Well, todays ride ended poorly..

My bike is currently sitting 4 miles into a trail, 6 feet deep...Nose down between two railroad rails that acted as a bridge...

Went over it before and never new it had a huge hole in the middle because of all the over growth and the left/right side was smooth anyways so never had a reason to take the center line..And you would never know a stream existed the area is so over grown...But A buddy zipped past me and I decided to take center and..Down she went sending me flying over the handle bars to land on the other side..The hole is literally just big enough for the bike to friggin fit!

So since it was just me and my friend it was impossible to reclaim the bike from this pit of doom...

Glad I got out ok..But sht..I just finished this bike! I've hiked this trail a dozen times and NEVER knew that existed..









Edit: added pictures to first page post.

 

That is bad luck.

I dropped mine in chest deep water last fall. Looked like any other 8" deep puddle.....

Be sure to drain the exhaust system when you get it out. I got everything else drained but forgot about the enormous aamount of water in the exhaust and sucked water back inside the cylinder head when I tried to crank it.

Good luck on the recovery peration.

 

Well as of right now..It's more of a creak..With very little water flow..Exhaust is up in the sky so unless it rains in the next 13 hours before I can get out to it, the engine should be fine..

My issue is, I'm pretty sure the front wheel is toast, I know the headlight and dash is smashed as I had to move it out of the way to turn off the ignition..Not sure about the forks though..

Hopefully it's not as bad as I fear..But not sure how much force these bikes can handle..lol

 

This sounds terrible, where's the pictures?

The bikes are built pretty strong, although some minor parts maybe toast. This is a good reason not to worry about all the sparkle stuff.

 

I'll have pictures tomorrow..I had my camera on me..But I was more concerned about walking the few miles to the main road before night fell. I'll have some up within the next 13-14 hours as I'm gonna get some friends to help lift the bike out.. It's impossible to get anything except a 4WD down the train, and even then..We'd still have to have folks in the hole lifting the bike out well others are on top to make sure it don't fall back into the pit of doom..lol

I'm either never riding that trail again..Or bringing some steal plates and a welder to fix that..lol

 

My bike has surprised me with how it has held up to some big hits. I have broken A LOT of the more delicate pieces off of it, but (crossed fingers) nothing major. I hope this is the case for you. Either way , it sucks.

 

Well I'd love to help, but I think I am over 2 states away, thank you.
And, with out a good picture (and laugh) it would be hard to offer an exact solution, but....
I would assemble the following...
3-8' to 10' members, preferably something that you can cut in the field, either conduits or 2x4's.
Before you go, get a way to fasten them together at one end, make it strong. Get a block & tackle/winch with lot of extra rope/cable.
Drag or haul all this out to the site. Built an A-frame over the bike in the field, attach the tackle and winch her up and out.
Don't forget, do not stand or lay under this contraption while using it.

 

That sucks man! Good luck pulling it out today.

 

Something like that would require more time than I have for a rescue of the bike..lol I'm gonna get lucky to get the morning off to attempt the feat with me and two friends with a 3rd bringing a trailer an hour into the event.

The back tire is about 8-10 inch away from the side where I fell in, if we can get the back wheel to lay against that, two of us will lift from the front, and the third will pull from swingarm/subframe and hopefully get the onto solid ground..If we can't get it completely out we will try and get the back half upto the engine atleast on the bridgework..

I had my camera, but totally forgot to snap a shot as I was pissed off that I fell in a hole and that I had a 20 minute walk to any sort of rescue since I was a fool and didn't bring my cell

Lesson learned though ride with a buddy, and bring my dang phone..haha! Trail riding is hazordious to my health

 

I ride by myself at least 80% of the time in some of the most remote areas of the country. While I do have a SPOT locater, I'm also pretty careful about checking a sketchy section out on foot before committing to it. While I will still often tackle those sketchy sections by myself, it's usually after an on-foot assessment of the situation. Impatience can lead to a very long day...or night...or worse. I never ride where I can't see...period. When I raced enduros, I pretty much committed to anything that was on the trail...hoping the organizers weren't trying to kill all the contestants with on-trail boobytraps. But when I'm riding alone or just for fun, I don't have to get myself into a bad situation by just bombing into stuff. Stop and check things out.