Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Almost Spat off

[Guido]

Just had the ride of my life coming home from work.

Only a 5 minute jounry but boy was it one helluva hairy 5 minutes.

Warmed bike up, tootled out of the yard from where I work, headed out of the town and left the 30mph zone. Started to wind the throttle open and prepare for a left kink with a long straight after it. Opened the throttle part way through the kink and the biatch came right around on me almost to the extent that I was looking over the hedge to my left into the fields. She then snapped back and went into a major slapper. 3 cars coming towards me didn't know where to look.

My brain is now frazzled....what the hell was that all about....Checked OP light..nothing there. Opened it up and she tracks straight as a die down the 1/2 mile straight I'm now on. 1/2 way down the straight I just happen to glance in the mirror and see Blue..... smoke is everywhere.

Kill the bike and coast to the roadside....OP light still out..

Look behind me and see that the whole contents of the sump are down the road behind me. Oil is pouring from out of the bottom of my fairing...

Is it a rod, have the cases failed..what he hell is it my brain's thinking...??? Sump plug is still intact. Flumoxed

Get lift home from boss in company van.

Find that the RHS front oil cooler union has worked loose and is p1ssing oil out when the motor is run....

Feeling mighty lucky as I was due out on an evening hoon tonight with a mate and had covered a fairly fast 1000 miles since the rebuild...shudder to think what might have been had I been at warp speed when it let go.

Almost know how you feel now Felix after your Oulton and Cadwell incidents with gushing oil..

Heart rate back to normal (ish) now..

Note to self..check every bleeding nut and washer and stop thinking you're Rossi having had the save of my life...

[rockhopper]

Blimey..

[TP]

Glad everything ended well!

[Felix]

Guy, check the chamfered face seat of the oil nipples. If they are aluminium then they wear. They're only about a fiver for the pair. Also be careful, don't over tighten them! It's tempting to do. If they still leak with a reasonable amount of torque, they'll need replacing. Let me know if you need a hand.

I am glad you got off more lightly than me.

[Jasper]

Bloody hell Guy,that was lucky!!Or Unlucky?At least you saved it mate.Well done.

[Desmondo]

Agree with Jasper, not sure if it's lucky or unlucky
Glad to hear you kept it upright though

[Lust4Life]

Well saved! Blimey!

Phil

[Jools]

I know Guido, I know he's a very good rider, and I count him as a mate of mine, but I doubt that he had much to do with saving it in heroic style...just very, very lucky that it didn't end in an almighty highside into oncoming traffic.

I'm really glad you did keep it upright though Guy both for your sake and the bike, I know how long it's taken to get it back together after Cadwell.

I really, really hope that the oil loss didn't do any damage to the engine, especially all those new trick bits.

[weeian]

Scary Stuff, thats mental. Well Held

/ian

[Guido]

Thanx for all the words folks.

Jools...I reckon you're right mate. It all happened so fast that the only thing that I had any control over that might have helped me was a) rolling off the throttle pretty sharpish and b) the old CSS training about being relaxed and gripping with your knees.

Motor should be ok as from starting engine to kill switch being engaged was about 3 minutes. My guess is that the actual oil leak was only in the last 20 seconds of that (probably from when I upped the revs on leaving the 30 zone).

Cleaned off the tyres and took it up the road this evening and all sounds bluddy marvellous inside those crank cases.... so fingers crossed it gets me to and around Cadwell on 25/7

Thanks again for the words.

Gc

(four stone lighter and with a starfish like an angry giant clam!!!)

[Edited on 16-6-2005 by Guido]