My rear hugger met its end this morning 
.
Ridden about 180 miles from 5 am and approaching my exit on the M5 and I noticed white smoke from the back of the bike, not a lot, initially worst fear was the engine, but it felt fine.
Carried on and mile or so further on, a load more smoke, just before my exit, so got off the slip road and pulled over.
No sign of oil leaks but a strong smell of burning rubber.
Turned out the grp hugger had slipped forward and was seriously rubbing on the tyre while wedging itself against the swingarm.
Of the 2 brackets, the lower one was still there and the hole in the hugger was intact, the other bracket on the swing arm was twisted and locked the hugger in place. It was well jammed in.
Anyway the toolkit had the required spanner and allen key, so a few minutes later I managed to extract the melted hugger and launch it into the hedge (I'll pick it up later). The tyre was Ok but now looks like a well scrubbed in race tyre esp on the right side wall.
What could have happened - I guess the lower fixing had fallen out allowing the hugger to slip forward and get trapped.
Worst case - I guess would have for it to get pulled thru the tyre/swing arm gap and get spat out the back, I can't see a flimsy GRP hugger bring the bike down, I think it would just have been spat out and splintered up. I was doing motorway speeds.
I think I'll go with the rear shock protection described on an earlier post.
Been out this evening and the bike feels fine, especially without the panniers.
. Ridden about 180 miles from 5 am and approaching my exit on the M5 and I noticed white smoke from the back of the bike, not a lot, initially worst fear was the engine, but it felt fine.
Carried on and mile or so further on, a load more smoke, just before my exit, so got off the slip road and pulled over.
No sign of oil leaks but a strong smell of burning rubber.
Turned out the grp hugger had slipped forward and was seriously rubbing on the tyre while wedging itself against the swingarm.
Of the 2 brackets, the lower one was still there and the hole in the hugger was intact, the other bracket on the swing arm was twisted and locked the hugger in place. It was well jammed in.
Anyway the toolkit had the required spanner and allen key, so a few minutes later I managed to extract the melted hugger and launch it into the hedge (I'll pick it up later). The tyre was Ok but now looks like a well scrubbed in race tyre esp on the right side wall.
What could have happened - I guess the lower fixing had fallen out allowing the hugger to slip forward and get trapped.
Worst case - I guess would have for it to get pulled thru the tyre/swing arm gap and get spat out the back, I can't see a flimsy GRP hugger bring the bike down, I think it would just have been spat out and splintered up. I was doing motorway speeds.
I think I'll go with the rear shock protection described on an earlier post.
Been out this evening and the bike feels fine, especially without the panniers.
