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Sad way to end a ride

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steve92106

Well-known member
Joined
May 11, 2011
Messages
112
Well, I hadn't been out on the Uly for weeks but I managed to squeeze a few hours to myself this weekend and went up into the SD County back country, just getting reacquainted. Just before it started to get dark, about 4:30 up there, I hit Interstate 8 at Pine Valley Rd. and headed for home (Pt. Loma) and I started noticing a smell like hot oil. Well, of course it went away as I built up speed but I glanced down for a moment and there was that red warning light searing itself into my retina.

Bottom line, the oil line from the cooler to the scavenge pump broke. I was actually glad to see about a quart flowing out of the chin guard when I made it to the shoulder and shut down. At least I hadn't run it completely dry!
I've got about 29,000 miles on the bike and apparently these things do fail so keep it in mind as your mileage gets up there.

I could go on about sitting at 4,000' as the sun sets, waiting for a tow and how worthless Harley Davidson of El Cajon is about supporting Buell but those are stories for another day. Here's a pic. Really sad, ain't it?
10028_20150106111832_L.jpg
 
nice riding out that way, ...use to work at Lake Morena and took the back roads finding my into La Mesa
 
Geez, I didn't even think about the oily tire at speed. I usually do 5 over the speed limit which is 70 out there and there was plenty of oil all over the rear tire, believe me. All over my right boot as well.
 
nice looking uly steve and damn unfortunate what happened. good tip though for uly owners regarding the oil line. if i may suggest something regarding clean-up....get yourself a spray bottle of cycle type wash....and a spray bottle of household degreaser that is water soluble such as simple green or fantastic....tons of choices. i would flood the rotors, calipers, pads, rear belt, and tires with the degreaser....let sit a few minutes, then rinse and wash and rinse again. motor oil on those perishable surfaces is always bad. just a thought.
 
I don't understand what kind of issues the oil line has. The aluminum tube has been cracked? Or the rubber tube between the aluminum tubes has been cracked? Or the oil tube has been disconnected while riding process?

As I know a rider should check the motorcycle oil lines before every ride. Did you check the oil lines before the ride?
 
No, TPEHAK, mea culpa. I'll add that to the preride checklist. The aluminum lines looked fine to me but I wasn't about to stand in the middle of a puddle of oil by the freeway and poke around too much. It's at my regular indie shop in SD. I don't know if they'll clean it up after they get the part but I'll for sure do a thorough degrease of everything when I get it back.

I think the vibration inherent in this engine at idle is the source of a lot of failures. I had an isolator give out about a year back at about 20K miles. I'd love to take some training in moto repair, just to improve my ability to deal with unexpected problems like this. The repair manual I downloaded to my iPad isn't the easiest format to use.
 

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