R&G sliders crash tested and why D221's are complete sh*t

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Drainfade

Well-Known Member
www.drainfade.com
So I was enjoying myself in the glorious sunshine and was at the end of my ride when something went wrong. There's a very twisty road near my house that I try and hit whenever possible so I ofcourse hit it to end my afternoon ride. Well I was coming up on a really nice left turn and as I turned in all was well, wasn't even scraping the peg when there was a blur. One second I was turning and the next I was on the ground face first sliding as the FZ spun around and ended up rear end in a ditch. I jump up and my right palm immediately starts hurting...I check it and the glove has no hole in it so I run over and try and pick up the bike. As some of you know it's already hard to pick up a fricken bike on the asphalt let alone in a damn ditch but I did it. The first thing I noticed was the spring came off the kickstand so it kept dropping and preventing me from getting the bike out of the ditch. Shit...the damn tankbag flew about 10 feet over so I stretched over to grab it with the phone inside. I called my wife...she bought some athletic tape for the boy on the way home anyway and came straight out to rescue me. Well I taped the kickstand up and went home to cry and look over the damage.

Now here's the good news...the damage is a bent shifter, the stupid rear crane/tail assembly bent a bit, and gotta put the spring back on the kickstand. All in all very cool that the R&G slider took it all and now I have an excuse to get a fender eliminator ;)
Analyzing the accident clearly it was shitty tires...the Dunlop D221 front is absolute shit and just went without any warning at all at barely a crashable lean angle. Looks like a new set of Michelin's are at the top of the "need to get" list. I'll have to take it way easy as long as I have the POS dunlops on there.

Gentleman..if I could ever emphasize the importance of sliders it's now, again. They will pay for themselves many times over and don't chince on them either. Get the best sliders you can get for your ride.

Looks like I'll be washing and waxing tomorrow after my appointment to get all the mud off my poor Fizzy.

P.S. The stitch is a bit scraped up but nothing to worry about.
 
It looks like you came out of the situation in pretty good shape. Most people would be darned glad to only have the damage you incurred. The thing you need to do is learn by your experience rather than blame your equipment. Know you equipment's limitations, if in fact that was the cause, and you wont have to blame it for your misfortunes.
 
Glad to hear you appear to be ok, that is the main thing :sport12: Hopefully you won't discover anything else wrong with you or the bike. I bet you are going to be sore later if not already. Luckily the bike I bought already had sliders on it, otherwise I would definitely be buying some.
 
Could have been much worse

The damage is surprisingly light. Nice to see the sliders doing their job. I put a set on before I left the dealer, and am glad I did. How's the hand? You must have been geared up not to be reporting injuries. Glad you got off with as little damage to machine and man as you did.
 
Lonerider59 said:
It looks like you came out of the situation in pretty good shape. Most people would be darned glad to only have the damage you incurred. The thing you need to do is learn by your experience rather than blame your equipment. Know you equipment's limitations, if in fact that was the cause, and you wont have to blame it for your misfortunes.
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Look..I've been riding long enough to realize if it's me or the shitty OEM tires that came on the bike. Yea I learn't from it...to replace the OEM tires with my tried and true Michelin Pilot Powers that have got me out of many puckering moments. Thanks for the $.02 though...and if it's my stupidity I admit and learn from the experience trust me. I have in the past many times.
 
Oldschool said:
The damage is surprisingly light. Nice to see the sliders doing their job. I put a set on before I left the dealer, and am glad I did. How's the hand? You must have been geared up not to be reporting injuries. Glad you got off with as little damage to machine and man as you did.
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I had on thin warm weather gloves and my right hand slammed down pretty hard. Beyond that I'm unscathed....which I'm damn glad to be as well.
 
cos_fz1 said:
Glad to hear you appear to be ok, that is the main thing :sport12: Hopefully you won't discover anything else wrong with you or the bike. I bet you are going to be sore later if not already. Luckily the bike I bought already had sliders on it, otherwise I would definitely be buying some.
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I took a warm bath right when I got home and plan to ice the hand later but yea, I will most likely be a tad sore tomorrow. I went through her pretty well...nothing more than I described.

Oh actually...can anyone post up a close up picture of where the damn side stand spring goes ? The manual doesn't say crap and I'm trying to figure it out as we speak..
 
I love the regular powers, too. moto superstore has them on sale now, I think. I buy them 4 sets at a time. Don't last long, but they're not tour tires and our bike is not a tour bike, ya know. But they run good right down to the wear bars. Pay a little more and have some fun.

I can't see any damage on the bike. Except for the engine slider. Cool.

Also, I've dumped all extra weight on the bike, and run 28/28 psi. I can go even lower psi with the powers. Geared up I'm at 205/210.
 
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sidestand pic.

Drainfade said:
I took a warm bath right when I got home and plan to ice the hand later but yea, I will most likely be a tad sore tomorrow. I went through her pretty well...nothing more than I described.

