The bike is repaired!

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I ordered the replacement pan/gasket while I was still in Rio Rancho and they were delivered as a birthday present to me on the 23rd! What better way to celebrate turning 42 (the meaning of life after all… ) with getting dirty replacing an oil pan.

I pulled the pan, inspected the oil screen/siphon to ensure it wasn’t damaged, and used an endoscope to check the filter mesh inside the siphon to ensure no chunks of oil pan were stuck up in there. The total labor to swap the oil pan was ~ 1.5 hours start to finish, pretty easy. The longest task is cross torqueing the pan on, and having to get up and walk side to side on the bike.

I filled it with 3L of fresh oil, and a new filter, and went out for a quick ride last night to check things out. No oil leaks, but a nice amount of burning oil smell (from inside and outside the exhaust, a bunch of oil ran off the rear swing arm into the exhaust opening while parked on the side of the road). The tires seemed OK, the rear did step out a slight bit on a hard shift while leaned over a bit… but I figure a few heat cycles and scrubbing in and the tires will be back to their old self.

The engine sounded good, and seems to be undamaged by any of the events of the last few days.

Next: Enhanced SW-Motec sump guard

I have a genuine SW-Motec guard coming on Friday. I am going to take measurements and plan to lay a 3-4mm thick strip of 304 stainless steel under the side of the sump, to strengthen the guard but also spread out any bends like this. I am also going to adhere a 3-5mm layer of high density neoprene type rubber on top of it to further blunt any hits.

I am convinced that while the old Ebay sourced sump guard didn’t save the bike, it did save a more catastrophic incident. If the rock would have hit the sump on the front face at that speed, it could have punched a large hole in it, draining all the oil immediately. It could have cost the engine.

The chances of this happening again? Slim. It was a very random and unlucky hit, casing the bike is much more likely which would have the exhaust to take the first part of the hit. But I see ways to make this guard better, and I am going to do that.