In response to the alloy wheel breakage issue of the Bajaj Pulsar RS200 accident that made the news earlier this week, the Pune-based automaker has released a second statement, announcing that its team of investigators have already finished examining the damaged motorcycle in question and found it to be a case of high speed side impact and not an alloy wheel failure as claimed by the rider.
According to the investigation report, the company claims that a ‘rigid object’ impacted the front wheel at a speed of 80 kph, from right to left in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the wheel. The impact is said to have caused the fracture of three nearest spokes while the rest of the spokes yielded due to dynamic overload.
Further, in order to establish that it is in fact a side impact, the report claims that the visible marks left on the rim as well as bending of the fork towards the left are consistent with huge force acting from right to left. In case of a wheel failure, the crack would’ve propagated from front to the rear of the spokes, i.e. visible marks would have been collinear to the plane of the wheel.
The motorcycle had suffered huge damage to its front fascia.We cant help but visualize a 80 kph side impact from an unspecified ‘rigid object’ on the front wheel of a moving motorcycle. Such a impact would have catastrophic result on the motorcycle as well as the rider and pillion as it would’ve displaced the vehicle laterally by a fair distance.
The claimed 80 kmph impact from a rigid object on the right hand side had somehow spared the side panels of the fairing and rest of the bike!Needless to say, the impacted side of the motorcycle (right) would have been severely damaged. However, as the images show, limited damage to the easily breakable side panel (right) of the fairing which is in close proximity to the front wheel is not consistent with such a huge side impact. In fact, save for the front wheel and front fascia, damages to rest of the bike are very limited.
Right Side view of Bajaj Pulsar RS200 for your reference.The fact that Bajaj’s team was able to reconstruct the accident based on its investigation in a matter of just two days is surprising since it usually takes numerous simulations and trials. Anyway, more information on the so called rigid object (its estimated size and weight) and a simple animation or graphical interpretation of the impact would have helped us appreciate Bajaj’s side of the story better!
Bajaj’s full investigation report can be read below. Kindly share your insights with us in the comment section.