How Might Have This Happened?

[JimMorris]

I just noticed this damage today on the back of the front fender above the front tire on my CBR. It looks scuffed and also as if perhaps some chemical or something caused the damage. I am not sure how long it has been there or how it happened. There is no other damage to the bike anywhere else.

 

Any thoughts on how this might have occurred, and if there is something I need to repair to avoid possible further damage, would be much appreciated.

[sherwood]

looks to my someone has backed into your mudguard while you had it parked. Do you apply the stearing lock when parking in public?  Otherwise no idea.

[JonnyF]

I agree with sherwood. Look at the scuffing on the tyre as well. Something has most likely reversed into the front of the bike, if I had to guess I'd say the bumper of a car has gone over the front wheel of the bike and cracked the fender. 

[JimMorris]

Thank you both for your quick answers. Yes, I normally park it with the steering lock engaged and the wheel turned to the left. That was how I noticed it today in fact. I took out the bike, parked, locked the front wheel and, as I was walking away from the bike, I noticed the damage. I am not sure how long it's been there, but I washed the bike a few weeks ago and didn't notice it a that time, so it is probably pretty recent damage.

 

Yes, most likely some other vehicle damaged it. I wonder perhaps if it was even another motorcycle that did the damage, or is it most certainly a bigger vehicle like a car or pickup that would have caused that much scuffing?

 

Not sure the scuffing on the tyre is related, but it could be. I guess I am lucky the bike didn't fall over when the damage occurred. I am thinking it is was a car though the bike would probably have fallen over, no? 

 

The fender is luckily not cracked. Could probably be repainted and repaired, but I just spoke with the Honda dealer and luckily it is only a 500 Baht part, and comes painted already, so easy enough to just replace.

 

Thanks again.

[johng]

Looks like you had too many  long shopping bags hanging from the handlebars/mirrors ????

[Lacessit]

I'd agree with other posters it is scuffing damage caused by another bike or car.

In more courteous societies some time ago, accepted practice was to leave a note apologizing, with a phone number, offering to pay for repairs. Not much chance of that happening now.

[JimMorris]

32 minutes ago, johng said:

Looks like you had too many  long shopping bags hanging from the handlebars/mirrors ????

That actually is a possibility too. Good thought, thanks. But usually I just have small bags from 7-11 hanging from my handlebars. Cant imagine they would be long enough to reach the fender, or even heavy enough, to cause such damage. But maybe. Can't rule it out.

[johng]

I'd agree with other posters it is scuffing damage caused by another bike or car.
In more courteous societies some time ago, accepted practice was to leave a note apologizing, with a phone number, offering to pay for repairs. Not much chance of that happening now.

A good few years ago someone broke the indicator/turn signal plastic lens on my car
the strange thing was a couple of days later the lens magically reappeared on my car stuck together with u-hoo glue [emoji106] [emoji38]

[Kwasaki]

1 hour ago, JimMorris said:

it is only a 500 Baht part, and comes painted already, so easy enough to just replace.

Yeah way to go, where I live take off yourself give to a guy down the road 150 baht respray.

500 baht order and Honda shops would take off old put new free usually.

[monkeycu]

1 hour ago, Lacessit said:

I'd agree with other posters it is scuffing damage caused by another bike or car.

In more courteous societies some time ago, accepted practice was to leave a note apologizing, with a phone number, offering to pay for repairs. Not much chance of that happening now.

Not in this lifetime in Thailand

[JimMorris]

I just took a closer look at the damage. It is definitely a scuff as many of you suggested. But I realized that the back of the scuffed fender really only sticks out from the bike about 1" more than the fairing does when the front wheel is turned to the left and in the locked position. I know from the angle of the above photo it appears to stick out a lot further, but they are practically at the same elevation. If any of you have a similar model CBR you can take a look at your front wheel in the locked position and see what I mean.

 

Yet there is no damage at all to the fairing. So I can't see how a car could have hit it without having smashed into the fairing as well. The only thing that could have managed to hit the fender at such a narrow angle, and without hitting the fairing, is maybe another motorcycle. Anyway, I guess I am lucky that, with only a couple of inches distance in between, that the fairing didn't get clipped to. To be honest, it is still a bit of a mystery how that kind of isolated damage really could have happened within a rather narrow gap.

 

The scuff area is also pretty wide. I can't see how a bump from a motorcycle tire could have caused that. It looks like something really ground into it. It is almost like something made contact with the fender, got entangled in it, ripped at it to get it unstuck and then caused the damage while trying to seperate.

[JimMorris]

Maybe a set of hands just took a piece of sandpaper and unilaterally decided to sand it down a bit for me. That would explain it happening so precisely in one spot. ????

[papa al]

ghosts

[ktm jeff]

Agree , not from a car. Could it be touching the underside of the bodywork , where a radiator would be , on full suspension travel. Somethings has been chaffing it for a while to cause that many small scratches. Or has someone been resting their foot on it , while sitting on a bike parked next to it .

[JimMorris]

5 hours ago, ktm jeff said:

Agree , not from a car. Could it be touching the underside of the bodywork , where a radiator would be , on full suspension travel. Somethings has been chaffing it for a while to cause that many small scratches. Or has someone been resting their foot on it , while sitting on a bike parked next to it .

Those are all really good ideas too and sound like good possibilities as well. When I first saw the damage it made me think about a spark plug that was changed at the Honda dealer on the bike about a month prior to noticing the damage and that maybe something acidic had leaked or dripped onto the fairing (and caused the damage) from where the spark plug was changed which is located under the gas tank and right above the fender. Normally to change the spark plug the tank needs to be removed, but the mechanic said he had figured away to get to it from underneath without removing the tank. I kind of doubt that was the cause though. I also washed the bike about a week after the spark plug was changed and I think if the damage was already there at that time I would have noticed it.

 

I also just remembered having seen another fairing with the same kind of damage a couple of years ago on another CBR that was parked on the street and, at the time, I also had wondered how it happened. Strange coincidence that I saw another bike in the past with the same perculiliar isolated type of damage.

 

When I go to the Honda Dealer to order the replacement fender I will ask the people there to look at it and see if they have any idea how it might have happened. Perhaps it is something they have seen before and perhaps they might be able to unravel the mystery a bit more.