Inadvertent Drop

[Peteg]

I'm new, the proud owner of 1998 Valk, 2 days now. I'm wondering what would happen if it were dropped inadvertency on a flat, like an oh no the kick stand is still up. My bike has the Honda hard bags and trunk, but no guard rail for the hard bags. It also has very stout highway peg mounts on the crash bars that obviously hit first. I measure the highway peg mounts as hitting about 3 degrees before the peg lean indicators. I'm a little old man, but I'm thinking provided I'm hanging on to the handle bars with my foot down, it will most likely stop at the crash bar and the bags, but the only real damage to the bags would be cosmetic.   The reason I'm asking the question is I'm considering installing edge guard on the bags as apposed to full chrome guards. Not sure any guards would work for a tits up drop, but I doubt a valk would go all the way unless a significant slope were involved. Any input would be appreciated. This is one I don't want to learn the hard way.

[Jess from VA]

The way to evaluate your question is first to get some help, lay down a carpet remnant, and then carefully lay the bike over to discover your contact points.  Now a careful layover will not usually go over as far as a drop, but close.  You can also use this exercise to discover if you are able to lift the bike by yourself.  It is not easy, and there are some tricks.

You say trunk and bags, but no rear guards, so not an Interstate?

The Tourers also have rear guards.

So you have a standard (with no rear guards)?

Just adding protection to the bags (short of real guards) is no guarantee of bag protection;  often a hard drop will just tear the protection mounts on the bags.

If you have aftermarket bags, the best (not cheap) solution is to buy tourer or interstate bags with the OE mounts, which include real guards.   

[Oss]

I have an interstate, and one day, in front of friends including G-Man I got off the bike right in front of my own home and the bike fell over because I forgot the kickstand was up

Had to buy forward peg, dang those are not cheap !

Pride hurt more than the damage as my friend did laugh a lot at my expense

I got to return the favor on the way back from Spearfish    but that is all I will say about that

[Peteg]

Yes Jess it's a standard as far as I can tell. Looks like someone added a Honda tour pack to a standard. It's all black - honda frame paint everywhere. I bought it from an after market seller, looks great like they cleaned the entire bike and reshot all paint. It may be it had guards and they trashed them to get the best look on the floor with the new paint job. I guess for that matter it may have been a tourer and they trashed the fairing, but I imagine it would cost money to turn a tour with a trashed fairing into a standard to save money, so without taking the VIN to honda, but knowing that the title isn't salvage, I'd say standard for sure.

[Hook#3287]

Your VIN number will tell which model your bike was born as.

GL1500C = Standard
GL1500CT = Tourer

A slow/no speed drop on a Tourer will almost always be a no damage one, if the OEM front & rear guards are in place and the bike doesn't go over to far.


https://www.partzilla.com/catalog/honda/motorcycle/1998/gl1500ct-a-valkyrie-tourer/engine-guard

#'s 26 & 32.
https://www.partzilla.com/catalog/honda/motorcycle/1998/gl1500ct-a-valkyrie-tourer/saddlebag

I've been lucky enough to not have tested that personally, but have seen it a couple of times over the years.

[Chrisj CMA]

Ok so I ll admit to an up to now unpublished incident. A few months ago I pulled into the driveway and my bride met me as I pulled in. I don’t remember now what it was but I had some good news so I hurriedly lowered stand and didn’t notice (because I recently cleaned and greased it) the dang thing bounced back up. So when I sat the bike down it went all the way to the crash bar and saddle bag. However, I got blessed. No damage to either. Now I double check that the stand is fully deployed every time.

[Avanti]

I believe every drop is inadvertent. 
I have always had a habit of kickstand down and than giving it a little toe kick to make sure it is properly deployed with transmission in first gear (parking brake on).

[RNFWP]

01 Standard with non Honda (Champion) bags without guards.
Not sure what would happen if she were moving when laid down, however, I have had her go over to the left and to the right while not moving and on fairly level terrain. She rested on the engine crash bars each way. No damage to the bags or exhaust. I would think that highway peg damage would differ case to case with so many mounting variables. Mine got scuffed a little but not damaged as far as function.

