Bike submergion

What to do. It will probably be still running when going under, will it start?
Sooner or later it is going to happen to me, and I have no clue what to do.

*I saw a video of someones bike upside down and the guy was spinning the wheel by hand to pump out the water.

happened to a buddy of mine a few months ago... We pulled the spark plug and propped it up to be able to spin the rear wheel while in a higher gear to pump all the water out. Took a while but it eventually started/ran fine. Change the oil as soon as humanly possible...

on my smoker I would flip It upside down w/put the plug in and then "kick it over" a bunch then flip it right side up and kick it some more then repeate the whole process till the water stops coming out.


My lady friends brothers sinks his tw200 regularly, after he pushes it out of the water he just presses the go button till it starts.

hmmm. Ok, I'm still not quite sure what to do.

Shewolf, time for you to go play in the puddles. Feel free to drop the bike in the deepest part. Let us know the answer plz.

*i am soooooo j/k

I haven't sunk my R² yet, but I did dunk my DT a couple of times. I drained out the airbox, pulled the plug out, laid it down and kicked it over a few times, threw the plug back in, kicked it over about 4 times and it fired up. I'm sure with ol Ruffy here he'll go for a swim sooner or later. One of the mudholes I usually play in with the quad is a lake to begin with, and I've had that thing float in it.

You guys better come up with a better plan since it's not an easy job to just pop the plug out of this bike. And there is no kick starter. I would say, just stay out of the deep stuff, but I know "some" of you won't listen to me...... *cough*wolfie*cough*...

If you're going submarine racing with this bike you better be packing some tools and hope the battery didn't get shorted out while you were diving.

mwakey wrote:

You guys better come up with a better plan since it's not an easy job to just pop the plug out of this bike. And there is no kick starter. I would say, just stay out of the deep stuff, but I know "some" of you won't listen to me...... *cough*wolfie*cough*...

If you're going submarine racing with this bike you better be packing some tools and hope the battery didn't get shorted out while you were diving.

Yeah, much harder than with the 2 strokes. Another major potential problem with a 4 stroke is bending the connecting rod due to "Hydraulic Lock". Water cannot compress like a fuel/air mixture, and when sucked in locks up the engine at the top of the compression stroke. Most often the rod bends and may fail later - usually by blasting through the crankcase - Bye Bye Motor. Because the 2 strokes suck intake into the crankacse before transferring into the cylinder, and they have a lower compression ratio, they are less prone to lock-up damage. I would try REALLY HARD not to suck water into a high compression 4 stroke engine like the WRR!!

If you are all worried about submersion, you could always change the WR's 250 out for a 300 Diesel XD

Ok, who put the dummy pill in your Kool-Aid...

SheWolf wrote:

Ok, who put the dummy pill in your Kool-Aid...

I thinks I've been spending too much time around swamp rats

New guy here, just wanted to say Do Not Sink your wr. I hydro locked mine last summer in a deep creek crossing. 3000 miles later broken rod. After tearing it down it is obvious the rod bent. It locked up crusing at 60mph with no waring what so ever. The damage was catastrophic the only thing salvageable is the head, trans and clutch.

I wonder if they make a wetsuit for the R²....oh and welcome to the pack, SVR.

SheWolf wrote:

I wonder if they make a wetsuit for the R²....oh and welcome to the pack, SVR.

First you want a bikini, now you want a wet suit. Make up your mind. I'm not rich ya know!

If you are all worried about water getting into the engine during runs, you can always do what the serious off road 4x4's do and rig up some manner of snorkle for the air intake. It's an Idea, may not look all that pretty but function before beauty right?

*chuckles* That was for the BIKE Mark, not me. If I can get away with going naked while getting dunked it's much more fun. Tib...*smacks* You are starting to sound like Fargo....

SheWolf wrote:

*chuckles* That was for the BIKE Mark, not me. If I can get away with going naked while getting dunked it's much more fun. Tib...*smacks* You are starting to sound like Fargo....

Oh guh

Never joke like that.. bleh... X_x

Joke? You forgot about the pic of his seat on his bike, didn't you...

SheWolf wrote:

Joke? You forgot about the pic of his seat on his bike, didn't you...

Oh jeeze, yeah THAT thing XD

I'm surprised that it would hydraulic if you empty out the water after pulling the plug as such; wouldn't that alleviate pressure by leaving the plug out as you try to get the water out?

