BuzzbomB
8th August 2009, 19:54
Buellbunny and myself started off this morning to meet some people at 11:30 in Mangawhai. The battery in her Buell has been a bit dodgey with it not being ridden so much lately but to our tremendous joy it fires up right away no worries. Then BB stalls the bike, oops, now it requires more cranking over than the crippled battery can cope with. Luckily our house is atop a good size hill, less luckily the driveway up the hill is gravel, even less luckily the Buell motor has compression to be compared with a catepillar tractor. So I get the job of coasting it down the hill for a bump-start. I try to get the bike in 3rd so the gearing is in my favour to turn the motor over without locking up the wheel but no luck there and the tractor-like gearbox won't shift out of second. So down the hill I go alternately locking up the wheel and skidding down the drive and pulling in the clutch and picking up some speed. Bottom of the hill and its not looking good so I just let the clutch full out in a last desparate attempt and somehow get enough traction and woohaa it farts into life and we're off to meet some riding partners at the Puhoi Pub.
We've been the last ones to leave the Puhoi but never the first to arrive and actually it is a bit early for a beer. Our friends show up shortly and while saying hi and kicking tyres, etc I notice he's lost his nuts and his flange is loose! (Thats his bike by the way...) Since they're up from South Auckland we decide the plan is to go on to Walkworth to get this fellow a new set of nuts. Oops when we go to bolt everything up we notice the split thrust gasket things have gone astray but wtf, all seems relatively tight and no exhaust leakages so we're off on our way again..... Almost... Oops when BB turned the key it went past 'off' and to the 'bike isnt on but the headlamp is' position, BUGGER. Fortunately there's a steep driveway that goes behind the bikeshop (paved even!) and I bump-start the Buell again and bring it back up the drive. The john-deer gearbox is being a pain and won't go into netrual, BB shows me that by turning off the motor you can easily get it out of gear, big fucking OOPS. This time an unsuccessful trip skidding down this driveway with the bike stuck in first gear. Haha, I'm the one riding the bike till its started so I don't have to push it back up the drive. Manhandle the shifter until the thing gets into second, another try down the drive and its back to life again, finally we're back on the road, wheee!.
So we have an uneventfull trip up the highway, turn off at the Mangawhai exit for the last leg, all is good. I move along at a slightly faster pace than the others, I'll wait in Mangawhai for them to catch up. BB shows up about 5 minutes later (she is telling me it was less than a minute but she wasn't waiting at the side of the road with me then, was she...) and we're waiting for the other rider and pillion to show up, and waiting... and waiting.... About this time we're saying something like "hope they're ok", etc and a car pulls up and we find out they've come off, really big fucking OOPS.
BB and I ride back to collect them, no major injuries to man, woman or machine. A broken wrist and a bruised ego, slightly bent bike.
Thanks to the KBs who witnessed the incident and stopped to lend assistance as well as a another non-KB biker who gave our friends a place to keep the bike until they can retrieve it (Happy B-Day L! :). Also a number of cage drivers who stopped to ask if all was ok and also the lady at the cafe who volunteered a bag of frozen broad-beans and sweetcorn to help ease the injured wrist.
BB and I had a non-eventful trip home, got in the cage and did the trip all over again to collect our colleagues. This time without the bump-starting!
We've been the last ones to leave the Puhoi but never the first to arrive and actually it is a bit early for a beer. Our friends show up shortly and while saying hi and kicking tyres, etc I notice he's lost his nuts and his flange is loose! (Thats his bike by the way...) Since they're up from South Auckland we decide the plan is to go on to Walkworth to get this fellow a new set of nuts. Oops when we go to bolt everything up we notice the split thrust gasket things have gone astray but wtf, all seems relatively tight and no exhaust leakages so we're off on our way again..... Almost... Oops when BB turned the key it went past 'off' and to the 'bike isnt on but the headlamp is' position, BUGGER. Fortunately there's a steep driveway that goes behind the bikeshop (paved even!) and I bump-start the Buell again and bring it back up the drive. The john-deer gearbox is being a pain and won't go into netrual, BB shows me that by turning off the motor you can easily get it out of gear, big fucking OOPS. This time an unsuccessful trip skidding down this driveway with the bike stuck in first gear. Haha, I'm the one riding the bike till its started so I don't have to push it back up the drive. Manhandle the shifter until the thing gets into second, another try down the drive and its back to life again, finally we're back on the road, wheee!.
So we have an uneventfull trip up the highway, turn off at the Mangawhai exit for the last leg, all is good. I move along at a slightly faster pace than the others, I'll wait in Mangawhai for them to catch up. BB shows up about 5 minutes later (she is telling me it was less than a minute but she wasn't waiting at the side of the road with me then, was she...) and we're waiting for the other rider and pillion to show up, and waiting... and waiting.... About this time we're saying something like "hope they're ok", etc and a car pulls up and we find out they've come off, really big fucking OOPS.
BB and I ride back to collect them, no major injuries to man, woman or machine. A broken wrist and a bruised ego, slightly bent bike.
Thanks to the KBs who witnessed the incident and stopped to lend assistance as well as a another non-KB biker who gave our friends a place to keep the bike until they can retrieve it (Happy B-Day L! :). Also a number of cage drivers who stopped to ask if all was ok and also the lady at the cafe who volunteered a bag of frozen broad-beans and sweetcorn to help ease the injured wrist.
BB and I had a non-eventful trip home, got in the cage and did the trip all over again to collect our colleagues. This time without the bump-starting!