I was working on my street bike earlier this week and noticed one of my swingarm spools was missing. When I looked under the swingarm I noticed that the whole spool mount was torn off and there was a hole through the swingarm were it was. This bike has NEVER BEEN DOWN or in any kind of incedent whatsoever. I went back and looked at the track photos on PicsofYou.com from VIR on the 20th and noticed something really weird. My right swingarm spool was on the bike as normal through the first few sessions of the day, but in the later pics it is clearly visable that the spool and mount had already been torn off durring the afternoon sessions, so this obviously happened on the track. The bike never went down or was involved in any kind of contact with any other bike. I also never even put the bike on the rear stand that day because I had the kickstand back on the bike. The only thing out of the ordinary that happened all day were a few run-offs coming into a turn too hot and running into the grass for a few yards and then turning back onto the track. The damage looks pretty severe and I'm just wondering how the hell this could have happened with no lay-down??? Has anybody seen something like this before?
I've never heard of one breaking off like that without hitting something. Possibly when you ran off the track you hit something other than just grass, like a rock or somebody else's old broken bike pieces.
could be a crap weld/heat treat from the factory - or some fatass could have sat on it with it on the stand - or some combination of the above or similar - etc. Not real surprised.
mine did the same thing when i put it on the rearstand once. called kawasaki and they said it wasnt anything to worry about since it has no structural integrity to the swngarm. i rode 7 TD's and prob 3,000 miles on it, and had no problems, but i made sure i kept an eye on it becuase i cant believe that it would be 100% ok to ride with a hole in it, lol mine was a pretty clean break btw, it wasnt cracked or anything, just two holes where the mount was
Could it have hit the pipe during your off track bouncing around. PS I looked for the year of he bike and did not see if its a under tail than this would not have happened.
For some reason the new Kawi's are terrible with ripping holes in the swingarm and it doesn't take much. I have see 5 in the last 2 years, 2 of my own, small lowside ripped it off and made a huge hole, I put on new swingarm and had a guy run into back of me in race, ripped it off and another hole as well. Then in a rain event, another rider highsided his and it put a HUGE dent in the swingarm and tore a hole as well. Thew 07/08 swingarms on the kawi's seem really thin and weak. Justin
Crap welding from Kawi in the first place. Have lost both sides on mine from lowsides. Your spool could have caught on some curbing at lean and ripped it off. I had some of those nifty axle sliders on until I went to trackday at Nashville. Pretty sure I clipped some curbing and ripped it off, as they were gone after my 2nd session. Were locktited, so they didn't vibrate off.
Yep, mine broke off, made a huge square hole and then cracked the swingarm 6" upthe underside. All I can think of is the weight of the bike and myself sitting on the bike while it was on a rearstand. Junk. Hopefully I can get some cash at the recycling place since the stealership laughed when I asked for a new one.
Thanks for the responses guys. I guess I could have caught the curb/rumble strip a little bit while leaned over and straitening out the "s's", but I would think I would have felt an impact that ripped a chunk out of the swingarm. I really never sit on the bike while its on the stand at the same time. It still has the kickstand, and especially just because this was pretty much just a street bike that I do a few trackdays on when the actual track bike is down. This must just be a complete shit weld from the Kawi factory, and the more I bring it up the more I hear about other kawi owners having the same problem. I guess I'll try to order some replacement spools from pitbull or vortex just to plug the hole and weld them back in place.
Mine broke off as well. Just putting it on the rear stand. This is a common problem with the late model ZX-6R's.
Doesn't sound like a bad weld. It sounds to me like it is welded to aluminum that is not strong enough. If there we some slight reinforcement there it would be good, but it's like welding a jack point to the fender on your car, it's just thin metal with no substance and would tear the door skin in short order.
