One of the guys I know here locally welds by trade, and also happens to ride. Below is the exchange between him and someone else that thought the G1k welds were junk. Its interesting to see the opinion of someone that actually knows what they are talking about....
zx7rking posted:
Anyone here with a K5??
Havent seen this posted here yet. But it's been spreading like wildfire on some of the other fourms I visit.
http://www.1tail.com/2005_GSXR_frame/
http://www.teammorseracing.com/gall...ame=051505_PPIR
Scary stuff
welder posted:
I'd be a little more concerned if the weld itself had failed at the joint. As it is, it looks like the weld cracked down the center, which would be a stress fracture. Not a weld failure. The bead held up on both side of the frame spar.
Of course, we don't know the story behind that crash. There could be extreme circumstances that caused that failure. Did the frame crack post or pre crash? Post crash, it doesn't matter about the quality of the welds.
zx7rking posted
Yeah but the problem as i see it is, The bead didnt have nearly enough penetration into the metal. (Not hot enough) If you look at one of the pictures you can see a 90 degree angle of the original metal. And we know 90 angles are not very good when it comes to stress (ever wonder why airplane windows are round?)
From what the rider said on the 1tail website. He said the bike lowsided on him, the rest of the damage had to have occured after the lowside. To me. it just looks like the bead wasnt hot enough to penetrate and hold the two pieces together
welder posted:
Actually, the bead penetrated just fine. If it hadn't, the bead would have seperated from the frame spar. The fact that there is bead on both sides of the joint is a good sign. Now, the fact that the weld bead itself cracked is indicitive of nothing, except a very hard crash. Looking at the rest of the pictures, it doesn't surprise me that the bead cracked.
zx7rking posted:
Anyone here with a K5??
Havent seen this posted here yet. But it's been spreading like wildfire on some of the other fourms I visit.
http://www.1tail.com/2005_GSXR_frame/
http://www.teammorseracing.com/gall...ame=051505_PPIR
Scary stuff
welder posted:
I'd be a little more concerned if the weld itself had failed at the joint. As it is, it looks like the weld cracked down the center, which would be a stress fracture. Not a weld failure. The bead held up on both side of the frame spar.
Of course, we don't know the story behind that crash. There could be extreme circumstances that caused that failure. Did the frame crack post or pre crash? Post crash, it doesn't matter about the quality of the welds.
zx7rking posted
Yeah but the problem as i see it is, The bead didnt have nearly enough penetration into the metal. (Not hot enough) If you look at one of the pictures you can see a 90 degree angle of the original metal. And we know 90 angles are not very good when it comes to stress (ever wonder why airplane windows are round?)
From what the rider said on the 1tail website. He said the bike lowsided on him, the rest of the damage had to have occured after the lowside. To me. it just looks like the bead wasnt hot enough to penetrate and hold the two pieces together
welder posted:
Actually, the bead penetrated just fine. If it hadn't, the bead would have seperated from the frame spar. The fact that there is bead on both sides of the joint is a good sign. Now, the fact that the weld bead itself cracked is indicitive of nothing, except a very hard crash. Looking at the rest of the pictures, it doesn't surprise me that the bead cracked.
At the root of it though is the OEM's never-ending search for lighter is better. You can only remove so much material from a design before it becomes fragile. So, I wonder if this is going to be a repeat of Suzuki's issue with the TL1000S frame cracking at the rear damper mount?
