Safety Wiring

Apparently, motorcycle racing is dangerous.

Beyond the suit, helmet, boots, gloves, back protector and other protective safety gear, it is necessary to set your bike up to a higher safety standard than is found on bikes prepped for the streets. Racing a bike will put additional levels of stress on the components and fasteners to the degree that things can fall off even if they are attached at the proper torque levels.

I wasn't really clear what the underlying theory was behind safety wiring. However, if you talk to an experienced rider as I did regarding safety wiring, the reasoning becomes pretty clear and falls into two general categories. Category one covers items that, if they open up or become disconnected could kill other riders. Category two covers items that could kill you.

Examples of Category one items that should be safety wired:

- Oil drain plug: Losing your oil might kill your engine, but it will almost definitely cause merry mayhem for the other riders.

- Radiator cap: Again, fluids on a racetrack are never good, even if they're just water. (note that most racetracks make you run water only in your cooling system)

Examples of Category two items that should be safety wired:

- Brake caliper mounting bolts,
- Brake line banjo bolts,
- Wheel axle mounting bolts,
- Brake pad retaining pins,

A story that was recently relayed to me by an experienced rider included a brake pad that came out at the start of the track's straightaway. This was a problem when he went for the brakes as he came up to the hairpin at the end of the straightaway. Losing your brakes at any point on the track is generally catastrophic.

If you're going to safety wire your bike, I recommend you consult with someone who is experienced with safety wiring. Have them go over your bike after the bodywork has been removed to help you locate the points that should be safety wired. This may include points that aren't necessarily called out by your club or racing organization's rules. One example that was pointed out to me was the pin that holds my brake level in place. This wasn't necessarily called out by the club rules, but makes lots of sense based on the review of category one above. Another tip included drilling a few holes in the brake lever about halfway along it's length so that it will break off halfway in case of contact with other riders. This prevents you from losing the entire lever.

Having a wheel fall off will wickedly suck, too.

I started the process off with one #45 drill bit out of my harbor freight drill index and started putting holes in things. It was easy enough at first. I took it slow (meaning slow drill speeds) and used WD-40 as a cutting oil. I used a spring loaded center punch to start each drill point. I began with the bolts that hold the brake lines in place, moved on to the caliper mounting bolts, axle mounting bolts (front and rear), oil fill caps, radiator cap and brake mounting bolt. This was all accomplished with one drill bit. Gosh, I thought to myself, this isn't so bad! WRONG. On drilling the oil drain plug, I broke the bit. I then bought 5 more of the same size in high speed steel. Upon encountering a small piece of the previous bit in the drain plug, I broke the second bit. After three more, I finally go a hole in the drain plug that I could get a wire through. There is a new hole in the drywall in my garage. Next, I started wiring. I had purchased a pound of safety wire online, and purchased a wire cutter and new needle nose pliers. You can also get safety wire pliers, but I elected to wire the bike by hand. It's not so bad, but you want to keep the wire ends 180 degrees opposed and allow the diameter of the wire to create twist frequency. I checked periodically to make sure that I hadn't exceeded the distance to the wiring tie off point. If the twist is too long, you may have to start over. Most of the fasteners I wired were wired to other fasteners that had been drilled, but I did have to make a few novel drill points in order get some of the fasteners wired that were located out on their own. Also, expect to lose some skin if you do this by hand. I opened up small blisters on both of my index fingers. Note that the process went pretty fast, and once drilled, the bike could probably be completely wired in about an hour. Additionally, I had to attach a hose clamp around the oil filter, and then safety wire that to something as well. Here are some pictures: Safety Wiring

Overall, it was an intimidating process that turned out to be fairly easy and mildly amusing. Also, there's one less reason that I might get dead....