Potholes

[Don'tPanic]

Yeah, we had a nasty winter, and now all roads are messed up. I'm usually pretty good at navigating around the potholes, but two days ago I went on a ryde and missed one. My front left wheel, however, found it, and I had a nasty jolt, something hit and cracked, the whole Spyder veered to the left but I was able to straighten the handlebars right before hitting the oncoming car. All shaken up and feeling sorry for my brand new machyne I parked it in my garage and inspected the wheel, rods and joins. I can't find anything except for a splash of a lube grease on the inside the wheel, right under the suspension control arm.


What could it be? (I'm not joking, it smells like a cat pee, and I don't even have cats!)

 

[4 MARIE]

I had the right front drop into a nasty, square edged pot hole, on I-70 in your neck of the woods.
Had a crazy jolt. Was surprised how well it dealt with it. No rim deformity, flat tire, or detectable damage.
As fragile as the Spyders are, they will also take some punishment. I think it did better through that pot hole,
than I did.

 

[IGETAROUND]

Yeah, we had a nasty winter, and now all roads are messed up. I'm usually pretty good at navigating around the potholes, but two days ago I went on a ryde and missed one. My front left wheel, however, found it, and I had a nasty jolt, something hit and cracked, the whole Spyder veered to the left but I was able to straighten the handlebars right before hitting the oncoming car. All shaken up and feeling sorry for my brand new machyne I parked it in my garage and inspected the wheel, rods and joins. I can't find anything except for a splash of a lube grease on the inside the wheel, right under the suspension control arm.


What could it be? (I'm not joking, it smells like a cat pee, and I don't even have cats!)

Well don't panic, it does help to change one's shorts after an encounter such as this; at the very least a good swab with baby wipes should clear this up.

Glad you are not finding any damage to your wheels. I would raise the front end and look thoroughly at the underside of the A-arm for any damage. None foung; Great, get a bump skid on it to protect against future unavoidables. Glad you missed out on what sounds like it had the potental for disaster.

Al in Kazoo

 

[Bob Denman]

The A-arm bushings, A-arm, shock and anti-swaybar mounts, and the wheel should all be given a real close look... :shocked:
Good luck! :thumbup:

 

[DGoebel]

I too have hit some pretty hard potholes here in MN, if you rode it home, and it didn't seem to pull or wander weirdly, the crack sound you heard may have just been some component hitting it's full stop movement point harder than we'd like. Check your tire pressures, take it for a ride gradually accelerating up to your comfortable speeds and pay attention to how it feels and tracks. Like what's been said, you might have no damage or at worst need an alignment. I have bottomed out on a RR crossing berm at the bottom of a hill and I thought I'd really broken the front end of the Spyder. The bottom of the frunk has some obvious scraping (a bump skid would have completely absorbed/protected this) but it's still fine after several thousand miles since.

Sounds like you were as prepared as could be avoiding a potential head on and recovering after the pothole. Well done. Get out and enjoy that ride.

 

[Chupaca]

ooouch!!!

Glad you recovered nicely form the jolt and got back to your side of the road. These machines do pretty well in such situations but it is scary especially if you don;t see it coming. Only real fairly safe manuver is to strattle it and hit it with the rear wheel. little rough on the passenger but much better on the stability and the spyder. As for the grease spot and smell on the front rim....depends what was in the pothole as you did not find any damage to the joints...:thumbup:

 

[ARtraveler]

All good advice above. :yes::yes:

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

POTHOLE

Yeah, we had a nasty winter, and now all roads are messed up. I'm usually pretty good at navigating around the potholes, but two days ago I went on a ryde and missed one. My front left wheel, however, found it, and I had a nasty jolt, something hit and cracked, the whole Spyder veered to the left but I was able to straighten the handlebars right before hitting the oncoming car. All shaken up and feeling sorry for my brand new machyne I parked it in my garage and inspected the wheel, rods and joins. I can't find anything except for a splash of a lube grease on the inside the wheel, right under the suspension control arm.


What could it be? (I'm not joking, it smells like a cat pee, and I don't even have cats!)

Do what others have said to look for damage ......... however my concern is the " splash of lube grease ", I can't think of any part in that area that could produce a ...splash of lube grease !!!!! ..... that's what I would look for - any part/s in the same area that has residue indicating where the GREASE came out of ....... I would consult a good mechanic ......good luck ...Mike :thumbup:

 

[Mikey]

You may have had a wad of grease hanging on your a-arm that shook loose when you went into the hole. The bushing are the only thing I found that has to be greased on my rt.