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/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl General Category >> The Cafe >> Dirt bike broke in half /cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1442789917 Message started by Steve H on 09/20/15 at 15:58:35 |
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Title: Dirt bike broke in half Post by Steve H on 09/20/15 at 15:58:35 My son broke his chinese dirt bike in half the other day. He was just riding down the side of the road going to his friend's house about 1/4 mile away. He called me and said something's wrong with my bike...the front end is leaning one way and the back end is leaning the other. The tubing broke under the tank right at the back of the gusset from the steering head. I guess the gusset didn't go back far enough to distribute enough of the load and it started bending right there at some point. The tubing is about the same stuff you see on the metal kid's gym sets. It's roughly the same size and thickness and is quite soft metal. We got everything back in position and tacked it to hold it together. I started welding on it today. Even at very low power, it's easy to burn through. I am going to add some additional stiffening metal to it to hopefully prevent this problem from happening again. Anybody have any suggestions about helping to prevent this from happening again? And, anybody who might have a kid with one of these, you might want to check the tubing under the tank to make sure it isn't flexing and bending. |
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Title: Re: Dirt bike broke in half Post by justin_o_guy2 on 09/20/15 at 18:17:59 Not all frames are created equal. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rTfu0hjVtzE |
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Title: Re: Dirt bike broke in half Post by Kris01 on 09/20/15 at 20:34:54 Isn't there ANY quality control for something like that? I mean it's probably not street legal (or is it?) but it can kill you if it fails. |
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Title: Re: Dirt bike broke in half Post by justin_o_guy2 on 09/20/15 at 21:17:04 What are you planning on doing? I hope you are a better welder than I am. Aww, who am I kidding? Everyone is a better welder than I am. |
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Title: Re: Dirt bike broke in half Post by Dave on 09/21/15 at 03:23:30 48716A703332030 wrote:
There is very little quality control on this kind of stuff from China......and most likely very little engineering. They just copy stuff and make it as cheaply as they can. My neighbor was working on a friends "pit bike", as the chain kept coming off. The chain tensioner just had a steel shaft mounted in a steel tube welded to the bottom of the swing arm, with an external spring. No bushings, no bearings, no grease fittings, no seals to keep the dirt out. When the tensioner wore it would no longer stay straight and the chain could flop around and come off. |
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Title: Re: Dirt bike broke in half Post by Steve H on 09/21/15 at 04:29:03 Dave hit it with that explaination of QC for chinese stuff. Probably the most QC is does the paint look good, everything straight, does it run, are all pieces on it. They copy mainly old Honda designs and make them much more cheaply than Honda ever did. It's not street legal, just a little 'pit bike' but still stuff like that can kill you. I'm glad he was putting along at 10 mph and was able to feel something going wrong instead of jumping a ditch or something and landing when it broke. I have welded the frame back together and it appears to be holding. He went on a test ride last night and said it rides and feels fine. No signs of any bending or cracking. Now that it's back together satisfactorily, I will have to reinforce it so it doesn't break apart from flexing again. |
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Title: Re: Dirt bike broke in half Post by prechermike on 09/21/15 at 04:49:36 6F7076716C6B5A6A5A62707C37050 wrote:
My buddy told me if you had a grinder, you could be a welder. According to that philosophy, I'm a welder. :D OK, actually, I'm a dauber. But the grinder makes it better, some. :-? |
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Title: Re: Dirt bike broke in half Post by Dave on 09/21/15 at 04:58:49 3E3C2B2D262B3C2327252B4E0 wrote:
My buddy told me if you had a grinder, you could be a welder. According to that philosophy, I'm a welder. :D OK, actually, I'm a dauber. But the grinder makes it better, some. :-?[/quote] I have the same aptitude with drywall. What I lack in skill when applying the mud....... I have to fix with lots of sanding! |