[Peteg]

Cool thanks for all the great information. I think I have exactly the same set of bags as RNFWP. I'm really short 5'-4". Already lowered the seat 1", I'm sure I'll be taking it down further this winter. I've been looking at rear crash bars, but can't seem to find anything available. I think I'm going to make rear crash bars and then do test laydown. My wife and I like to go up to hiking trail heads in the mountains on unpaved county roads, and the bars will give me more confidence. I could probably ride on a 3/16" plywood board and an airhawk cushion. It seems like she makes me stop every 15 minutes.

[Jess from VA]

Built up (or tall) boot soles can help. 

Super low shocks (like 11") make you drag parts in ordinary leans. 

Also, when stopping, do not put both feet down, instead put only the left down and lock the bike down  (from rolling fore and aft) with the rear brake with the right foot.  You slightly lean left on the left (only) foot down, and it is very stable (as long as there is not a hard crosswind).  And don't step the left foot in a dip or pot hole.  This left foot down only was how I was taught in MSF training some 38 years ago. 

[old2soon]

     My Brother-Daprez-fabbed up a right side crutch cane sort of a kickstand for the RIGHT side of my Phatt Ghurl. He fabbed it out of an adjustable crutch end. Those with the spring loade pin/hole adjustments. When She is parked in her cave on the side stand it goes under the road peg on the crash bar on my I/S. And I Make SURE to take some slack out of the forks when I set it in place. And It fits in a saddle bag or my trunk. RIDE SAFE.

[Peteg]

Good advise Jess. I've always been a 2 foot down guy, but this girl absolutely loves the rear brake at low speed - based on my 200 miles in the saddle. In fact the only issue I've had with the bike so far is when I'm stopped with both feet down and need to start maneuvering at low speed. I'm not finding the brake quickly like I do in my other 2 bikes so I'm wobbling a little, depending on the clutch only to keep her stable. If I'm not ok with 2 feet down once I have more time in the saddle I'll definitely play with left only.

[RonW]

The Valk lands on the engine guards at the front and very little on the saddlebags. From my experience the saddlebag guards rails prevented the bags from getting scuffed, if you have them. The guards themselves will get bent. You'd only notice it when you try to reinstall the guards and the bolt holes don't line up. The front engine guards might get scuff marks but not as much as skidding on the pavement. And to your chagrin putting it mildly, the engine guard will be left with a large dimple. The engine guards are just too thin gauge metal.




A Polish company makes rear crash bars but they won't fit around hardbags.



These thingies don't protrude out far enough imho.

[Peteg]

Thanks Ron. I was looking at those polish ones. Based on the pictures I thought I might be able to bend the top bar in a press to make them compatible with my hard bags. I even tried to order them but my credit card info was taken without the order placed. Of course I had cut up the card. That's pretty much what I  plan to do only in tube steel painted black, square corners, no curves. It won't look great, but I could always take them off if I put it up for sale. The bike looks great right now.

[Peteg]

Jess, thanks again for the riding tip. Today I took her out for the third time. Still put both feet down at hard stop, then put my right foot on the brake and one legged it before starting out. All my hunting for the rear brake during initial  slow speed maneuvering from a stop went away. Now all I need to do now is figure out where the kickstand is. This should be helpful even on my VTX 1300 that has a big pedal that's hard to miss, and my little triumph street twin which probably  doesn't need a rear brake. Getting set before start ought to be a lot more comfortable riding 3 different geometries.

[Jess from VA]

Peteg, the little helper arm (for your toe) on the Valk kickstand can get a bit bent.  With kickstand up, it's supposed to be inside the little cutout in the left exhaust can.  If it's not where it's supposed to be, it can be harder moving/finding it with your foot.  If it needs bent back into proper position, stick a pipe or piece of PVC tubing over it and gently bent it back into proper position.

[RonW]

"I was looking at those Polish ones [crashbars]. Based on the pictures I thought I might be able to bend the top bar in a press to make them compatible with my hard bags."


