[JVS]

Hi guys,

It was such a great day until this happened. I had stopped for a little break after a nice Sunday ride. Bike was on center stand and I kick started it. As I was taking it off the center stand, it came off, but I lost/mishandled the weight and it fell to it's right side. A few people were watching, and they came to help. I have attached a few photos of the said damage.
[suspicious]
I might fix the front fender scratches by using touch up paint? The main thing I'm worried about is the damn dint/dent on the tank that must've got done because of the throttle/power cables hitting the tank whilst it was on the ground.

The headlight visor thing is gone too, and the adjacent dent on the headlight ring thinggy. If anyone knows the part numbers for everything, or how I should sort out all the damaged sections, please let me know. I'm located in Australia.
[/suspicious]
For the dent on the tank, is there something like a suction thing that can fix it up?

[hillntx]

Sorry to hear about your mishap.  Check NField Gear for the headlight mounting kit and visor.  Google "Paintless Dent Repair" for a location near you that may be able to remove the dent.  If you don't have one already you might consider adding a crash bar.  It might not have made a difference this time, but its low cost protection should your bike hit the ground.

[JVS]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I wasn't even sitting on it lol and I just lost it. One more thing, I've noticed that the brake lever is pointing a bit downwards as compared to the clutch lever. This isn't normal, right? Unless it's supposed to be like that. Say if I had to readjust the lever, which screws am I looking at to move the whole controls thing upward?

[GlennF]

+1 on the crash bars, this fall would have caused zero damage

You might find the lever assembly will rotate back without loosening anything. Otherwise I believe its a couple of screws on the underside.

[JVS]

Cheers GlennF

Come to think of it, isn't the front brake lever supposed to be like that? I tried re-adjusting the lever, the level thing that shows the brake fluid can get a bit inaccurate otherwise Nevermind, I checked my previous photos of the bike, it wasn't like it is now, lol. I shall sort this out. O_O

Is there any way to adjust the killswitch/switch housing (to rotate it?), there are three screws that hold the control assembly. I loosened them but I couldn't rotate the thing. It only wanted to come apart. I think this is because of the throttle cable? I want to rotate the switch housing a bit so that I can give some more clearance between the cables and the tank (whilst still having the same handle bar level).

[hillntx]

I haven't adjusted the control housing on my Enfield so it could be different, but on my other bikes the housings are pegged into the handlebars to prevent them from rotating.  You may have bent the brake lever.  If it really bothers you, you can probably get a replacement.  On my other bikes it's about a $15 part.

[Ragmas]

I will say that I have dropped my bike in that fashion a couple of times.  Once as I was getting it off the stand it started to go and as I held the handle bar and the handle behind the driver seat the whole thing just tipped in slow motion.  The handle behind the seat just slowly bent the bracket since it wasn't designed for a side load.  I do have an engine guard, I would hunt one down and slap it on.  Quite a useful device.

Samgar

[hortoncode3]

Butterfly engine guard....YES! I have one and it's made it's purchase price more than once in preventing engine scarring and tank dings! Can't say enough about em! You're only fooling yourself if you think your bike will never fall! Lol! On the flip side, my 2009 G5 Military looks the part of an old war horse now with it's scratches on the bar!

[Ayers Garage]

That tank dent is totally repairable by a paintless dent repair guy. They can make it invisible in short order.

[barenekd]

I've noticed that the brake lever is pointing a bit downwards as compared to the clutch lever. This isn't normal, right? Unless it's supposed to be like that. Say if I had to readjust the lever, which screws am I looking at to move the whole controls thing upward?

The switch boxes are pinned to the handlebars. You can't rotate them without removing the peg that goes into the bars.
Your lever is most likely bent a bit. You can straighten it by putting a big box end wrench over the end of the lever and carefully pulling it back up. Put a heavy towel around the lever before you put the wrench on so you don't leave big dings in the lever.
The better way I've found to keep dings out of the tank is to put handlebars with about a 4" rise on the bike and position them where they can't readily hit the tank, since I am an avid crash bar hater. I had some higher bares on  my bike before I put the cafe bars on it and they were very comfortable. I liked them better than the stock ones.
Bare

[Ragmas]

Bare, do you still have the higher bars?  And would you be willing to part with them?


Samgar

[JVS]

Thanks for the support people. I felt very embarassed after the fall, even though it went down slowly. I broke the bar-end mirror and had all that damage shown in the above pictures. Also chipped the new EFI silencer in two places. I hope it won't succumb to rusting.

I will most likely go for a paintless dent removal within the coming weeks. Thanks Ayers. I was looking over PDR last night and I'm getting some quotes from a few people. As for the scratches on the front mudguard, I will need to use some touch up paint.

@bare, I checked the front brake lever, the good thing is, it didn't bend, but because of the fall, the end of the lever also made contact with the ground, which probably caused the lever attachment to rotate forcefully. I have since fixed it up and returned it to its stock position. Looks better!

As for the headlamp outer ring and the visor, I'll just order those from Hitchcock's most likely. I took out the Minda headlight from that ring thing and could try 'smash repairing' it. But it will leave marks permanently.

I have finally and officially joined the 'dropped my bike' club. It was such a great feeling kick starting the thing and then it all went crashing in front of tons of people lol adjacent a Church parking area. :/

I think it's true that 'you don't own the bike, the bike owns you'. And I got owned even though I feel so confident with it.

Oh wells. We shall move on and enjoy RE riding!

[Arizoni]

Now, this is freaking weird!

I typed my comments that are shown below and went to post them.
When I did,  the computer gave me a
"Warning- while you were typing a new reply has been posted.  You may wish to review your post."

