2005 GSXR1000 breaks in half.

[suxukifreak]

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/55045958313082.jpg

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/9314629/detail.html

[Gix11]

Ah, lad, They don't make 'em like they used to!

[Razorback]

Yup more proof for my argument that the 02 was the peak of the breed.

[veetwo tls]

i showed this link to a mate OS.

his reply:

My coworker & WERA racer John Chen was t-boned by another rider (was that guy on a CBR1000 - I'll have to ask John) while flying down the back straight at the California Speedway last year. His bike, a raced only 2005 GSXR 1000, sustained serious damage in the crash as it ended up tumbling at well over a hundred miles an hour & came to a rest on top of a concrete barrier. John was transported to the local hospital as a precaution & the vocal description of the crash phoned in by the corner worker had us all really scared. I saw the bike in the pits after it was unloaded off the crash truck. Both wheel hubs exploded off their spokes, the rear axle was pushed way back in the swingarm as the chain snapped & allowed the rear wheel assembly to move around in the swingarm. It was so tweaked we were amazed at how practically all the subassembly / parts of the bike were trashed. John ended up rebuilding the entire bike (thanks Ebay) & the two parts that were still good were the engine & the main frame. Everything else was trashed beyond saving. I don't remember if the main frame was twisted at all in the violent impact or not but I will shoot John an email & find out. I'm sure it was taken to a frame shop but there were no obvious frame failures - we definitely checked closely for that one as we knew John would want to know when we called him at the hospital.

I have heard reports of this stuff on the internet but all my research into this has hit dead ends. I brought up this stuff with Roadracing World editor & long time roadracer John Ulrich last year at a WERA event at the LVMS. John's son, Chris Ulrich was racing an 05' GSXR 1000 at the time & John concurred with hearing stories about this stuff on the internet. He even had a few pictures sent to him but all the stories left important questions unanswered. That's why his magazine decided not to run the story. John leaned over & said that if there was truly a batch of bad frames some of them would have ended up at the track by now. And he wouldn't let his son race on them if that were the case. Chris added, "& I wouldn't race them."

Not trying to shoot down the story veetwo - just throwing out an alternate reality. Last time somone posted a similar 05' GSXR 1000 frame story like this here I added the same comments & a few members took issue with me. But they had no evidence that were substantiated beyond a reasonable doubt that the frames failed without suffering a serious implact. I have checked with knowledgeable people on this one & I was told other stuff is more than likely going on. John Ulrich is well known for pointing out issues with bikes in his magazine & recently pointed out how last year's GSXR600's had a weird subframe mounting system that would almost always break during reasonably tame crashes at racetracks. The story showed good ways to fix this issue & pictures & accompanying stories on how these subframes broke. So I think if any writer wouldn't protect a manufacturer if there was a serious issue John would be the one.

[cammy9r]

could have been just a bad frame (one off). Maybe it was too many bad hard landings from wheelies. Scarey, but the 9r that i have is meant to suffer similar problems. They split at the ram air intakes in the frame. Few cases reported on other zx forums, however considering the hard life my bike has had (2 hits by cars, low side , high side and 1 hit into a car) the frame has never more than had a scratch and a small ding. Now with the bike naked it is easier to inspect the frame at these points.
So maybe it is just your luck or lack of it when the bike has a dodgy frame, i'm away to check mine again ;)

[fimpBIKES]

thats just the price u pay for thinner tubing if u ask me
it means that even a little crack or dent is going to become a much more significant stress riser

got to say that i also think the pre 02 frames were a lot "better" as far as i am concerned
no used having to replace you chassis in even a minor off

that said, as far as insuance goes the cost of replacing fairings etc from a minor off is generally enough to write a bike off
so i guess the manufacturers have valid reasons for the thinner material (other than just squeezing out every wasted gram!!!)

This sort of carry on occurred with the GSX1100EF in the mid 80's. Everybody complained that the EF had dodgy handling, and it influenced a lot of buyers.
When the story was finally chased down it turned out that a WA 'current affairs' program had done a report on how bad they were, based on 1 (and only one) complaint, and every wannabe 'expert' ran around quoting it, even though most never actually saw the program. Every model of bike attracts at least some incompetent riders (ala Duc), and any bike/rider can be involved in unusually excessive damage causing accidents. And the internet is, in many ways, a gossip-mongers paradise.

Plus if you want to go buying the latest 'race track weapon' these days, you have to accept that the bike has been pared down to bare minimum weight, and will suffer under Australia's often dodgy public roads. ZX10 rider's are now coming to realize that their ultra light / high powered 'race track weapons' are too light/powerful for NSW's roads, making them skittish.

[NakedTurboBusa]

quote:Originally posted by chalk10

This sort of carry on occurred with the GSX1100EF in the mid 80's. Everybody complained that the EF had dodgy handling, and it influenced a lot of buyers.
When the story was finally chased down it turned out that a WA 'current affairs' program had done a report on how bad they were, based on 1 (and only one) complaint, and every wannabe 'expert' ran around quoting it, even though most never actually saw the program. Every model of bike attracts at least some incompetent riders (ala Duc), and any bike/rider can be involved in unusually excessive damage causing accidents. And the internet is, in many ways, a gossip-mongers paradise.

Plus if you want to go buying the latest 'race track weapon' these days, you have to accept that the bike has been pared down to bare minimum weight, and will suffer under Australia's often dodgy public roads. ZX10 rider's are now coming to realize that their ultra light / high powered 'race track weapons' are too light/powerful for NSW's roads, making them skittish.


Chalk,

I agree, and makes me wonder about us streetfighter types, puting all manner of late 80's 90's 2K bikes on huge diets, more power, better suspenders, brakes, etc....... skittish to say the least!!! May the gods of speed, and road re-surface gurus smile upon us all.



Pete

If ya really want the truth on the EFE they were jigged up bent! from the factory[V]& i believe the report was kept rather quiet[}:)]

Yeah I heard that one too

But nobody I knew of who checked them actually had a bent one. Ceratinly was never the case on the couple that I owned. Probably just another 'old wives tail'. They did have a disconcerting habit of 'dropping' into corners when the wrong tyres (read touring) were fitted, and that scared a lot of riders, who then probably blamed it on the bike, and not their bad choice of tyres.

[fimpBIKES]

well if the OEM tyres back then were the same as the ones they put on now
that'd sound about right chalky


although i think i noticed in a review of a current liter bike that it had diablos as standard
i think they might have finally figured it out eh?

Oh yeah, the standard tyres weren't much to write home about, at all.

Most changed them to Phantoms, as soon as they could.