I was riding down an unfamiliar street last week and there was a... well, "pothole" is not really the right word. It was just a gigantic pit of destroyed pavement, obscured just enough by a steep decline in the street. I had no time to react and hit it going only around 15-20mph, but it really rocked the bike and I don't know how I managed to not go down, or not get a wheel stuck in it or something. I stopped right away and looked over the wheels and didn't see any obvious damage so I went on my way.
This afternoon I went for a ride and a rotted tree branch fell in the road in front of me, blocking the entire right hand lane. The road was busy and it was not safe to swerve into the other lane. I couldn't stop fast enough, so I hit it doing probably something between 30-45 Buddy mph, and the whole bike went airborne. The steering column shook and wobbled when I came down and it's a miracle I didn't get thrown from the bike but I somehow managed to keep it straight and bring it to a shaky stop. For the record, three other motorists slowed down to tell me I dropped my phone, and not a single goddamned one of them stopped or asked if I was okay. I was physically fine, but absolutely shook. The phone landed on the sidewalk, totally unaffected; I keep it in a heavy duty case. A passing pedestrian asked if I was okay and then removed the branch from the road. A police officer stopped and got out of his vehicle for just long enough to see that the branch was taken care of, and then went on his way, and did not seem particularly interested in how it got there or the fact that I had hit it.
The bike seemed ridable, and I took the side streets home so I could more closely inspect whatever I could think to check. The wheels seem straight, the brake is fine... I don't really know what else to look at. After a little bit I went back out just to see if anything else was going to fall apart on me. Rode some backroads to the next town up and then looped back. Sure enough, on my way back I began to hear exhaust popping noises so I knew something was up with the pipe. When I checked, the bottom mounting knuckle had completely cracked and broken off what I believe is the engine block. The top knuckle looks intact, but the bolt is just gone. There were some broken threads on the inside of it. So basically, the entire exhaust pipe was hanging from nothing but the studs at that point. I was able to reinstall the bottom bolt in the top knuckle on the remaining threads (only hand-tight) after brushing out the debris, but I don't really think this is adequate. There is still some slight popping coming from the exhaust and I'm hoping it just needs a new crush gasket, as that one has already been reused once.
I don't really know what to make of this kind of damage though, or what to expect moving forward. At the very least I need to figure out how to better mount the exhaust so it doesn't snap off the remaining knuckle. Maybe I could install a longer bolt and thread a flange nut on the back or something, but it'd still only be hanging there by one bolt. Ideally I wish I could just have the bike looked at professionally, if only I knew of a good mechanic who worked on scooters, and I had the money to throw at this problem.
