mwtillotson
New Member
Howdy there,
I am a new rider (the RC 390 is my second bike; first was stolen shortly after purchase) and I just had my first wreck last week after about 7k miles on my 390. I posted about this on /r/motorcycles, but I'd like to ask you guys about some repairs.
Here is a picture of the crash location (in front of a closed-down gas station):
If you look closely, you will see a line near the mailbox on the right-hand side. That is a steel cable. It started to rain, so I was going to pull in under the gas station overhang to put on some rain gear. I saw the orange cones, but figured... they were just orange cones. I did not see the thin steel cable stretched across behind it (grey on grey plus the rain made it basically invisible). I ran right into it, snagging the underside of my bike and throwing me over the handlebars. Not how I expected to have my first drop.
The cable got stuck under my bike (between the wheels). I had to get some help to lift it over. My left mirror, bellypan fairing, and undertray were shot to hell. Here are a couple of pictures before I got it unstuck:
Other than that, I was pretty dang lucky... except my bike started to pour coolant from where the pipe meets the engine block (you can see the green pool in the pictures above). I was quite a ways from home and didn't want to risk riding on it (fearing I'd overheat the engine if all the coolant dripped out). I am not mechanically savvy; I am very inexperienced. I had my bike towed to my dealership to have them look at it.
Besides the fairing, they say the coolant pipe and O-ring need to be replaced -- that's it. $20 for parts. However, they are quoting me $650 for the labor. That seems insane to me. Can anyone give any insight into this? I hate to pay that much, but again, I'm new to this and I am hesitant to pay $200 to have my bike towed to my place where I'll likely fail in repairing it.
I'd greatly appreciate any guidance.
I am a new rider (the RC 390 is my second bike; first was stolen shortly after purchase) and I just had my first wreck last week after about 7k miles on my 390. I posted about this on /r/motorcycles, but I'd like to ask you guys about some repairs.
Here is a picture of the crash location (in front of a closed-down gas station):
If you look closely, you will see a line near the mailbox on the right-hand side. That is a steel cable. It started to rain, so I was going to pull in under the gas station overhang to put on some rain gear. I saw the orange cones, but figured... they were just orange cones. I did not see the thin steel cable stretched across behind it (grey on grey plus the rain made it basically invisible). I ran right into it, snagging the underside of my bike and throwing me over the handlebars. Not how I expected to have my first drop.
The cable got stuck under my bike (between the wheels). I had to get some help to lift it over. My left mirror, bellypan fairing, and undertray were shot to hell. Here are a couple of pictures before I got it unstuck:
Other than that, I was pretty dang lucky... except my bike started to pour coolant from where the pipe meets the engine block (you can see the green pool in the pictures above). I was quite a ways from home and didn't want to risk riding on it (fearing I'd overheat the engine if all the coolant dripped out). I am not mechanically savvy; I am very inexperienced. I had my bike towed to my dealership to have them look at it.
Besides the fairing, they say the coolant pipe and O-ring need to be replaced -- that's it. $20 for parts. However, they are quoting me $650 for the labor. That seems insane to me. Can anyone give any insight into this? I hate to pay that much, but again, I'm new to this and I am hesitant to pay $200 to have my bike towed to my place where I'll likely fail in repairing it.
I'd greatly appreciate any guidance.