Oh actually...can anyone post up a close up picture of where the damn side stand spring goes ? The manual doesn't say crap and I'm trying to figure it out as we speak..
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here you go;
sidestand.jpg

There is a small peg just above the pivot bolt at the top of the sidestand, spring hooks over it open end facing forward. The other end in the notch on the 1 inch post that you use to push the stand down, open end facing back. Hope that helps.
 
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Glad to see that the protection works! I don't want to be the one to give a testimonial but always glad to read the ones that are GOOD!

Any crash you walk away from is a great crash! Hope nothing else turns up wrong but it looks like you're in great shape as far as the bike is concerned. Here's hope you don't feel any worse tomorrow. :D

What were you wearing for gear outside of the thin gloves?

BTW, I had Dunlops on my '08 FZ6 and between those and the crap stock suspension on that model, it almost cost me this same accident at the Dragon last May. Somehow, I managed to keep from totally washing out and stayed upright. Took three good washes to clean out the skid marks though. :eek: ;)
 
^^^

Jake's has great prices, if no tax/shipping. Get at least two sets, if you ride a lot. I ride some VERY rough loops, so lucky to get 2k miles.
 
FZ1inNH said:
Glad to see that the protection works! I don't want to be the one to give a testimonial but always glad to read the ones that are GOOD!

Any crash you walk away from is a great crash! Hope nothing else turns up wrong but it looks like you're in great shape as far as the bike is concerned. Here's hope you don't feel any worse tomorrow. :D

What were you wearing for gear outside of the thin gloves?

BTW, I had Dunlops on my '08 FZ6 and between those and the crap stock suspension on that model, it almost cost me this same accident at the Dragon last May. Somehow, I managed to keep from totally washing out and stayed upright. Took three good washes to clean out the skid marks though. :eek: ;)
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I have a 2 piece stitch that's slightly scuffed on the left elbow and knee but then again it's 10 years old so it's almost time to get a new one. I had an Arai Profile on and some regular old work boots on.
I'm gonna have to replace the side stand eventually...it's pretty well shaved and the shift lever as well. I priced them out and I'm lookin' at a whopping $62 not including a new slider puck. This is the cheapest bike wreck ever...especially since the bike spun around and ended up in a ditch. Very lucky...on all counts...someone was watching over me today I think.
 
I've had R&G's on all my bikes so far and they've saved me a pound or two in damage costs!
I managed to lay the R1 down when I was stopping on a slope and the stand never went down properly. It was a dumb thing to do but the R&G saved me the price of a new side fairing : oops:

I've just been back to the dealer to finish sorting the bits for my new FZ1 and the R&G's were the first thing on the list.

As for the tyres, I wasn't a fan of the OEM Dunlops on the last FZ1 so i'm looking at getting shot of them straight off, probably replace them with some Michelin 2CT's as they seem pretty good.
 
NJFZ1 said:
Glad you walked away w/o any big injuries and the bike doesn't seem too bad. No crash is good, but there are definitely different degrees of bad. Time to get new tires, fix the bike and ride again. And for those of you that haven't invested in some crash sliders/spools what are you waiting for! Here's a relatively affordable kit I came across on eBay:

OES FZ1 FRAME SLIDERS AND SPOOLS YAMAHA FZ-1 06-09 : eBay Motors (item 310207357872 end time Apr-15-10 10:56:45 PDT)
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Drainfade, Glad you're alright and reminding me to get sliders.

Tony, thanks for the link. Think I'll buy a set.


I have about 4.5k on the bike now and wondering if the stock tires should go. I don't ride as hard as most here but still.
 
Steve F said:
Drainfade, Glad you're alright and reminding me to get sliders.

Tony, thanks for the link. Think I'll buy a set.


I have about 4.5k on the bike now and wondering if the stock tires should go. I don't ride as hard as most here but still.
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Regular powers are great all around tires.
 
Hay I was also wondering what others are using as their suspension setups ? I set both ends to stock but I think they're a bit soft for my riding style and the fork dive is way too much. I haven't searched too much but here's what I'm set to as we speak...can't wait to try it on my next ride:

F-preload is 5 (stock is 5.5)
F-rebound is 16 (stock is 18)
F-compression is 4 (stock is 5)
R-preload is 4 (stock is 3)
R-rebound is 7 (stock is 8)
 
I ordered a hyper pro shock and they set it up for my weight at the factory. The stock forks were set up by a local suspension guy, evolution, in San Jose, and they are perfect for me, on the stiff side. The hyper shock is stiff, too.

Both work very good for what I'm doing, which is nearly all twistie stuff. Tight twistie stuff. Power tires and my style of riding, mostly based upon code's stuff, kinda get it together, but I am always learning and re-learning stuff.

That's riding, I guess.

I thought the stock shock was good, but the hyper I love. The butt feeling is that the bike feels like it's launching FROM the top of bumps. Hard to describe, but you get the point.
 
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