After reviewing the new post it turns out to be by JVS.
I see where JVS commented about my suggestions about the brake lever.
Notice that nowhere above in this topic have I entered an opinion in this topic.  At least I don't recall saying anything and I don't see any entry by me above.

This is truly a "Twilight Zone" thing.
How did he know what I was going to say before I actually posted it?
Do de do do, do de do do... Rod Serling?  Are you screwing around with me? 

JVS
As was mentioned a auto body shop with the right equipment should   be able to pop the tank dent back out.  It's hard to say for sure because if the metal is just dented it will pop out.  If the metal stretched it may still be visible after popping back out.

I think your brake lever is bent but before you try to fix it, ride the bike and see if it is something you can live with.
I'm a bit hesitate to suggest bending it back because it is made as an aluminum casting.
Aluminum castings come in all sorts of alloys and while some may bend without a problem, some of them can be quite brittle and after being bent twice (one by the fall, the other by you) they can crack.
The crack may be almost invisible until you grab the lever in a panic mode and that is when it may break off.

[JVS]

ahaha oops! Forgive me Jim, I confused you with bare. I haven't even touched any alcohol :| Nice predictable co-incidence O_O

Sorry about that!

Now @Arizoni!
As I said up there, thankfully, the lever wasn't bent. The lever attachment on the handle bar, that is secured by two bolts, must've loosened up because of the fall and rotated a bit downwards. I checked my previous photos of the Bullet and noticed that the brake fluid level case was pointing a bit flat as compared to before.

I checked one of the bolts of that attachment and found that one was lose. So I just returned the lever attachment to its original position and tightened it. Lever is straight as compared to the clutch lever now
Feels the same too. Just some scuff marks at the end of the lever (On that circular thinggy)

[Arizoni]

Ah Ha! 

For a moment there I was thinking, "If this SOB can read my mind he probably also knows about my secret thoughts about....."
 well, lets not get into that. 

Maybe some unknown power caused your "Freudian slip"?

Now that I know the answer I'm almost wishing you really did know what I was going to say before I said it.
It would have been one hell of a conversation topic.

[JVS]

lol that power made sure that I should care about the Bullet a tad less. But now I would be spending more time on it sorting these things out. Or I should leave it as it is.

And maybe I can still indirectly read thoughts =o
I shall get back to work for now, slacking off in the office whilst everone else is working.

[singhg5]

Looks like JVS is following me or he is psychic - my G5 had also fallen down but he was faster in posting it.

I had just arrived at a parking lot and turned off the engine. I am sitting on the bike and for a fraction of a second I thought I had pushed the side stand down with my left leg - actually I had NOT. My hands are on handlebar and I started to lean the bike to left to put it on side stand. It kept leaning more and more and down it goes  . A bit embarrased wandering who is looking, I pulled the bike up and it started to roll back but I managed to control it.  Put it on center stand and looked for damage or bent forks.

Fortunately the brunt was borne by butterfly engine bar, the dents are small and after polishing hardly noticable.  A little scratch on the tip of clutch lever.  No damage to gear shifter and forks handlebar seemed straight.

[JVS]

Singh, them crash bars do save a lot of damage, but personally I just do not like the look of the Bullet with them on :/

As mentioned before, I have finally got around to fixing the damage up. Put a new headlight rim & visor, got the dent on the tank removed by a PDR expert and used touch up paint for the front mudguard. I have attached the before and after shots.

Also, I lowered the handle bar, feels good and looks a tad better too. Just got to put the bar-end mirrors back on. Very happy

Lesson learnt: Don't be a tool nor over-confident.

[barenekd]

Put it on center stand and looked for damage or bent forks.

Not likely to bend forks when the bike falls over. If there is some speed involved, you might twist them, easy fix, but bending them is highly unlikely. You have to smack something pretty hard to bend them.
Bare

[JVS]

Yeah, nothing crappy with the forks. It went down at a pace of 0 kmph/mph out of my grip, steadily haha. Still don't know how I managed to get so many dents. I think when the good samaritans came over to help, one of them must've got their knee on the tank or the headlight ring lol

But! I is over it now, everything is sorted. I will try my best not to drop it again! It was my first ever bike drop Felt so stupid after that. *slaps self*

[barenekd]

Bare, do you still have the higher bars?  And would you be willing to part with them?

I still have the bars, but I'm going to hang on to them in case I go back to stock. But they are only about $20.00 from Chaparral, or about any other accessory store.
Bare

[BRADEY]

The bike looks just like new especially the tank job, after the restoration work. Very nicely done. Mind sharing by how much it set you back ? The new handle bar looks very well and must be lot more comfortable to ride compared to the original one.

[JVS]

[suspicious]Cheers bruhzer. I was happy with the job. By the way, the handle bar is stock, just lowered it and adjusted the cable cluster/control thing so that the cables don't hit the tank when the forks are turned to their maximum.

The dent removal was a tad expensive, but after contacting about 5 other dent removal people, he was the only one in my area who also looked at motorcycle tanks. Because the steel is harder on a tank as compared to a car/aluminium etc, no one wanted to come close to it. Another factor is the access to the tank through the petrol inlet/hole. Luckily, the dent was at a place where he could access it easily and the RE tank didn't cause too much trouble (Although he did mention it was probably the toughest tank he has worked on [His first RE]). Whilst observing him, I must admit, PDR takes a lot of patience, experience and the right amount of force.

Eventually, it set me back AUD150. But at that stage, I didn't mind as the job he did was great. I had gone through many PDR videos on YouTube. There are many PDR specialists in the USA for motorcyle tanks and charge a tad less as compared to here I guess. (For bikes atleast)

[/suspicious]

[Ducati Scotty]

A new tank would be more than double that.  Also not surprised it was so hard for him, RE tends to use thick, heavy metal for most things.

Scott