So the other day I was whizzing along, and I start hearing bad sounds, loosing compression, etc. I figured that something probably broke inside the engine and since it was about 7 miles home I just kept riding. At this point it would only go about 15mph and was making a bad metal on metal noise. Then finally after about 1.5 more miles it died and that was it. Low on compression and wouldn't fire. I walked home... picked up the bike with my car, and started to assess the damage.
One of the ring pins is missing off the side of the piston. The piston is effed and the cylinder wall is badly scored. I found that the bad noise was the piston hitting the head! (How would that happen? I can tell because in the same place the piston and head are all shined up and scored).
And finally, probably what ultimately caused it to stop running, something hit the spark plug and bent the electrode all up.
So my question is, why did the piston hit the head? And, since the bottom end seems to be fine (has never had an issue at all!), would it make sense to rebuild? (New piston, new cylinder).
The piston hitting the head isn't a bottom end problem, is it?
thanks for the advise.
One of the ring pins is missing off the side of the piston. The piston is effed and the cylinder wall is badly scored. I found that the bad noise was the piston hitting the head! (How would that happen? I can tell because in the same place the piston and head are all shined up and scored).
And finally, probably what ultimately caused it to stop running, something hit the spark plug and bent the electrode all up.
So my question is, why did the piston hit the head? And, since the bottom end seems to be fine (has never had an issue at all!), would it make sense to rebuild? (New piston, new cylinder).
The piston hitting the head isn't a bottom end problem, is it?
thanks for the advise.