McWild
26th October 2009, 17:17
For those of you who do not know me (which I imagine is a lot of you), it may (or most likely may not) interest you to know that when out riding my various motorcycles, it is not all too uncommon for me, or rather the bike, to break down.
In the past these have been reasonably simple affairs, often involving waiting for the chap in a tow truck to come along, or simply dealing with it and riding on.
The affairs bringing about these circumstances have ranged from kickstarts breaking off mid kick or falling off mid ride, to a clutch cable seizing, an engine seizing, a carb being drowned in water and various others.
Many good times are had and we all learn to laugh at it later on.
The reason I am posting this is because on Friday I had another such little break down, this time involving an ominous rattle and a weird bit of feeling.
Pulling over, I inspect the bike and see nothing loose, which worries me more than anything because that increases the likelihood that the rattle is coming from WITHIN the engine.
Other various things happen, of note including a car tooting and swearing at me for being stuck in the middle of the road desperately trying not to drop the bike after a push start gone wrong; a nice chap on a bike stopping to help; my friends eventually discovering I am [B]not[/B[ behind them; and of course the subject of this thread, the inevitable bout of pushing.
So figuring that being in the middle of a dip between roads we are not in a prime place for push starting, we realise that to better push start and listen to the engine, and to get a friend with a trailer along, we need to get to some flat. The next bit of flat, it turns out, is over what I would consider a formidable hill.
How do you get a bike over a hill without starting the engine?
I'm sure you can guess.
I leave you with the pictures taken by my hilarious friends of me pushing the bike up a hill followed closely by Dave- and his hazard lights. I also advise you that if you are going to pull over because of dodgy noises, do so at the top of a slope, not the bottom.
Lesson learned.
In the past these have been reasonably simple affairs, often involving waiting for the chap in a tow truck to come along, or simply dealing with it and riding on.
The affairs bringing about these circumstances have ranged from kickstarts breaking off mid kick or falling off mid ride, to a clutch cable seizing, an engine seizing, a carb being drowned in water and various others.
Many good times are had and we all learn to laugh at it later on.
The reason I am posting this is because on Friday I had another such little break down, this time involving an ominous rattle and a weird bit of feeling.
Pulling over, I inspect the bike and see nothing loose, which worries me more than anything because that increases the likelihood that the rattle is coming from WITHIN the engine.
Other various things happen, of note including a car tooting and swearing at me for being stuck in the middle of the road desperately trying not to drop the bike after a push start gone wrong; a nice chap on a bike stopping to help; my friends eventually discovering I am [B]not[/B[ behind them; and of course the subject of this thread, the inevitable bout of pushing.
So figuring that being in the middle of a dip between roads we are not in a prime place for push starting, we realise that to better push start and listen to the engine, and to get a friend with a trailer along, we need to get to some flat. The next bit of flat, it turns out, is over what I would consider a formidable hill.
How do you get a bike over a hill without starting the engine?
I'm sure you can guess.
I leave you with the pictures taken by my hilarious friends of me pushing the bike up a hill followed closely by Dave- and his hazard lights. I also advise you that if you are going to pull over because of dodgy noises, do so at the top of a slope, not the bottom.
Lesson learned.