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Title: Re: Dirt bike broke in half Post by engineer on 09/21/15 at 07:03:54 A guy I know toured some Chinese industrial facilities and he had some real horror stories about their practices. He went through a building where they were stick welding assemblies. Crude homemade transformers with exposed wiring, no covers whatsoever, were bolted to the wall at each weld station. No controls or settings of any sort. From there mostly bare wires ran from these transformers to the ground clamps and the rod holders. That was what they called a welder. |
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Title: Re: Dirt bike broke in half Post by Kris01 on 09/21/15 at 19:32:15 I actually meant quality control after it's been imported. Surely DOT has a say-so in what constitutes "safe workmanship" for a motor vehicle, street legal or not. Is it really this bad? Just ship a POS to America and collect the money? |
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Title: Re: Dirt bike broke in half Post by justin_o_guy2 on 09/21/15 at 19:46:57 You ain't seen Nothin yet. Wait till this last Trade Agreement gets enacted.We deny an import, the country of origin gets to sue Us in international court. We pay for the losses. Wait, |
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Title: Re: Dirt bike broke in half Post by Steve H on 09/21/15 at 21:40:55 Kris, it's that bad. If it's for off-road use, DOT doesn't care about it. Fake an EPA report and send it on over. If it's not a street vehicle, there is no crash testing or rating. His bike has not had an easy life. He's been riding the heck out of it for almost 3 years now. Overloading it with 2 people on it. Riding rough bumpy trails like that. He's broken at least half of the spokes out of the back wheel twice by carrying somebody on it. I tried to explain about weight limits...I really did. He's a typical kid. He doesn't think about the consequences until after it happens and its too late. My son didn't heed the take it easy and slow until after we reinforce the weak area. He we down the trails today. Down about a 50 or 60 foot hill with terraces. By the time he got to the bottom, he had broken it clean in two. No little slightly hanging on piece this time. Guess this weekend I'll put it back together again and not let him near it until its fully reinforced. This time it also broke the plastic gas tank and one of the hold-downs for the seat. |
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Title: Re: Dirt bike broke in half Post by justin_o_guy2 on 09/22/15 at 09:57:19 You might be ahead to strip the bike and hang the frame on a wall in his bedroom and tell him when he has the money for a replacement, then he rides. It might have saved me some pain if, when I destroyed a bicycle in a crash, I had been walking a while. I only suffered the pain of the crash. I had another bike ready to ride about the time I was healed up enough to go play. My attitudes didn't change. Maybe nothing would have changed them, I don't know.. but busting your butt to give him the opportunity to have fun is one thing, fun can be had at less than breakneck speed, or, so I've heard...Didn't work for me, And I have the damage to prove it. How crazy was I?I had a three speed, twenty six inch, Sears Austrian racer. The guys were having a little jump competition, coupla judges, watching landings, moving a rock, inches gained,, and I got enough of it. Went to the end of the cul de sac, started running on the pedals, thru the gears, a ditch was the launch, down inches leaving the road, up a couple of feet on the back side. Threw me off the seat, hands clinging to the bars, upside down, head thrown back, to see where i was going, and I was looking down at the top bar of a swingset. The tire hit about a foot ahead of two swings I went between. I was rigid, stomach hit the seat, feet didn't hit dirt.. And I didn't crash. And we never had a jump contest again. The bike that was destroyed was from not being able to complete a turn. Went off a twelvish foot cliff. That , I only remember leaving flat dirt, and waking up once as the guys were dragging me thru a fence, musta been out for at least half an hour.. I don't know if anyone could have corralled the reckless streak... At least you have a kid who has an adventurous heart, and doesn't sit and play stupid video games all day. I'm sick of driving around and not seeing kids out doing things. It's RARE to see a few boys on bicycles, heading out to do stuff.. |
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Title: Re: Dirt bike broke in half Post by old_rider on 09/22/15 at 20:57:50 Steve, nothing really that i can add to these guyz posts. You do get what you pay for.... Chinese stuff sometimes is great and you get a good price, but the quality is really iffy. I mean, some companies really do care, but most of the bike stuff, just isn't up to the standards that we expect. Glad to hear your boy didn't have a major incident...... As far as fixing it?.... throw some 1/4" steel along the sides.. and weld it good! :D |
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