Got caught out in the flooded region around Chesterfield today. Got to one flooded road where cars were getting through with water no deeper than their doors. Decided to go for it. The flood was probably about 150 yards wide where the road was under water.
Got it into bottom, stood on pegs and kept her going - and going, and going. I was doing fine until a truck came the other way - i saw him coming,and he saw me coming so probably thought he would have some fn - at my expense. His bow wave made the flood higher than the screen and so the inevitable happened - all in about 2 seconds flat. The bow wave got me off balance, as I swerved to get more room I hit the submerged curb that you couldn't see in the muddy torrent and the bike went down.
I picked it up again and pushed it the rest of the way out and up a slope to a handy concrete patch that served as a lay by. I got the plugs out (all 4 of them) and took out the air filter which was sodden but in one piece. The air box was a reservoir of water - there is a drain on the back end which I discovered by looking to see how to get the air box off - brilliant, unscrew the stopper et voila - the air box emptied itself. The exhaust obviously had water in it too - because there was a steady trickle of water from the joints, so I undid them and helped speed the process up.
With everything empty of water to the most part I decided to try and spin the bike over without the plugs - the oil in the sight glass was not sitting on a meniscus of water and hadn't gone white either - so I felt there was not much chance of water being in the sump. Pressed the button and she span up and threw out some water from the plugs holes - possibly residue in the intake system.
It wasn't raining so I set about drying as much as I could with the bog rollI carry in the top box at all times (handy piece of kit for long hauls!) - after and hour or so I plucked up the courage to put it all back and see if she would fire up. - She did after a short burst of starter.
There are some brilliant aspects to the design to allow a flooded bike to be emptied at the side of the road like that - and all with the tools that come with it in the tool roll (could be better quality, but good enough). BUT, don't believe all the hype about being able to ford deep rivers - this was only about 18" - 2' deep and the water was getting close to the intake trumpet before the truck came. I am not sure it would not have sucked in water as I was driving anyway. 18" would be fine - but a 3 foot deep river it will not go through and survive. However, I am impressed at the fact it went for so far (a good 100 yards) without faltering. I am also very impressed with the ease of emptying everything. I came home and immediately changed the oil as a precaution, even though it was only done at the weekend and 500 miles ago!!
There was NO water in the oil that ran out - so I feel confident there is no harm done because the engine sounds very quiet and there were no rattles or bangs anywhere - sweet as nut and pulling as strong as before. Even the idle is correct.
Bloody brilliant. There isn't a sports bike on the planet that would have survived half the flood, nor many trailees I reckon either.
My faith has been well and truely bolstered by this - but I will be a little more careful at tackling such long and deep fords again!! Good old 1150A.
Got it into bottom, stood on pegs and kept her going - and going, and going. I was doing fine until a truck came the other way - i saw him coming,and he saw me coming so probably thought he would have some fn - at my expense. His bow wave made the flood higher than the screen and so the inevitable happened - all in about 2 seconds flat. The bow wave got me off balance, as I swerved to get more room I hit the submerged curb that you couldn't see in the muddy torrent and the bike went down.
I picked it up again and pushed it the rest of the way out and up a slope to a handy concrete patch that served as a lay by. I got the plugs out (all 4 of them) and took out the air filter which was sodden but in one piece. The air box was a reservoir of water - there is a drain on the back end which I discovered by looking to see how to get the air box off - brilliant, unscrew the stopper et voila - the air box emptied itself. The exhaust obviously had water in it too - because there was a steady trickle of water from the joints, so I undid them and helped speed the process up.
With everything empty of water to the most part I decided to try and spin the bike over without the plugs - the oil in the sight glass was not sitting on a meniscus of water and hadn't gone white either - so I felt there was not much chance of water being in the sump. Pressed the button and she span up and threw out some water from the plugs holes - possibly residue in the intake system.
It wasn't raining so I set about drying as much as I could with the bog rollI carry in the top box at all times (handy piece of kit for long hauls!) - after and hour or so I plucked up the courage to put it all back and see if she would fire up. - She did after a short burst of starter.
There are some brilliant aspects to the design to allow a flooded bike to be emptied at the side of the road like that - and all with the tools that come with it in the tool roll (could be better quality, but good enough). BUT, don't believe all the hype about being able to ford deep rivers - this was only about 18" - 2' deep and the water was getting close to the intake trumpet before the truck came. I am not sure it would not have sucked in water as I was driving anyway. 18" would be fine - but a 3 foot deep river it will not go through and survive. However, I am impressed at the fact it went for so far (a good 100 yards) without faltering. I am also very impressed with the ease of emptying everything. I came home and immediately changed the oil as a precaution, even though it was only done at the weekend and 500 miles ago!!
There was NO water in the oil that ran out - so I feel confident there is no harm done because the engine sounds very quiet and there were no rattles or bangs anywhere - sweet as nut and pulling as strong as before. Even the idle is correct.
Bloody brilliant. There isn't a sports bike on the planet that would have survived half the flood, nor many trailees I reckon either.
My faith has been well and truely bolstered by this - but I will be a little more careful at tackling such long and deep fords again!! Good old 1150A.
)
Should be fine, better than a casing full of water anyway!
