Damage from dropping bike

[indianapilot]

Last month, on my first ride on my '04 Nomad, I dropped it on the right side to avoid hitting a car that turned in front of me. The insurance agent came and checked out the bike and measured the handlebar. He determined that the handlebar was slightly bent and I ordered a new one. I haven't installed it yet. However, after looking it over there is a dent in the front of the chrome speedo cover. When I turn the handlebar to the stop to the left, the left riser clears the chrome by 1/32" but when I turn to the right, the riser on that side contacts the chrome piece. Is it possible the right riser is bent instead of the handlebar? Has anyone had that happen before? I bought it used but they appear to be Phat II polished risers.
Thanks in advance for any helpyou can give me regarding this problem.

T.L.

[phenrichs]

is it a stock riser? would be tough to bend those.

[lw]

Crashing Sucks ( I know first hand) I'm glad you are OK. The bike can normally be repaired more easily than the rider.
Could it be that the impact jarred the riser out of alignment? The risers were installed by a human and if your bars were tweaked then certainly some of that force transmitted to the riser mounts.
Check the top plate of the triple tree and see if you can see if they were moved out of whack from where they were before the crash. If so, you can re-align them when you install the new bars. If not, then maybe a call to the adjuster is in order.

[toophun]

While you have the bars off, pull the risers and see if they both line up. More than likely, knocked out of alignment. If only off by 1/32, use the offset hole or pull back the speedo housing and retighten, you won't even notice it.

[macmac]

Not all bikes are the same exact measurements in the first place. I have Phats II's on and they hit new, and being a x car tech I did everything i could do to avoid it, but in the end all of that amounted to nothing....

I pulled the tanl back, I cut the speedo mounts so I could pull them back and tweaked anything possible to gain any clearance, and just could not get it. So I got two tiny dents and could care aless.

You on the other hand should pull the risers off and check for cracks, and any minor alignment problems, maybe just re-centering will do it, and maye the bolt is bent and you want a new one..

I wouldn't trust any Ins Agent to know more than drive a car, snap a pic, and say something stupid. I have my doubts he even know what all the little marked lines mean between one inch and the next... Hmm I wonda what that little mark means must be 48/32nds huh?

it could be worse that that and maybe he's like me! I rode right thru 7 out of 5 possible deserts once.

[AlabamaNomadRider]

Sorry to hear about having to drop your bike. I dropped my '08 on the left side the third day I owned it. Had to replace the left mirror and clutch lever. I just recently replaced the rear crash bar as it was damaged more than the front crash bar. I hope I don't have to go through that again. Hope you don't either.

[indianapilot]

Thanks, guys for all the ideas. Looks like I'll be taking things apart and investigating further.

T.L.

[dogdoc]

gene, keep that throttle open a little more and you wont lay it over so much at slow speeds. :-)

[skimo]

Also check the actual steering stops for the steering head. They are located on the bottom of the head tube. After my little spill, I found that the stop on one side was chaffed or chipped which let the bars swing a little further to that side. Now to fix this, I used a small dab of JB weld on the stop to square it back up.