The first ride started bad and ended ok. I was waiting for my buddy to show up and decided to take the trash out. To my surprise when I opened my kitchen door to the garage my buddy had just finished loading my bike on his 3 rail trailer. So we are 25 minutes to the staging area coming down a bumpy mountain road when I hear a bang and dragging sound. My buddy say's OH SHIT and promptly stop the van. My brand new 8000.00 dollar Italian beauty is being drug down the road in front of the wheel of the trailer! Words can't describe the feeling in my gut or my buddy's for that matter. We got the bike out from under the trailer and to the side of the road. Both the plastic shields on my cycra CRM guards shredded, both black end pieces on the guards shredded, front fender shredded all the way through. Front brake master cylinder cover ground down, throttle housing shredded and then rotated. Rear fender cracked. It seems my dear friend routed my left side tie down over the top of his front disc and through his spokes to the anchor point and his disc chaffed through the tie down. I will never let any one load my bikes again. Amazingly all cosmetic. My only concern was if the throttle still worked and it did. Ride on! So the first thing I noticed was how low and rotated back the bars were. A quick adjustment to rotate the bars forward helped make the ride bearable. Next thing I noticed was the rear brake pedal was to low but I didn't mess with it. had a good 45 mile ride with elevation starting at 1000ft to 5800ft. The bike laid down the power very linear and smooth( even before I put my lectron on it) The Lectron made it smoother. My only gripe with the whole ride was that 3rd felt a bit tall in the low rpm's while going up hill on tight technical single track.(13/49 gearing). I think a 12 front will put the rpm's where I want them. I'm used to a close ratio tranny. Before I get started with the second ride report I want to give a shout to my dealer MotoXotica in Vacaville CA and American Beta. I called Dan and told him the bad news about what happened and gave him a list of parts to be ordered. He called me back the next day and said America Beta gave me a new rear fender and brake master cylinder cover . I only had to buy the throttle assembly, front fender and hand guard bits. So finally I get all my bits and put her back together but this time with protaper KX HIGHS. These are my new favorite bend. So today it was rainy and cold and every trail had water running down it but for some reason everything just felt right. Bar position and height. Rear brake lever height and everything checked. I through reservation out the door and gave it everything I could. The harder I pushed the bike the more it gave back. The bike felt light stopped good turned good and inspired me to ride harder. It never felt tipsy or to high and although under sprung the suspension worked good enough at speed. I'll make adjustments to it once I hit 10 hours. I have had a handful of brand new bikes through out the years but this one is by far the best. It even has a thermostat on it and so far I haven't read where any one has taken theirs off in the last year. Probably another reason it ran so flawlessly in the cold today. I cant wait to ride this bike some more with resprung and revalved suspension. This by far is the most satisfying bike purchase I have made.
I know that feeling all too well mate. my brand new 10 wr300 fell of my ute after my first ride on it when I let my brother convince me to position the bikes differently in the tray. I always run them straight line to the cab & a mate runs his with front wheels tucked into corner of tray(steering full lock)leaning towards each other so handguards are nearly touching(don't know why?). bro thought this would be better & I stupidly let him convince me to do it against my better judgement. first problem being with this position most the compressed weight is primarily on the inside tie down-the outside one basically just stops bikes falling inwards toward each other. second problem was I had normal hook type tie downs at the time not unhookable pro tapers & wheel/fork brace like now. I knew I should have stopped. I was watching in the rear view mirror as the bikes swayed gently from side to side as we descended a fairly twisty mountain range. then all of a sudden my bike was shot out & being dragged alongside my door! horrible feeling I must say looking out the window at your new bike being dragged down the bitumen. lucky I didnt run over my own bike! the inside tie down had become unhooked on a right hander(weight transferred to left side of vehicle so all weight was on outside tiedown-my bike on right side of tray-inside tiedown went slack & managed to unhook from the anchor point)was only going slow so stopped in a hurry with no regard for whoever was following me-didn't care at that point in time-& rolled down the hill to a rest spot. proceeded to give my (older)brother a verbal barrage when he drove the few hundred metres down the road to where I was. checked bike over. luckily only cosmetic. gouged/scratched rear fender, handguards & throttle housing rubber boot. lucky really was expecting a lot worse. needless to say it was a very quiet drive home. im with you timbo, only I load my bikes my way. never had a problem before or after that day touch wood. at least I got to ride it first though
That's horrible. I don't let anyone tie down my bike or connect jumper cables to my car battery. Glad to hear not a whole lot of damage at that you're enjoying the Beta.
That sucks and is one of the things I worry about when transporting my bike. I actually keep collision insurance on my TE310 just in case it comes off my hitch carrier at 70 MPH... Piece of mind at least but I am guessing yours ins't plated so you probably can't have it insured like that? I hope your buddy is helping you out on the financial side as it seems some better care could have been taken. Tough break but sounds like it's repairable for under $500-600. I hope you enjoy the bike
One reason I like having a van. If the straps let go, it won't go far. That's a really terrible way to break in a new bike. Glad Am Beta helped you out.
That happened to me when I was 15. The strap broke, and my brand new 77 YZ100 went skidding down the highway and into the ditch. My damage was a little more than cosmetic, but luckily it was a big event and there was a trailer onsite with everything I needed. I've heard really good things about the Beta's. It will be on my list of bikes to look at when I'm ready to buy next time.
Learned that lesson... twice... I now load my own and most importantly use tie downs with carabeeners (sp) on the bottom....
