How common is it for a bike to catch on fire?

I know just the guy to respond to this, gonna send him the link now.

Lol......I only know about trailer fires! Did see a 4 stoke quad explode into flames at a Briarcliff mx race once though!

Its not common. Anything with electronics, heat, and gasoline can catch fire.

The only fire on my bike is my graphics kit ???

bikes are just too lit these days

The only bike I've ever seen catch fire (and this was a YouTube video) was a vintage bike in a woods race at Mid Ohio Vintage Motorcycle Days this year

Let's see some of these *lit* pics you've been coming across...

My 1975 KX250 caught fire last year once in the airbox when it backfired while trying to start it. I quickly put it out so it wasn’t a big deal but, yeah, it did happen.

My 13 250 xc caught on fire a few years ago. I was washing it when I noticed smoke coming up from behind the front number plate. It immediately caught my attention because the bike was 100% cold so I knew it couldn't be steam and shouldn't be coming from there anyway. Put down the pressure washer to check it out and my wiring harness was in flames! luckily I had on thick gloves because it was the middle of winter so I just stuffed both hands in there and smothered it out.

DYE wrote:

My 13 250 xc caught on fire a few years ago. I was washing it when I noticed smoke coming up from behind the front number plate. It immediately caught my attention because the bike was 100% cold so I knew it couldn't be steam and shouldn't be coming from there anyway. Put down the pressure washer to check it out and my wiring harness was in flames! luckily I had on thick gloves because it was the middle of winter so I just stuffed both hands in there and smothered it out.

wtf???? did you ever figure out exactly how / why this occurred????

So back to the original question, how common is it, I'd make a guess around 1 in 50,000.

It seems to be more common with KTM's.

rmoto003 wrote:

The only fire on my bike is my graphics kit ???

Made the mistake of passing my mixtape out at a race one time, next thing I knew trailers were burning up left and right bro.

There was a #3 KX450 that caught fire every moto this summer when an orange # 25 was out front...

Don't forget to tip your waitress, folks!

Only 2-strokes catch on fire Seriously though, how many times have you seen a 2-stroke catch fire when someone is checking for spark and it ignites the gas fumes coming out the plug hole?! It's usually just a flash fire..

Years ago when I was working for one of the current bike manufacturers we had a 30 foot enclosed trailer burn to the ground. A portable generator on the side of the trailer had a gas line leak and caught fire and eventually ignited the propane tanks and oxy acetylene tanks in the trailer...

I'm assuming he saw that new Kawi on fire, I think it was on instagram a few days ago. Not common

I remember the bikes catching fire when guys weren't putting fire proof filters in after removing the backfire screen on their 4 strokes. Heard of it happening quite a bit some years back.

Nobody has mentioned the fire scene in On Any Sunday yet?

Seen it a few times over the years , one was a early electric start Ktm450sx , a crashed ripped the gas cap off and then also damages the start button causing it to ignite ,

As above I have seen a rm80 catch on fire Shen someone was checking for spark

And I saw an old tt350 catch fire on a trail ride

All the time. especially when I'm smoking crack at the gas station/ filling my tank etc. pretty much anytime crack is involved.

I was at a hare scramble and a guy on a yzf pitted for fuel. The rider slid to the back of the seat to make room for his gas man. His gas man spilled gas all over the bike and rider, saturating his pants. The hot header ignited the fuel. Bike and rider went up in flames. Rider was severely burned.

Hershey wrote:

Lol......I only know about trailer fires! Did see a 4 stoke quad explode into flames at a Briarcliff mx race once though!

Ha I seen BarsMx pictures of that!

Vince Friese had his bike burn to the ground at one of his first nationals.

If you count the spark plug it happens to every bike thousands of times per minute.

olds cool wrote:

Nobody has mentioned the fire scene in On Any Sunday yet?

ah yes the infamous "signal fire"

DYE wrote:

My 13 250 xc caught on fire a few years ago. I was washing it when I noticed smoke coming up from behind the front number plate. It immediately caught my attention because the bike was 100% cold so I knew it couldn't be steam and shouldn't be coming from there anyway. Put down the pressure washer to check it out and my wiring harness was in flames! luckily I had on thick gloves because it was the middle of winter so I just stuffed both hands in there and smothered it out.

F150Motocrosser wrote:

wtf???? did you ever figure out exactly how / why this occurred????

No here's the backstory on it...In 2015 I ran an 8 hr ironman mudder. When cleaning the bike I had to pull so many parts off I said heck with it I'm taking it to the frame and going through everything. (mainly just wanted to get it powder coated and new plastics/graphics to make it match the 15's. which is still probably my favorite looking bike ever). I trail rode and raced it several times the rest of that summer/fall/winter with no issues and washed it right after each time. Then it randomly caught on fire sometime in jan-feb of that next year when washing it. Idk if it was something I did wrong putting it back together with the wiring or what.. And to answer your question, no I never figured out the cause. Some of the wiring got melted and was exposed so I just used electrical tape to seal everything back up and took the battery out so it couldn't randomly catch fire in my building and burn everything down. My plan was to investigate when it warmed back up since I don't have a shop (hence the rebuild in the summer). I ended up getting use to kicking it again and don't trust my electrical skills enough to put a battery back in it without fear of it catching on fire lol.

Didn't a KTM battery set the whole inside of the BTO truck aflame at Unadilla two years ago?

jorgechavez wrote:

Didn't a KTM battery set the whole inside of the BTO truck aflame at Unadilla two years ago?

yup

ive seen peoples calipers catch fire all the time