Scary 2019 incident on my RE Interceptor: Front wheel seized on ride

The bolt holding the front caliper assembly had sheared off clean causing the caliper to drop and the misalignment made the pads seize the disc.

BHPian adrift@life recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Sorry to Hijack this thread, long post incoming. I had to elaborate in response to ebonho. Mods kindly remove or move if this is inappropriate or not related to this thread. Also, I have changed mobiles since the episode and all images are from google photos which were taken on old mobile phones, so please excuse the quality.

Here's what BHPian ebonho had posted:

Damn bro! Failed as in sheared clean through or fell off? How did you come out of that without a crash? Do tell us more. This is the stuff of biker nightmares

Cheers, Doc

Happened within three months of getting the bike.

I left for the Goa Rider Mania 2019 a week before intending to spend time in Goa, however, en route, I met a group of riders whose destination was Goa but they were going to spend time in Hampi and then head to the Rider Mania. so I joined them in their plan.

They were very polite and accommodated me with their plans, what was going to be a solo trip ended up being a group ride.

I had done about 2.2k km in those three months before the Goa trip and had accessories like fork gaiters, sump-guard, and tall flyscreen installed at the Company service center in BTM 2nd stage Bangalore.

From Hampi headed to Goa through Chorla ghat and returned back through Karwar, Gokarna, and Jog Falls.

While returning I was riding alone because I spent an extra couple of days roaming old Goa after rider mania.

The reason for mentioning the itinerary and accessories is because of what transpired later at the service center.

I wanted to reach Hosur by sunset and was pushing the last leg of the journey at Narasandra while I was overtaking a car and a truck, I was between the two and had to apply brakes, the front brakes failed and the lever was moving freely. I suspected a hydraulic leak but the was a screeching noise and the bike dropped speed and not in a normal way fortunately there was no traffic behind me so I used the rear brakes and slowly sidelined the bike. My stars were good I guess.

On inspection found the hoses and oil level to be ok, metal shavings, and dust on the alloys. photographed them and called the RSA, the RSA enquired me on the route I took and said it was my rash driving through the ghats that must have caused the brakes to overheat and seize. I politely told them about the front caliper state and how I was unable to move the vehicle at all.

From about 1740 to 2230 I was left stranded till the rescue vehicle arrived.

The bike was taken to SSS Motors Nelamangala, and I took a cab home. rest of the conversation was through a phone call with a RE representative from Chennai who traveled to SSS Motors and the service manager there.

When I went to collect the bike they explained what had happened and what had been done to rectify it. The bolt holding the front caliper assembly had sheared off clean causing the caliper to drop and the misalignment made the pads seize the disc. The explanation was as I had suspected and I did not make a fuss.

I was asked numerous times if I had removed the front wheel for any reason and if there ever was a puncture, never had a puncture to date, touchwood. I don't know if the calipers have to be removed to remove the suspension forks to install the fork gaiters that's the only reason I could think of, and improper tightening without torquing when fitting back. But then again this too was done by their company-owned service center. I wasn't charged for anything and got the bike back in two weeks. While the people at SSS Motors were quite polite, they had spilled brake fluid onto my rear alloys which is an eye-sore to date.

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