid was sludge.

I had a front tire blow out during practice on the stretch at Daytona. I went one way, the bike went the other, then the bike rode istelf around a banked turn, across to the infield, eventually lightly bumping the reataining wall and rolling to a stop. The front fender was destroyed, and the fairing was scratched a bit. It took me longer to change into a new set of leathers than to mount a new tires and front fender, and back out for more practice.

Anything and everything you can think of, might happen. Best thing is to stay on top of maintenance. If something ever fails (brakes, clutch, seized engine, tire blow out, etc) the best thing you can do is to stay calm, and don't panic. Then you can think. Panicing prevents you from thinking. Oh no, my motor seized. Clutch in, slow down and stop. Or, you can panic and end up on the side of the road in a ditch.

The fact that you are preparing your mind for such events now means you will be more likely to do the right thing should an event occur.

By the way, blowing out a rear tire isn't a problem. the bake of the bike mught flop from side to side a bit, which is really unnerving, but just relax and don't fight it, it will still go straight. Pull in the clutch, throttle to idle, and GENTLY ease on the front brake. Just keep her straight and and upright, and let her go to the edge of the road, if that's the way she wants to go. Much less likely to dump the bike if you keep it straight rather than trying to aim sharply for the emergency lane. Catastorphic tire failures are rare, and mostly the result of low tire pressure or improper installation.

A broken chain will usually be laid out on the road about where it broke because its effective ground speed coming off the bottom of the countershaft sprocket is zero. You'll be free-wheeling, and can easily make the grass. If the chain doubles up and wedges between the sprocket and chain guard, usually you'll feel a big yank, and the chain gaurd will be ripped loose, which allows the chain to fall to the road. Scarey, but again, you're freewheeling and can easily make the grass. That said, a well-maintained chain in good condition will not break.

Anything else not listed here or above is at worst a free-wheeling failure, just coast to the grass.