Might take some effort but it's been done before. Honda VT1100 ACE Tourers came with rear crash bars as factory standard equipment and they used the same Valk saddlebags. Their crashbars didn't clash with the shape of the same Valk hardbags.

Saddlebag guard rails (bottom pic.) were not available for ACE Tourers so their rear crashbars were the saddlebags' only protection. Same scenario with bare Valk hardbags so there's a market for Valk rear crashbars. So an obvious question at least to me is if you're selling rear crashbars for Valks, "Why in tarnation weren't they designed to fit the Valk hardbags?"

Perhaps the mounting points on the Valk frame wouldn't make for a strong enough crashbar that protects a rider skidding sideways down the pavement. Most Valk owners though would be happy if the crashbar protected the bags from a drop.

Btw, rear crashbars and Hondaline guard rails aren't compatible. Can't have both.





Just for comparison. Saddlebag guard rails on left. Unprotected bags on right.

[Peteg]

This website is almost as amazing as the bike. Thanks for all the input. Now that I've had the bike for almost a week I'm leaning toward leaving the pretty lady just the way she is. My wife kind of nailed it - told me just don't drop her. Anyway if anything does go wrong I'll just fix it. Already bought a stick of tube steel that will just sit in a pile with all my other junk.

[Knapdog]

I dropped the beast in my garage when I leaned over to pick up my glove, thinking the side stand was still down.
As you can see, I've fitted some protective bits that I bought on ebay and that's where the bike lands.
It was a doddle lifting the bike back up.

[Jess from VA]

That's pretty ingenious, and barely visible if not looking.

[Knapdog]

That's pretty ingenious, and barely visible if not looking.

We have these Crash Bars to protect the engine and our  luggage but we also don't want our crash bars damaged  .
I can only vouch for them in a stationary fall over.
With that 10mm or so protection they also stand a bit higher after a fall, making it minutely a bit easier to right the bike.

[Jess from VA]

That's pretty ingenious, and barely visible if not looking.

We have these Crash Bars to protect the engine and our  luggage but we also don't want our crash bars damaged  .
I can only vouch for them in a stationary fall over.
With that 10mm or so protection they also stand a bit higher after a fall, making it minutely a bit easier to right the bike.

My guards are scuffed underneath from drops and a couple low slides.

I like the idea of an easier lift more than scuffing the guards.  You have to lay down and look up to see the scuffs anyway (mostly).

[0leman]

I layed down (dropped) my Valk year ago last spring.  Got careless and rode up on some ice.  Thankfully was only going 20 or mph.  Layed it down on the right side.  I do have HWY pegs on the center of the crash bars.  The bike was laying on the crash bar/peg.   Because of the ice, no scratches on the bar.  Back was off the ground (ice).  Did have to re-align the hwy peg. 

Side note Don't try to lift a Valk by yourself on ice.   One needs help.   Thankfully the good lord provided three young guys to help.  This was on a rarely traveled road in the middle of nowhere.

[RonW]

I stumbled across these pics in my photo files. Didn't jot down any info about them when I saved the photos, but the rear crashbars seem to clear the Valk saddlebags and to crashbars were added aftermarket saddlebag guard rails. They're not the Hondaline (factory) guard rails. [edit] bike is a VT1100. I guess the same Valk bags made me not notice it wasn't a Valk.

[-mike-]

This is no Valkyrie.
This is a
Honda VT 1100 Shadow Ace Tourer (which shares a few parts with the Valkyrie, btw)

Best,
-mike-

[Knapdog]

This is no Valkyrie.
This is a
Honda VT 1100 Shadow Ace Tourer (which shares a few parts with the Valkyrie, btw)

Best,
-mike-

Do those panniers fit on a Valkyrie? Are they the same bags?

[RonW]

This is no Valkyrie.
This is a
Honda VT 1100 Shadow Ace Tourer (which shares a few parts with the Valkyrie, btw)

Best,
-mike-

Whoops. didn't see that.