---
title: "DR650 fender bender"
date: 2020-02-26
vim: tw=80 fo+=a so=999
---

Yesterday I had my first traffic accident on my motorcycle. After thinking about
it, it was fully my fault.

## The accident

image:path.png[The red line is a stop sign, the green line is the car pulling \
into a driveway, the blue line is me]

I knew there was a stop sign there, but I normally expect cars to turn right
(which means they never cross my lane) or left (which means they're heading away
from me, and if I have to I can swerve around the rear of their vehicle). In
this case they went straight at the stop sign and headed for a driveway. So they
kind of came towards me and then suddenly they were blocking the entire road and
I t-boned them and went down. That makes it sound like it's their fault, but my
skid mark is about 10 feet long so I'm sure I was speeding. Also my rear tire is
quite bald, and my bike doesn't have ABS. So if I'm going to ride on a bike like
that, I need to be more conscious of potential hazards in front of me.

image:car_damage.jpg
image:bike_damage.jpg

I felt some bad bruising on my legs and my left ankle, but nothing terrible.
Some cops showed up, and the driver and I agreed that a police report wasn't
necessary. I told the driver that I would tell my insurance that I was at fault.

## Repairing the damage

My bike was initially flooded but after a minute it started up fine and I was
able to ride it home with the forks bent (although the clutch was a bit too
tight). I took the front tire off and found that the front axle was actually
bent (wow).

image:bike_damage_2.jpg
image:bent_axle.jpg

The right side fork tube was also bent, and as I took the fork tubes off I
noticed that the lower fork bridge was bent as well. I measured my DR350 and
found that the fork tubes should be compatible. Since the front brake rotor on
the DR350 is smaller than the DR650 and has different mounting holes, I opted to
use the entire front wheel of the DR350 as well as the fork tubes.

image:bent_fork.jpg
image:two_bikes.jpg

I had to pry the fork crowns into position to get the fork tubes to slide in,
but in the end I managed to assemble everything together. I had a bit of trouble
bleeding the brake line because the DR350's caliper bleeder outlet is sort of
recessed and not easy to access with a crescent wrench.

I took it for a ride and the front end is still crooked. So I bought a
replacement lower fork bridge and front axle from eBay and I'll swap them in
when they arrive. If everything looks good at that point then I'll