Gentlemen,
Just under a fortnight ago I was delighted at being a newbie with my second R1 11 years after selling my first and having taken a 9 year break from road riding.
I bought a high miles (39,675 to be precise) 2002 registered 5JJ model that is (or was) in stunning condition for a bike of its age. Totally original and un-molested.
Well today, at very low speed, its suffered a catastrophic engine failure! I've managed 221 miles since I bought it, and 103 of those were from riding it home from purchase.
So, here's what happened:
Took a gentle run of about 7 miles to a filling station ...
Left the filling station bound for the famous bike cafe ...
Was filtering gently in heavy traffic, riding with a couple of BMW riders who were doing the same ...
Rode down the link road to the motorway and noticed massive amounts of smoke (grey) pouring out of the exhaust on acceleration and over run ...
When riding super gently to the nearest roundabout (to return home pronto), no smoke. As soon as I opened the throttle to accelerate mildly, I looked like Rossi blowing his M1! ...
Got back to the nearest town (no more than quarter of a mile) the bike was struggling to run at low speed at all, mild knocking ...
Pulled in and the engine died completely ...
Won't start ...
Loads of oil in engine ...
Wasn't overheating ...
No coolant loss ....
I suspect valve issue. Why? When I bought it on the 20th July, I noticed that on tick over it was 'pulsing' erratically - I put this down to poor carb balance. It's booked in at my local dealer tomorrow for carb balance - clearly it won't be going .... !! Apparently, this can also be caused by a sticking valve.
I could be chatting garbage of course - it may be just plain old self destruction. I have to say, I am VERY surprised - I always had R1 engines as being extremely resilient and robust. This bike has been owner serviced annually - the previous owner was an engineer. I've called him - he's absolutely mortified having owned the bike without fault for over 9 years.
I now plan to pull the engine out and re-build it over the winter - whatever it needs - valve train, big end, mains, pistons, gearbox bearings etc. I've run MX and Enduro bikes for years and have literally lost count of the number of engines I've rebuilt. It's just a shame this has happened so quickly, and after less than a fortnight.
Any ideas on the reasons for the failure and the dreadful volume of smoke?
What does fail on these?
Piston failure, or valve failure?
Not looking for daft ideas or 'if I were you I'd demand your money back!' suggestions. sh!t happens, and the guy was 110% genuine. He is literally floored by the news.
Regards
BSR67
Just under a fortnight ago I was delighted at being a newbie with my second R1 11 years after selling my first and having taken a 9 year break from road riding.
I bought a high miles (39,675 to be precise) 2002 registered 5JJ model that is (or was) in stunning condition for a bike of its age. Totally original and un-molested.
Well today, at very low speed, its suffered a catastrophic engine failure! I've managed 221 miles since I bought it, and 103 of those were from riding it home from purchase.
So, here's what happened:
Took a gentle run of about 7 miles to a filling station ...
Left the filling station bound for the famous bike cafe ...
Was filtering gently in heavy traffic, riding with a couple of BMW riders who were doing the same ...
Rode down the link road to the motorway and noticed massive amounts of smoke (grey) pouring out of the exhaust on acceleration and over run ...
When riding super gently to the nearest roundabout (to return home pronto), no smoke. As soon as I opened the throttle to accelerate mildly, I looked like Rossi blowing his M1! ...
Got back to the nearest town (no more than quarter of a mile) the bike was struggling to run at low speed at all, mild knocking ...
Pulled in and the engine died completely ...
Won't start ...
Loads of oil in engine ...
Wasn't overheating ...
No coolant loss ....
I suspect valve issue. Why? When I bought it on the 20th July, I noticed that on tick over it was 'pulsing' erratically - I put this down to poor carb balance. It's booked in at my local dealer tomorrow for carb balance - clearly it won't be going .... !! Apparently, this can also be caused by a sticking valve.
I could be chatting garbage of course - it may be just plain old self destruction. I have to say, I am VERY surprised - I always had R1 engines as being extremely resilient and robust. This bike has been owner serviced annually - the previous owner was an engineer. I've called him - he's absolutely mortified having owned the bike without fault for over 9 years.
I now plan to pull the engine out and re-build it over the winter - whatever it needs - valve train, big end, mains, pistons, gearbox bearings etc. I've run MX and Enduro bikes for years and have literally lost count of the number of engines I've rebuilt. It's just a shame this has happened so quickly, and after less than a fortnight.
Any ideas on the reasons for the failure and the dreadful volume of smoke?
What does fail on these?
Piston failure, or valve failure?
Not looking for daft ideas or 'if I were you I'd demand your money back!' suggestions. sh!t happens, and the guy was 110% genuine. He is literally floored by the news.
Regards
BSR67
