We are alright, the ST is another story

[otter28169]

Turning onto the end of our road at the end of an awesome ride today we were doing about 5mph when the back end of the bike launched us upward. Apparently the floorboard broke and caught the road, or caught the road and broke. Either way, the back of the bike is all bent up. I was able to coast it down the road and push it into my shop but it looks really bad, and the week off to have as ride time with the wife has just gone down the tubes. Brenda and I are both fine, but the new tire I just installed last night won't be doing us any good.

Just bummin'............

[SpyderAnn01]

Glad you and the wife are okay. Are you sure you didn't have an issue with the rear tire?

[ralph12345678910]

Pic please, what do you think made it break

[Bob Denman]

Oh man... I'm really glad to hear that you both are okay!
The bike can be fixed or replaced later.
You both are probably going to be plenty sore tomorrow. (Once the adrenalin rush is used up...)
Keep the painkiller bottle nearby, and take it easy...

[ARtraveler]

Oh man... I'm really glad to hear that you both are okay!
The bike can be fixed or replaced later.
You both are probably going to be plenty sore tomorrow. (Once the adrenalin rush is used up...)
Keep the painkiller bottle nearby, and take it easy...

x2

[wyliec]

Glad you are both relatively okay. I'm sure you know that ice is your friend after an injury. Good luck. Hope the damage to your spyder is not to extensive.

[900Dave]

Good to hear you are both ok!
I would have to take a wild guess and say that you probably somehow bottomed out and caught the floor board?? I put 22000 miles on our ST before I traded it and the floor boards are not a weak spot. They are attached really well.

[Ron2andia]

Glad you both ok... Hope you get it sorted out😊

[Tango]

Glad you both are ok. Could have been much worse! Tom

[otter28169]

Thanks for all the well wishes. I am thinking the bottom of the floorboard caught, but I do not know how. The bike is insured, but the ride time is lost. There appears to be no issue with the tire, as we already had over 200 miles on it before this happened. I looked at it a little closer and noticed that It looks like the back end is all twisted, the tail lights and luggage are off kilter, and the body panels on the left side are damaged. I hope we don't have to wait too long to get it back. After all, there is a certain rally in Lake George we plan on attending.

Just sayin'............

[Chupaca]

Really sorry to hear about this misfortune but glad you are both alright. Not the time for twenty questions but when you figure it out would be nice to know what might have caused this. Hope it is an easy fix sometimes it looks worse than it is....

[Badco149]

Wow Glad all are safe.

[ijon1]

Did you go through a pot hole to make it catch? I can't picture how this happen.

[otter28169]

The ST seems to have a very low ground clearance, I noticed this when we unloaded it off the trailer. I don't think that the clearance was what caused the problem, I think it was NY State roads to be honest. The shocks on the machine are all in good working order, the tires are set to recommended pressures. I hope the damage is not so bad that we can't get it fixed. We got a heck of a deal on it, and it really is a very good daily rider. In the last two months we have put over 4000 miles on it, even with the two of us working full time. Progressive said that I will be called by the insurance adjuster on Tuesday. The worst part about the whole thing is that I have all next week off and was planning on doing some riding with my wife. I am going to cross my fingers and hope that if it is going to take a while maybe Ingles in Phoenix NY will be able to set me up with a loaner for the week we have off. I am not going to plan on it though.

Two things I thought of last night:

SpyderAnn01: I would not have put the machine back on the road if the tire was not right. I worked in a tire shop for several years and am not a novice when it comes to tires.

Mike: I don't know where your comment about post replies came from. I always reply to messages, and if a post requires a response I post. I will PM you so that we can discuss the rest.

[wyliec]

Every time I take my spyder to Ingles, Mike asks if I want to use the loaner; but, I always refuse. Of course I'm just talking a couple hours; I'm not sure how long he'd really let the loaner out for, or how many he has. Good luck though; can't hurt to ask.

[AY4B]

I was having my ST bottom out regularly before I got my Elka shocks. Once I came to a place where there was road construction and it was hard to see and I could feel the floorboards hit the ground. Also the right floorboard has a feature where on panic stops it will break loose and the whole front of the floorboard will drop several inches. Since I got the Elkas I have not had any more bottom outs. Sorry to hear about your mishap.

[robmorg]

Thanks for all the well wishes. I am thinking the bottom of the floorboard caught, but I do not know how. The bike is insured, but the ride time is lost. There appears to be no issue with the tire, as we already had over 200 miles on it before this happened. I looked at it a little closer and noticed that It looks like the back end is all twisted, the tail lights and luggage are off kilter, and the body panels on the left side are damaged.

To have that much damage, it seems as though you had to have hit something fairly big, or a pothole that was fairly deep. You didn't see anything on the road that caused it?

In any event, I hope they get it all worked out favorably for you.

[Bob Denman]

If it's BRP's "breakaway" design: I don't know how they could drop THAT low. (Unless some really HORRIBLE mis-alignment of the Stars occurred...) Did you feel the board drop out from underneath your foot?

[AY4B]

That's what I'm thinking may have happened. The break away can be triggered by a bottom out. And then you are basically like a pole vaulter planting his pole.

[Bob Denman]

I think that if we got some accurate measurements from a board-equipped ST owner; it would help.
I just measured the clearance on my RT's board, when it is dropped. 5.5" from the leading edge, to the ground.
I didn't see anything that would keep it from rotating fully-downward. (Other than the stops that BRP designed) I suppose that if they failed; the board might over-rotate...
If it managed to do that: you should have noticed that event.
A really deep pothole??

[AY4B]

On an ST, you really dont need a deep pothole, especially when you are riding 2 up with the extra weight. There is a metal piece that hangs lower than everything else that is part of that mechanism. If you push or pull, I cant remember it instantly drops the floorboard. In a perfect storm, if the dropped floorboard plants, you are launched into the air. It would happen so fast, you wont know for sure how it happened.

[Bob Denman]

Just push the brake pedal all the way down, and add a little bit more pressure: it'll drop!

[AY4B]

20160703_093420.jpg

The brass colored piece on the left is the trigger. Push it toward the rear of the bike and the floor will drop.

[AY4B]

This is what the floorboard looks like when you pull that trigger which theoretically can be done by the ground in a perfect storm. The black piece of metal is supposed to guard against that.20160703_093517.jpg

[robmorg]

Just push the brake pedal all the way down, and add a little bit more pressure: it'll drop!

It that's all it takes, I'm glad mine doesn't work.

Mine has NEVER done that. I've tried to trigger it that way, and even by stomping on the brake pedal, but the floorboard simply won't ever release. OTOH, I can physically reach underneath it and push on the latch and it will drop. I asked my dealer once, when it was in for maintenance, why my break-away floorboard wouldn't break away. They said "everything looked normal". I seem to have plenty of clearance for my brake pedal above the floorboard, and if the fluid gets even a little low, you get all kinds of nasty warnings on the dash display, so I just stopped worrying about it. (If it ever does come unlatched, it'd only drop down about an inch anyway before my REVCO highway peg bar would come to rest on the air deflector in front of the floor board.)