27th October 2012
Things seemed OK on the M55, little did I know that I was shedding wheel bolts. There was a slight click around the second set of lights and that was the last but one shearing. We are now down to the central hub bolt and I could notice a slight loss of drive in the first two gears, seemed OK in third. My thought's at this time were two fold, 1.The clutch is starting to say bye bye 2.Fish and chip's at Lytham. So I pressed on.
Now we are at the final set of light's, set off in second, worth a mention here that the only drive that I had was from the shoulder of the sheared bolt.
BANG!!! Hub bolt takes the final curtain.
To be honest, I felt neither the rise or fall of the Beemer. Just a big bang and the rear end swinging round to the right (must have looked like I had taken up speedway to Glyn) I then set about trying to keep the bike in a straight line. Due to the angle of the bike the two disc retaining bolts sheared off, so I had only the front wheel and the torque arm to keep it upright. Although bike was listing heavily to port, my feet never left the pegs as I was expecting it to buck up.
At this stage I still didn't have a clue what the matter was, (well you don't expect a wheel to fall off do you?) and was hoping that it would clear. Glanced to my right and the rear wheel over-took me, but having bags of left lock, I steered left and ground the bike to a halt next to the kerb, flicked down the side stand and rested the bike on it. The term 'grinding to a halt' will always hold memory's for me. Nice of Glyn not stuffing the Duke up my arse end, as I had enough on my plate.
I seem to remember saying "bloody hell that was a bit urgent" and we both cracked up, or we had already cracked up to the point we nearly laughed our frock's off. Glyn really is a great guy to have around at this sort of event (or any event) and was nice enough to go and mug the wheel for me. It was quite a while until we were stable enough to get started sorting things out.
Within half an hour word had got out and good old Jim turned up with the coffee, thanks Jim and a big thanks to all who stopped and helped. Without them getting a one ton uni cycle on and off a 20' flatbed wouldn't have been possible. However Glyn's lifting skills are only supervisory, due to a bone problem (bone-idle).
The
total repair bill was £9.50 (second hand wheel bolts via e-bay) bit of a
bugger to remove all the sheared bolts but shifted them with a punch.
If you have similar problems don't go down the stud/screw extractor
route as they are as much use as a chimney on a dog! Disc
was a bit out of true, but a swift chat with a hammer got it back and
is now bob on. Have put a plaster on the bottom of the torque arm and
expect this to heal up in time.Worthy
of a note is that I had free RAC coverage via MCE insurance and this
only covers you up to 10 miles from home for recovery. Living in Horwich
it cost me £130 to get it back and it's pay before recover, so check your policy!!Finally thanks again to Glyn, those who helped, those who provided week's of piss taking and the chap at the Pasty 'n' peas meet that wanted to know how fast the Beemer fell. Lytham is at Sea level, so 33 feet per second squared exactly.
Stew'streetfighter'Yates
(BMW K1Test Pilot)
First Hand Eyewitness Account
By Glyn Jones
It’s a lovely Monday evening and a ride to Rivington lower barn is in order to see if the local crew are going to the bike meet at Lytham. To my amazement the only biker there was Stuart on his classic steed, a BMW K1. Assuming everyone else had already left we decided to ride up to the meet together.
It was a really good ride over Rivington and Belmont and through the country lanes apart from the slurry, silage and other agricultural waste that Stewart’s rear wheel was flinging up onto my bike, God I cursed that rear wheel.
From the Tickle trout we decided to play catch up and blast up the motorway, I was quite impressed with K1 as it could still motor a bit for an old girl and we soon arrived at the Lytham turn off.
Three sets of traffic lights later we stopped at a red light, Stuart in front of me. We set off at pace and to my amazement I saw the rear end of the K1 buck up and the rear wheel popped out! As the rear of the bike landed on its disc and support arm my first thought was ‘SHHHIIIT’ avoidance action to be taken immediately, I managed to avoid slamming into him by veering to his right and my second thought was ‘SSHHHIIIT’ a f-----g wheel.
As Stuarts wheel overtook him, he was wrestling with his bike better than any WWF wrestler ever could, the bars turned completely to the right, the bike veering to the left and the balancing act was fabulous. He eventually managed to stop the bike against the kerb, put his stand down and get off his bike as if nothing had happened. ( I think his first words were ‘Bloody Hell’)
I
had managed to pull into the side of the road ahead of Stuart, but his
wheel was still on the move and heading for the stationary oncoming
traffic. You should have seen the expressions on the faces of the
drivers, one of 'what the f--k, then oh shit' as they realised it was
heading towards them. The driver of the second vehicle quickly jumped
out of his car in a half-hearted attempt to stop the wheel from hitting
it. Too late, it hit his front bumper and fell to the ground, no damage
done though just a scuff.I felt concerned for Stuart at first, but after about 5 seconds I just burst out laughing, to be fair though so did Stuart!
Thanks to everyone that stopped to help and a special thanks to James Nelson for the Coffee.
Glyn Jones:
Ducati Rider (Polisher)
Ducati Rider (Polisher)
Articles & Photography: Stuart Yates, Glyn Jones.
