Bad weekend for us P-650 riders. I was "clotheslined" by a thorny little vine. It almost scrubbed me off the bike! My neck looks like a large cat took a swat at it! Of course the vine couldn't have hit me in the full face helmet! It had to slip UNDER it, and try to hang me!

 

Ouch! That make me cringe just thinkin about it, trx450. I hope that it is not as bad as the image I have in my head.

I am walking a lot better today, the sore bruised muscles are not as sore.

Coolinthewoods. Check out this picture. I have a portable bandsaw I used to make the cut out of the pipe cap, but a grinder would do it. You need to somehow push the spring retainer down a little, but still have access to the circlip. This thing worked perfectly.

I guess you know the only other stuff you hafta do is get the buttons out of the center, then it comes apart.

 

Nyroc,

Sorry to hear about the run of bad luck.

I am awaiting a post for you to post about a magic tool to straighten a bent rim! Any ideas yet?

 

heat it up VERY CAREFULLY and straighten it like that. remember aluminum wont turn red like steel before melting.

 

I can think of some things I woud make to do it, but they cost more than a new rim, so I am hesitating. My brother has two bent rims, maybe we can get together and do it.

I was going to buy a hub and use it as part of a rim bending fixture, but the hubs cost more than a rim. I don't have access to a machine shop, so I can't make anything straight enough. I could make it strong enough to apply force, but then I would have to remount the wheel each time I wanted to check it. That would be a bit of a hassle.

I think mastrblastr is a machinist? I forgot what he does.

 

nyroc--- There is a alloy wheel specialist here in central Ohio. They straighten race car wheels. PM if you want me to look up the # in the yellow pages.

 

Dennis Kirk did have a pair of rear steel ITP wheels in the clearance section that were scratched a bit. The were really cheap if they still have them. May be easier to get them and paint them the color you want if you don't like the silver paint on them.

 

I jacked all four wheels up, and one rear wheel is bent. I put a different wheel on to verify that the axle was not bent (whew!).

I had steel wheels before and sold them, I prefer to keep my wheels light.

With shipping and labor, I bet straightening a wheel would be close to the price of new. I hate to get another stocker, but I don't want to buy two more douglas wheels. I really don't want to have just two douglas wheels on the back and two stockers on the front. Furthermore, I really don't want to buy 4 douglass wheels. Dang it. I will either get a stocker wheel or try to unbend it.

I guess I will still look into the Rim beating idea I had, and try to straighten it. I will take pictures for everybody if I am foolish enough to try it.

 

The last ATV trip I went on I also rolled my P650. I was riding and I came up to a drop off that was maybe 10 feet high and probally about a 60 degree angle, nothing big at all, but on the left hand side of this incline about half way down it dropped vertically. I new exactly what could have happened and i knew what i had to do....lean as far back and to the right i could so when the front left tire got to that vertical section it wouldn't forward flip the bike. Well guess what...? I didn't lean far back enough nor far right enough and i got flung fron the bike. It threw me pretty far and the only thought in my mind was a 600+ pound ATV is following me. I felt pain on my right calf as the bike came down on it. Luckily there were a few small trees and it stopped the atv from coming any further. I got up and checked myself out, just a big scrape and some blood on my right calf and it ached a little. No biggy so i turned around and seen my bike wheels up LOL. I tried to flip it over myslef but yeah right..!!! my friends cruised by and seen it and helped me flip it back over. The front aluminum cv guard hit the tree and thats what stopped it and it was hooked on this small tree so me and 2 other guys ripped the tree out of the ground {tread lightly please LOL} and got the bike shiny side up again. Before we flipped it over i noticed the handlbars were dug in the dirt and I thought for sure i bent the shiznit out of them. When we flipped it over I seen my GPS mount came unlose and was hanging there and there was all kinds of dirt mashed around the left grip and brake lever. I cleaned the dirt off and all seemed well. I re tightened the GPS mount so that was fine and the handlebars and all levers were ok. The only thing that happened was i bent the front left of my front rack down some. Me and my friend both tugged on it and it bent back beautifully and you can't even tell. I'm only 24 yrs old so after a few beers that night the pain went away hehe. well thats my little roll over store

Happy safe riding

 

This was definitely a bad weekend for us! After 800 miles, I finally flipped her. I started up a hill that I shouldn't have been on in the first place and decided I would just grab the front brakes and ease back down. Not a good idea! The front slid sideways and I went over and rolled it 4 times til it landed on the tires and stopped. It smashed the front rack down and crushed the cooler strapped on the back. Otherwise we're just fine. One day I'll learn.