If water causes a stoppage from hydro locking, that is where the damage can occur. It may start once you've cleared it but the damage may have already happened. I'd be tempted to tear it down if it ever happened to me. Better than grenading it down the road.

proview wrote:

If water causes a stoppage from hydro locking, that is where the damage can occur. It may start once you've cleared it but the damage may have already happened. I'd be tempted to tear it down if it ever happened to me. Better than grenading it down the road.

Glue some of that breathable membrane over the intake!! Ok...no more Amarula I think my brain is a little too saturated.

happened to me.....bike was totally underwater for 30 sec to a min......bike stated right up!!! i think the airbox cover really keeps out everything...including air!!
I have pics I will post.......

I had a very unfortunate experience recently with "water incursion" (she was pretty much "floating" ). I was lucky that a few people were around to help me recover the bike. These were the steps that were used (thanks mainly to a couple of guys that really knew their stuff):

1. Don't turn the bike over if you can help it: I was fortunate that other people were around so this was very much an option. I pretty much have no idea what I would have done if there were not as I would have been flat out getting the bike out of the water ...

2. Get some more oil: Preferably around 5L, not just the 1.3L that the bike takes. This will allow you do multiple oil changes to hopefully get every last bit of water out of the engine. I was very lucky that it was only 45km to the nearest town and someone was able to drive me. As I could not get bike oil I got decent grade car oil 10W-40 (the Yamaha mechanic said this should be fine). The important part is to get the compromised oil out of the bike and it will likely have water in it ... When you drop the oil you will notice that - if it has not mixed due to running the motor - that water will come out first followed by the oil.

3. Remove and dry the air filter: Enough said.

4. Stand the bike up on its back wheel: This gets the water out of the exhaust (well mostly - see below).

5. Remove the header pipe: Unfortunately standing the bike up does not get all the water out, it can get caught here no mater how much you do the other steps so I found this necessary (after a bit of head scratching on step 8 below).

6. Remove the fuel tank: This was interesting because it took the group of us ages to disconnect the cables (one just would not let go).

7. Pull the spark plug: Make sure you check it while it is out but it should be ok ...

8. Turn the bike over: Stand back - water will be rocketed out of the cylinder and high into the air (I would have thought this was cool except that I too busy having visions of walking the rest of the way home). Keep turning the bike over until no water is shot out. Note that if you don't do step 5 (like I didn't initially) you will find that water keeps getting back into the cylinder and a heap gets stuck in that pipe. To check that you have it all, stop turning it over for a 4-5 seconds and then turn it over again to verify no water is getting back in there ...

9. Drain the water out of the fuel (Or replace it if you have some of course): For me with the Safari tank this basically meant that turn the fuel tank over so the fuel dribbles out the breather, as the water goes to the bottom it should mainly come out first. The Yamaha mechanic I eventually took it to confirmed that the fuel injector on the WR250R is designed to pass water but it is best to get as much out as you can.

10. Put the spark plug back in and reconnect the fuel tank: You may want to just reconnect it and bolt it up later once you are confident that you have a working bike rather than a blue and white 135kg paper weight ...

11. Get some good oil back in there!: Assuming you have been able to get around 5L of oil (I did) do something like:

- Refill with around 1L of oil (don't bother with the full amount - it will not be in there long )
- Start the bike and let it idle until the crank case warms up (no revving it or riding it please - we are not there yet!)
- Drop the oil and repeat the process - hopefully the second time there will be no more than a wisp or two of white in the oil that comes out
- Refill with the correct amount of oil (1.3L)
- Now ride the bike 10-20km without doing anything crazy (like 10K RPM or trying to ride through that water crossing again )
- Drop the oil and refill again with the correct amount of oil - you should verify that there is no white in the oil that you have dropped and at this point you should be good to go ...

12. Drain water from headlight: I did not do this - my headlight bulb eventually spontaneously combusted and had to be replaced.

13. Get to a Yamaha dealer and get some real oil: Fortunately I only had to ride 350km (you may think this is a lot but I assure you it could have been far far worse considering the trip I was doing). I did not go above 90km/hr or otherwise push the bike hard. I had the Yamaha dealer look the bike over and change the oil and fuel filter along with the oil.

The moral of the story is that regardless of how shallow a water crossing looks there are probably bits to the side that are a lot deeper that you should really (really) stay away from ... fortunately the only damage ended up being some scratches to the bikes plastics and engine case ... and of course my pride (or what is left of it).