Can braking hard bend the steering stem? By suppedo (Read 822 times)

[suppedo]

Hi, so I had to brake hard today to avoid a cyclist... I have a BMS Robot 150. I was going 30mph and laid into the brakes pretty hard. The front wheel locked up, hopped, and skidded just a bit as I came to a stop.

When I started up again, the handle bars were a few degrees off to the right side (steering the scoot in a straight line means the handle bars are pointing a few degrees to the right).

I also noticed that the front wheel was no longer lining up with the front fender.

I loosened up the front wheel, which seems to have corrected the fender alignment issue. Next I loosened and re-tightened the handle bars thinking that perhaps they'd gone out of whack... Nope.

I ended up noticing the base of the steering stem (where it attaches to the shock towers seems to be twisted down just a bit on the left side).

The damn thing has been shaking like hell above 45mph recently too...

Is the plausible? What can I do about it?

Thanks all!

[dannicus]

If it happened, it happened. The only thing you can really do is replace what bent. What part actually bent, tho? The steering stem runs thru the steering head. Uu couldn't get eyes on that without some disassembly.

[suppedo]

It's the bottom of the "tripple tree" where the shocks attach.

[Bashan]

You're going to have to strip the front end off and take some pictures, otherwise we're guessing and it's dangerous. Better check your wheel and see if you bent it too, sounds like it. That shouldn't have happened with that amount of trauma, I think you'll find something was seriously flawed at the bottom of all this. Rich