Hobie

Was he on a 98/99 R1 - I know a few people that happened to back when those bikes were new. Front brake seized for no reason. One guy was approaching a stop sign, the other was pulling into his garage, and another was going 50ish down the road. I was there for the garage one, these weren't rider errors, front wheel wouldn't roll even after no one was on the bike and no one was touching the lever.

Hobie

I can see the steering head being loose damaging the bearings and the races, but how could it possibly damage the frame?

I'm not flaming you or talking ****, (emotion and inflection obviously don't come across on a screen and people are always talking **** on the net, but don't get me confused with one of those types) I'm genuinely interested on how this could happen.

old man roger

if you leave them loose it will hog out the seat where the race sits from being hammered every time you hit the front brake

Hobie

I started a bike business as I way to afford college, I'm small time, but I also salvage bikes and have been doing so about three years. I've been riding nearly 8 years, but I'm not a stunter and have never owned a stunt bike. I ride a fair amount of wheelies and stoppies, but my personal bikes have never seen the amount of abuse a dedicated stunt bike sees. I've seen a lot of front end damage on bikes I part out, but that's from severe blunt force impacts and not a smaller impact repeated over long periods of time.

I've seen pitted (on my own bike as well as high mileage salvage bikes) races before, plenty of candy cane forks, bent frames, tucked necks, cracked necks, and even completely snapped forks, but the steering head itself isn't usually damaged. I've never purchased a bike with extremely severe damage, but I have seen bikes that way. I saw an 04/05 GSXR 600 that hit a fire hydrant at a speed estimated to be over 140mph and the steering head was elongated. Again, what I come across and what stunters do to a bike is different. Those races are pressed into the frame and are a real mother ****** to get out of any frame. From my experiences stretching the frame *seems* very unlikely to me, but again, I have little to no experience with stunt bikes.

old man roger

the forks are like a long lever and they create a **** load of force on the neck of a bike and if the bearings are left loose and the bike is riden alot it will casue the race to fit loosley...

i have actually had the bottom race come out of the neck along with the bearing while taking the front end off of a bike ...

just fell out with the bearing with no effort at all

Wheeliest

races are ez to take out and put in... on any bike. you obviously dont have much expierence.

Hobie

Damn son, never seen that, CRAZY. Every time I've needed to remove a race I've had to bang the hell out of it with a hammer and punch. Learn new **** everyday

Hobie

Perhaps I'm doing it wrong, I've only had to do it a few times in these 8 years and I've always just used a hammer and a punch to remove them. I'm no MMI grad, just someone who learns as he goes.

It's always taken me a good bit of hammering to get it to start to move, once I get to that part they usually come out fairly easy. The last time I did it was on an F3 in 2004? It was a PITA. I never have used heat because I don't want to damage the painted finish on the frames.

I just hit one spot a few times, then keep moving around the race hitting each spot a few times until it really starts to move. What's the better way to get them out ??? TIA