I accepted a new job three hours outside of the city Pipefitting and I figured since the riding time here in Canada is pretty short that I could get a lil bit more time on the road with my ninja.
The receptionist for the job failed to tell me that the turn off access road was dirt, she did tell me though it was only two km so it wouldn't be too bad.So I packed a backpack full of clothes tucked in my rain jacket an headed on my way Tuesday morning at 6 am to beat any traffic out of the city.My trip was going fairly well other then some clouds it was still warm, about three quarters of the way in I hit heavy rain and put on my rain jacket, sure glad I brought it along after all, Thanks weather network, sunny my ...!
When I had finally reached my turnoff It was so muddy I could barely stay on the road once slipping down into the ditch for a moment just to stay upright.My temper was rising as I passed 10km mark and still no worksite, Hmm two km I though,, you lying B!t&*! About 13 km in I finally made it to the worksite and found a two by four to slip under my kickstand so the bike wouldn't fall over. After news from camp security of a theft of two quads and a bike the week before I was very nervous about leaving the bike in the camp.The next morning not raining but still muddy I proceeded to ride the three km to the worksite and leave my bike there as it was under video surveillance 24 hours a day. After 5 days at work without a hitch somebody commented to me bout the calcium that they put on the road to keep the dust down, now I started to get a little paranoid , I went over to look at my bike an the disks and chain were acquiring quite alot of surface rust I asked security to bring my bike into the shop an give it a hose off, called my local dealer and found the best was to clean the chain with WD-40 , re-apply chain oil and use a brass brush to clean the disks.still unable to get the bike clean from dried clay in nooks an crannies I headed off from my final afternoon from work, relieved and just wanting to get home after 88 hours at work that week an a little beat I was glad to get out.
About an hour outside the city is when the problem started, I was anxious to get home and started grabbing gears, ducking down and not seeing behind me as I didnt re-adjust my mirrors for the speed I was traveling I didn't notice that my strap on my bag on the back of the bike had come loose, slipping over on the exhaust. I caught it after I was stopped by a flagger on some road construction and pulled off the road, a four inch hole burned in my pack sack , my boots and gloves in one side my new macbook in the other side , after inspecting the bag , taking out the burned charger for my phone and a couple pieces of smoldering paper I deemed safe to continue on, so I shifted the bag to the other side of the bike now away from the exhaust and continued on my way.Little did I remember as the bag had started burning inside and reached to a half roll of toilet paper in case of a emergency roadside bushes bathroom stop, caught fire and fuelled by oil on my work boots engulfed my bag.
As I slowed down to round a corner I glanced in my mirror and all I could see was flames behind me, frantic I Hammered on the brakes stopping on the side of the road, hit the emergency stop and kicked down the stand, threw my leg over the bike and tried desperately tried to undo the knot I had tied on the rearsets after the bag has slipped the first time.as I ran over to undo the other side the little peg on the kickstand caught on my jeans and the kickstand went up as I yanked the bag off the bike, seeing that it was falling over I dropped the burning bag, trying to break the Ninjas fall but unable to hold it up as it came down, Now "ON" the burning bag Im lifting desperately , trying to get it up an kick the bag away before I start leaking fuel Thinking FAWK!!!, I should have took the fire insurance!!!!!!
After I was able to kick the bag out , life the bike up an pat out the flames on my gloves from the burning an melted nylon I had to access the damage,,,two thousand dollar macbook, warped, black, an screen cracked, still works, and am submitting this post with it, even though it has cracks running through the screen. an burned my fingers on it it was so hot when I picked it up.
my turn signal was partially melted on one side but am not overly concerned as I'm ordering an undertail kit soon.
My exhaust needs a new plastic cover.
The side of my bike I was worried about the most, I thought I was going to have to replace the fairing for sure. but only two bubbles in the paint about the size of a silver dollar . cheaper for a one side fairing then repaint.
Engine casing and lower fairing were scratched up though now gives me an excuse to buy those carbon fiber parts I wanted before.
Moving along now throwing my burning an smoldering bag off in the ditch after pulling out my safety tickets an apprentice hours book ,, all smoking I continued home.Now three days later, I have tore down and cleaned , reassembled my bike.I had to scrub my headers for hours to get the rust off, coat them with polish to bring them back,,, think I put about 4 mikes on a toothbrush sized brass brush getting things cleaned.
Stupid me though, couldn't get the clay out of my radiator and blew over all the fins with a high output pressure washer. So for the quote from the dealer was a thousand bucks for that,,everything else I have found on ebay.. thank God!
Ninja is long gone but damn,,, still in the back of my head what can happen .
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