So I was out riding today and my riding buddy pointed this out. How does this happen??




It's not leaking oil...it's the only mark on that side of the bike. My bike is parked outside all the time, unfortunately. Does this look like vandalism? Or maybe a rock kicked up off the highway??

almost looks like a hit from a pellet gun. Either that or a rock that kicked up... dang...

Yeah, looks like stone damage to me too.  Notice the squiggly shape of the gouge.  A pellet gun would leave a much straighter groove.  The good news is you can order a new badge for about $15.

Its a thin piece of sheet metal - its a sticker, and even taking that round cover off, it wont leak oil, that round cover houses your ignition stuff but its dry.
Cool.
Buddha.

i just replaced those "stickers" on both sides of the engine case on my gs, i think they cost $13 a piece at the local suzuki dealer. the side with the ignition stuff was even worse than that one, it had a circular dent in it where the open part is on the actual case.

haha, I would hope it wasn't a bb gun pellet hole. Even though we know that shooting that cover with a bb gun isn't going to put you in any kind of danger, I still want to know what kind of reject child goes around the neighborhood shooting engines with a gun. I give him a max of 10 years to keep all of his limbs intact as his boredome starts to escalate.

Considering it's already flat black you could just flatten the sticker out, bondo over it, and spray paint it again. That's only economical if you have bondo and the spray paint though. Otherwise it'll just be cheaper to get a new one.