Bike Toppled - Is It damaged?

[kmisterk]

Album of pics I think may be damage.

https://imgur.com/a/JPu6Z7j

Small back story:

I parked on the street in front of a house I was visiting. I put it on the center stand.

I believe one of the other guests backed into it, toppling it. They put it on its side stand. I know this cause later, it was, well, on its side stand when I eventually came back out.

The people responsible never owned up to it, even after asking, but that’s not the point of this thread

My questions:

1. Is the left exhaust bent or is it designed with that depression?
2. The rear axle looks to have been pushed in somehow, evidenced by the obvious ring where it *normally* sits. Furthermore, the “gap” where the final drive meets the drive shaft plate seems larger than it should be. It’s currently looking to be about 2-3mm wide.
3. From the rear, it appears to me that the two pipes don’t align. Are they supposed to?

What worries me is that the nut on the other side of the rear drive shaft where I believe the axel is “fastened” (I think?) isn’t loose, and yet, if the drive axel did move, it seems The whole wheel shifted. Is this something that should be possible, given enough force applied to the left side of the axel pushing towards the right of the bike?

[ME 109]

The dent in the muffler near the head of the axle is normal. Done so the axle can be removed without removing the muffler.
The gap between the fd should be about 1mm. It is possible you have a longer 'top hat' in the axle assembly to allow for a wider tyre, not unusual.
Having both mufflers symmetrical is the ideal, but it's not always the case. You may be able to get them sitting better by adjusting/altering/remaking the muffler mounts.

[kmisterk]

The dent in the muffler near the head of the axle is normal. Done so the axle can be removed without removing the muffler.
The gap between the fd should be about 1mm. It is possible you have a longer 'top hat' in the axle assembly to allow for a wider tyre, not unusual.
Having both mufflers symmetrical is the ideal, but it's not always the case. You may be able to get them sitting better by adjusting/altering/remaking the muffler mounts.

Okay. That’s reassuring. I don’t think the bike has ever had non-standard sized tires, but there’s about 40 years of existence in this bike I wasn’t privy to. Only what I’ve been told.

I’ll keep an eye out and see if the axel seems to Move more.

[Rob Frankham]

To my mind, the left muffler is too high. In my experience, the axle, as it is withdrawm, only just clears the recess in the muffler and, in this case, there appears to be more than normal clearance there. This, of course, accords with the different heights of the silencers (although ME109 is quiite right, it's not unusual to see silencers on aitheads at different heights. I'm tempted to think that the bracket that holds the solencer to the frame (or the silencer itself where it meets the bracket) might be a bit bent. Whether that's because of this incident or not I couldn't say. There is a considerable amount of adjustment available in the setting of the mufflers. If you loosen all of the fixings (including the silencer mounting bolts, all of the exhaust clamps and the head nuts) and make sure the joints can move, you'll find you can obtain a cosiderable variation in the height of the muffler... even adjusting the alignment of the headers in the head will move the rear end by an inch or more.

As to the diff clearance, it is larger than normal but I can't see any way an impact such as you describe would affect that. I think it was there already and you just hadn't noticed. As has been said the position of the hub in relation to the final drive is set by the yop had spacer between the two. There are various spacer sizes and I think I'm right in saying that the inside 'top hat' is a different width than the outside one. It may be the case that they've just been fitted wrong.

Rob

[ME 109]

I had some Staintune mufflers made a couple of years ago and asked them to not put that hideous dent in the muffler. Much better.

[kmisterk]

To my mind, the left muffler is too high. In my experience, the axle, as it is withdrawm, only just clears the recess in the muffler and, in this case, there appears to be more than normal clearance there. This, of course, accords with the different heights of the silencers (although ME109 is quiite right, it's not unusual to see silencers on aitheads at different heights. I'm tempted to think that the bracket that holds the solencer to the frame (or the silencer itself where it meets the bracket) might be a bit bent. Whether that's because of this incident or not I couldn't say. There is a considerable amount of adjustment available in the setting of the mufflers. If you loosen all of the fixings (including the silencer mounting bolts, all of the exhaust clamps and the head nuts) and make sure the joints can move, you'll find you can obtain a cosiderable variation in the height of the muffler... even adjusting the alignment of the headers in the head will move the rear end by an inch or more.

As to the diff clearance, it is larger than normal but I can't see any way an impact such as you describe would affect that. I think it was there already and you just hadn't noticed. As has been said the position of the hub in relation to the final drive is set by the yop had spacer between the two. There are various spacer sizes and I think I'm right in saying that the inside 'top hat' is a different width than the outside one. It may be the case that they've just been fitted wrong.

Rob

Thank you for the second opinion! I think you’re right in that the dent in the muffler was there already. It looks too precise to have happened on accident.

I had some Staintune mufflers made a couple of years ago and asked them to not put that hideous dent in the muffler. Much better.

Pics? One of the things I have been pondering is alternate mufflers, as well as alternate intake methods. Would love to see yours!