General topics » OMG! I backed into my bike last night! What have I done?!

Plain and simple, got distracted first with my dog and then a phone call with a needy friend, and I forgot the bike was outside just behind the garage door. Luckily it stayed upright, thank God, but I ended up pushing it back several inches with my Mazda 3, in backing up
I had just returned from an afternoon errand to a major post office on the bike to mail my Mass state tax return.
This is classic sequence of errors:

1. Lost my Sears Craftsman garage door opener clicker remote that was dedicated to the bike, otherwise I’d have opened up and parked on the right wall to the right of the car. The remote flew off in March in my first season ride under aggressive acceleration. Just haven’t replaced.

2. Parked the bike in the center of the garage door right behind the car. Could have parked to the right. Meant to go in through the house and into the garage and open up the door and finish parking business.

3. Caught my outrageously cute 18-month old Labrador napping and waiting for me in the breezeway and forgot about parking business.

4. Saw that my friend called and called him back. Usual chatter about his life and last 7 years of legal trouble. Finally we got to talking about something interesting- my going to “roost” a Tom Turkey for hunting in the morning. (Last week of wild Turkey season in MA). I was headed out at 7:20 last night to shock gobble with a predator call, I’m talking on the phone while backing up, then thud, oh fuck!!

My tire in relation to the fender looks very similar to this pic from an r1200r forum. I haven’t looked at things closely yet, nor have I ridden the bike.

Could I have just rotated the fork tubes with the bump on the tire? Can things be realigned!? Could I have bent the axle? Could I have bent the upper fork tube? What am I in for and what should I check?

The bike as you’d expect was leaned into the side stand and the forks and handle bars turned to the left side/stand side when it got hit.

" ... I ended up pushing it back several inches ... "

As the bike moved back, as opposed to remaining stationary, I would not expect any structural damage.

I can't really see what is going on in that small picture. Are you saying your forks are twisted?

Thanks, guys, for the responses.
I tried attaching someone else's pic from another forum of a R1200R where the front tire was out of alignment with the front fender.
I can't see it either, though it did attach this morning.
I will take my pics later.
From memory of last night's observation right after the incident, I had a very similar thing- front tire seemed to be rotated slightly to the left from driving position perspective.
I will get pics later.

I don't actually know yet about the forks as it just happened, I need more pics and investigation, and I went turkey hunting early today and need a nap.
But the quick things I saw online (while in the field) was possibly with such a listed front tire, maybe something got rotated that can be re-aligned.

Here are some photos. Definitely bunged-up a bit. You can see the 10” scratch in the tar from movement where the kick stand was.
Has anyone ever seen this? Does it look like an addressable alignment problem vs. damage?
It pulls to the left for sure with handlebars dead straight.
I’m going to get it up in the garage on the center stand and try looking at the forks hanging free, from a few perspectives.

As clearly indicated in the 5th picture, you could try loosening the triple clamp and axle bolts to release any stresses. Hopefully, everything will return to center when you re-torque the bolts.

Search YouTube for "DelBoys garage How to realign motorcycle Forks the Easy Way".

Thanks fellas! I like what I’m hearing so far.
I spoke with AJ Cycle in Gill, MA on Route 2 (Mohawk Trail). He was a longtime BMW dealer and now sells Moto Guzi and services those and Beemers. He said much the same as you all. I may take a ride there next couple of days to have experienced eyes take a look and reassure. I may also dig in on the video. Thanks!

Nice! I now have a new YouTube channel subscription

I realigned things yesterday. Alan at AJ’s Cycle confirmed what you all alluded to. He pointed out a couple of torx bolts at the top and bottom “triple tree” and perhaps at the axle.
Interestingly, he didn’t think I should touch the center bolt in the top tree/bridge such as is described in the DelBoy’s video. On our bikes, that’s a large allen socket.
I bounced the forks up and down. I’ll post pics.
I didn’t have a paddock stand or bike lift, so I wondered how do I emulate keeping the bike centered and upright while keeping compression on the front forks.
I used the center stand for stability and planting. I then jacked the front end case with a wood block and floor jack, lifting the front wheel, and then I slid a wood board under the front tire to “raise the floor”, so to speak. And now I could compress. It looks really good so far, and I want to tweak. I will probably cut wood blocks to fit to pin the handle bars where I want them, as it’s just me. And then I can possibly knock the front tire that extra little bit.

You also need to (must) loosen the front axle fixings as part of the realigning process. The purpose of all this is to release the stresses that have been created by you nudging the bike.

I did get those thanks. They were all Torx-head bolts to loosen: the top bridge at the fork tubes, the bottom bridge at the same and the axle at the bottom. Bounced things, and it aligned. Tightened up.
It's been good so far.