My SV650 is Dead

[zero]

My SV is dead. 

 

Last night around 9:30 the super in my building came to my apartment to tell me that my bike was on fire. Fearing that it had spontaneously combusted due to my poor wiring skills I ran outside. When I got out I discovered that my bike was on fire due to no fault of my own, or my bikes. As it turns out, a buried transformer flooded with the heavy rain we got last night and exploded. Apparently someone decided it was a good idea to have a gas line run in the same vault, which I parked above. The two, 300lb concrete and steel vault covers were blown into the air and my bike went with them. One went high enough to damage scaffolding that was 8' in the air and then land on an adjacent car. My bike then fell into the vault where the gas line continued to burn for many hours. 

 

Eventually the fire department hooked it to the ladder and hoisted it out of the vault. At night in the rain it looked like the damage might not have been that bad, but looking at it this morning, it became clear that it's a total loss, with the frame cracking at the two right front welds. Now I start the process of going after ConEdison. Luckily a friend has a sandy damaged bike that I could likely steal the frame from. Carnage below... Videos to follow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[EF Ian]

That sucks, even more so because its the better SV (with the carbs and the round frame)

 

Surprised it split like that, I always though proper welds were meant to very strong.

[seattlejester]

That really does suck. Hope they are decent human beings and sort this out.

 

I'm guessing the welded spots have been heat treated so continual baking caused it to become brittle and separate? If it was caused by an impact you would expect it to be right next to the weld.

[johnc]

What crazy way to lose a bike.

[zero]

I believe the welds cracked from the impact. Looking at the size of the dent in the frame, I suspect that the bike went reasonably high in the air before falling on the edge of the vault. A simple fall would not have cracked the frame like that or dented it for that matter. The bike also didn't get too hot. As you can see the actual heat damage was pretty small, and that part of the frame was actually pretty far from the flames. 

 

I will revive the bike, and I think I'll be leaving the burned panels on, hehe.