A bad day ...

Still trying to figure out how this happened. Came back from a great ride and was about to head out to the store when ....





Had kicked her over once and heard a small "bumf" and then flames. By the time I got a water source on the bike it was too late. I'm all for projects but this is taking it too far.

Time for a drink.

Aww, man that sucks. Such a sad thing to see. It looks like you got it out fairly quickly.

Give it a few days, and start in on the rebuild.

I had a fire in the engine compartment on mt 78 f-100, it's been sitting since, keep on it.

It will turn out in the end.

Yep, I'll wheel around the back of the house and leave it for couple of days before starting to figure out the butchers bill.

Dang it!

What do you suppose started the fire anyway?

you kicked it over so current flowed from battery forward, maybe carb float stuck and spilled gas when you opened the pet cocks, and fumes got ignited somehow by battery short?

Yeah, I'm guessing fuel must have hit a spark from a wire but I just can't figure out where. The only wires below the carbs would be from the alternator off to the side of the primary. Maybe got frayed during my previous run. I just dunno.

Man Oh Man I feel your pain.

Take LOTS of drink, give it a few days, try & figure out what went wrong then start making THE list!

You will eventually rebuild a better bike than before.

What type of air cleaner do you run?

Backfire.

That really sucks, but its not a total loss.
I witnessed this on a couple cars back in high school. Got immense pleasure putting the fire out on Kenny's Nova by dumping sand all over the carb - I told him not to test drive it without the air cleaner on.

What kind of air filter was on the bike?

It "was" a K&N, cleaned about a month ago. And thanks for the advice, it's exactly what I'm going to do.

Could have been worse ...

Yes it sucks, I had this happen to me on my Norton 32 years ago, it back fired throught the carbies when kicking it over, leaking fuel tap, before I knew what was happening I had a fuel fire and the fames were running up my left arm, lucky I had my leather jacket on, I dropped the bike in a big panic, but I knew putting water on it would have been worse for it, because the 850 is in a Featherbed frame and my fuel tank wasn't bolted on I was able to pull the fuel tank off the bike once the fuel hoses melted and a friend that was standing beside the bike when it happened race away and grabbed a old tarp the was in his shed and laided it over the bike to suffercate it.

After I got the bike home and looked at the damage, I was surprised it only damaged the wiring, burned the paint off the fuel tank, melted the speedo glass and destroyed the seat, the next day I had the bike rewired, I left the burnt paint on the tank, it looked sort of cool with the charcoal paint job :lol: had it fired up next day but had to waIt for a week for the seat to get redone,

I rode the Norton like this for about 3 years and could enter it into bike shows and win rat bike comp. every time :roll: , the motor wasn't damaged but the Boya black box shit it self a week later from the fire.

What did I learn from this experance, don't run verloitie stacks on your amals when you have a leaking fuel tap.

So hope your bike is still ok, it mite look bad but easly repairable, I had to get mine goig as soon as posiable as it was my only transport at the time.

Good luck with it and hope its works out

Ashley

Sorry.. that sucks. I keep telling myself to get an aerosol sized Halon for my tail pack... having read a few of these stories. You can fix it.. for now, have a few drinks, then a couple more :shock:

Enough residual oil & gas on air filters and surrounding area can easily catch fire from an engine backfire. Open or cracked breather pipes can build up more than enough oily residue to form a small flame-front, which doesn't need much encouragement to set off fuel residue in the area.

I'm terribly sorry to see what happened here. Your bike was beautiful, as seen in your avatar.

Ugh.

Dang...so sorry to see. If anything, I've learned a lesson from your post. My wife and I have 3 fire extinguishers spread out throughout the house...this weekend I'm buying another one that's going in the garage next to my ride.

Hope all goes well with fixing your ride...you know all of us here will be pulling for you and wishing you the best.

Chip

Thanks all for the great comments and for those who may have looked and shuddered.

Luckily, my girlfriend and I had a sublimely magnificent ride to a lunch spot yesterday, which we utterly enjoyed. I'll take that feeling for a while as I roll up the sleeves and get to work!

Always wondered what it would take for me to pull the cork on the Oban Bicentenary ...

"I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me."

-Winston Churchill

cmessenk said:

Dang...so sorry to see. If anything, I've learned a lesson from your post. My wife and I have 3 fire extinguishers spread out throughout the house...this weekend I'm buying another one that's going in the garage next to my ride.

Hope all goes well with fixing your ride...you know all of us here will be pulling for you and wishing you the best.

Chip

Click to expand...

Chip. That was one of the very salient things I took away from this. If I had have had a fire extinguisher close to hand I could have prevented a lot of this of happening. It is impressively surprising how quickly this kind of crap happens.

Always start you bikes outside gentlemen, if I had have started my bike in the garage ...

Fire job, a messy & dirty project. Rather deal with grease, rust and dirt. I have mine all stripped down. Power Unit still in the frame yet. Hope it wasn't your only drivable Norton.

I have 4 extinguishers in my garage at home, 1 in each corner, several throughout the house, and 12 in my shop.

When I had my truck fire it was in the back shop and I ran past 8 extinguishers to the front corner before grabbing the one I used,
it was a muscle memory reaction. the one I used was the only one we had in the shop when I was growing up, and in a panic it was the only one I could think of.
There were 2 halon ones on the floor of the truck right by me when the fire started.


Fire sucks.

bwolfie said:

I have 4 extinguishers in my garage at home, 1 in each corner, several throughout the house, and 12 in my shop.

When I had my truck fire it was in the back shop and I ran past 8 extinguishers to the front corner before grabbing the one I used,
it was a muscle memory reaction. the one I used was the only one we had in the shop when I was growing up, and in a panic it was the only one I could think of.
There were 2 halon ones on the floor of the truck right by me when the fire started.


Fire sucks.

Click to expand...

Yep. Had the same thing happen at the winery. A fork lift had an electrical short and caught fire under an open sided structure. The only extinguisher I could "think" of was in the shop 100 feet away and yet we'd just installed new units on the cage of each forklift we operate. All I had to do was reach two feet instead of sprinting 200.

I had it happen with my freshly rebuilt Matchless G80 many years ago. I was riding the bike down our driveway when it caught. Seeing the flames pouring out around my crotch, I dropped the bike. This made matters worse as the tank then split, fresh fillup on board.

My mother saw what was happening and ran out of the house with two boxes of baking soda. Brave little lady, she got right close to the bike, which by now had really large flames pouring off it, and sprinkled the baking soda around. She managed to put the fire completely out with the two small boxes of soda. She recalled her father telling her that water is not effective on a gasoline fire, that is why she went for the soda. It was amazing how it knocked out the flames.
The damage was about like your Norton, and as others have said, depressing though it was, the repairs did not take as much effort as I first thought they might.

Glen