DIY bike stuff-ups

[martybabe]

What Have you stuffed up whilst tinkering with your ride, done an expert repair with gaffa tape and blue tack?

When I was young stupid and broke, I wanted to fit some crash bars to my old BMW. I knew sweet f#ck all about bike mechanics but I'm fairly handy at DIY and the job didn't look too hard so I blindly set about sticking them on.

I only had a box of rusty old spanners my late Father had left me, none of them metric so none of them quite fitted but close enough, nothing wrong with a few rounded nuts.Torque settings? wtf are they then, just keep tightening till ya can tighten no more eh.:shit:

Encouraged by the ease at which the front ones mounted, I stuck the back ones on, sweet as. It looked good,Arnie schwarzapimmple couldn't have done the nuts up any harder with these spanners, so off I went for a jolly good test ride.

Well I'd gone about 20 metres and the alarm bells are ringing, she's handling like shite :confused: So I decided to go round the block and back to the bat-cave for a quick look see. First left hander it bounced so hard I nearly came off.

Anyhow, back at moon-base Alpha, I'm mega perplexed, everything looks fine, all the nuts are tightened to the point of sheering off. no blooming idea what's going on, best check the spark plugs :lol:

After walking round and round the bastard for ages,My mechanics eye spotted what might be the cause of the problem.I still don't know how it happened to this day but I'd connected the rear crash bars to the top of the rear shocks and...also to the bottom of the rear shocks:crazy:

I had in fact re invented the hard-tail sty-lie :laugh:

So Home mechanics extraordinaire, confession time, what have you stuffed up on your bike ? come on now tall Daddy all about it.

[Blackshear]

None thus far on my motorbike, as I learned with my pushie.

She was a beast. 2002 Spoecialized Bighit, downhill MTB.

Spent as much on parts fixing her from my whoopsies, as I did initially (1200$)

So unless It's crystal clear as to what I am doing on my bike, like wetting it and cleaning it, I make goddamn fucking sure I've seen someone else do the job on the SAME BIKE first.

So far, only had to pay someone to do my fork seals for me, as it's rather important that they actually function.

[martybabe]

So far, only had to pay someone to do my fork seals for me, as it's rather important that they actually function.

Ah, wise choice, I did the fork seals on the same bike, as it happens, I had two steel balls and a springy thing left over. Fortunately I can just about afford to pay someone else to do the difficult things these days.:D

[98tls]

In order to fit a clear clutch cover on the old TL i had to fit a 6 bolt TLR clutch,no problem and removed the S 5 bolt one then as time was getting on left it overnight with cover and casing off,whilst on sidestand no oil was comimg out,had to move it early next morning to go somewhere in the car so got on the bike sat it up and began to push it:bye::bye:shitloads of oil all over the floor and i almost dropped the damn thing.

[Gremlin]

Wanted to install a radar detector... just needed a place to get power from... easy huh? Well, the cords didn't quite reach the battery, but hey, I had seen other guys hard wire it, leave it on, and flatten the bike, so I'm like, waaaaay smarter than that.

The fuel pump wire was handy... well, thats only on when the bike is on, perfect, its not like it needs all the power it would be getting (fucked if I know how to even test the theory, but all good).

Tap the wire, mount the detector, and head up the road. Goddammit, it cuts out now and then for no apparent reason. Upon further testing... every time I opened the throttle wide.... yeah... you guessed it, not enough power to run it. :shutup:

I learnt more about circuits when I thought I had well and truly broken my zx10 one time. Even going down straights, it would cut in and out. Long story short, the power commander's earth wire wasn't bolted down, so each time it lost contact, no circuit, no power. No power, no signals to engine :innocent:

As you might imagine, I have happily conceded I don't know the first thing when it comes to proper knowledge (I can plug punctures, check pressures and other basic shit) so now, I give all the stuff to the shop, and they do a nice install for me :Punk:

[koba]

Didn't tighten the balance shaft nut properly on str8 Jackets RG150.:doh:
It was wednesday and she was entered on a race on saturday.
He first even and she was really looking foward to it...
The engine was in a bit of a mess but I managed to get one going, Peter Jones had a reserve one sorted just in case but we didn't need it in the end.

[martybabe]

W



As you might imagine, I have happily conceded I don't know the first thing when it comes to proper knowledge (I can plug punctures, check pressures and other basic shit) so now, I give all the stuff to the shop, and they do a nice install for me :Punk:

Ah, finally acceptance that we may not be as savvy as we'd like to be, well done Gremlin. As for me, I shall just stick to the things I'm good at and leave any thing but the most basic stuff to the professionals, although that's not always fool proof eh. :cool:


Didn't tighten the balance shaft nut properly on str8 Jackets RG150.:doh:
It was wednesday and she was entered on a race on saturday.
He first even and she was really looking forward to it...
The engine was in a bit of a mess but I managed to get one going, Peter Jones had a reserve one sorted just in case but we didn't need it in the end.

Sorry Koba, you may have made a little error but the fact that you even know where to find the balance shaft makes you a mechanical genius in my book. Well done mate. :apint:

[vifferman]

I can think of only two. The first incident was many moons ago, when I took my Elsinore's clutch basket apart. I put it back together correctly, but without a workshop manual, or indeed a torque wrench, I just took a guess at how tight to do up the basket bolts. I ended up with a non-functioning cluthc, and had to ride to work in Friday afternoon traffic, sans clutch. Luckily, on the route of about 5 or 6 km, there was only one traffic light, so even though it was red, it wasn't a huge deal.

The second was connecting the battery charger to the battery on my VFR, and not paying attention. I had the plug-in cord connected to itself, so it formed a continuous loop, which in a millisecond became a heater element, writhing and smoking. :eek5:
Of course, when I grabbed it to disconnect it, it was now very hot, and fairly molten, so it was rather painful, and difficult to disconnect in a hurry!

I also had one very lucky incident on my Fiat 132, when we live in the 'tron. I'd changed the cambelt, and we drove up to visit my sister in Glenfield. When we pulled up in the drive, it sounded really noisy (well... noisier than normal - it had factory extractors and a Coby 'muffler'). I discovered I'd forgottent to tighten the bolt on the cambelt idler, and so there was almost no tension... Luckily, it either hadn't altered the cam timing, or only byt a couple of teeth, so there was no "catastrophic interference" betwixt valves an pistons, which was what I'd changed the cambelt to avoid! :blank:

[martybabe]

I can think of only two. The first incident was many moons ago, when I took my Elsinore's clutch basket apart. I put it back together correctly, but without a workshop manual, or indeed a torque wrench, I just took a guess at how tight to do up the basket bolts. I ended up with a non-functioning clutch, and had to ride to work in Friday afternoon traffic, sans clutch. Luckily, on the route of about 5 or 6 km, there was only one traffic light, so even though it was red, it wasn't a huge deal.

The second was connecting the battery charger to the battery on my VFR, and not paying attention. I had the plug-in cord connected to itself, so it formed a continuous loop, which in a millisecond became a heater element, writhing and smoking. :eek5:
Of course, when I grabbed it to disconnect it, it was now very hot, and fairly molten, so it was rather painful, and difficult to disconnect in a hurry!

I also had one very lucky incident on my Fiat 132, when we live in the 'tron. I'd changed the cambelt, and we drove up to visit my sister in Glenfield. When we pulled up in the drive, it sounded really noisy (well... noisier than normal - it had factory extractors and a Coby 'muffler'). I discovered I'd forgotten to tighten the bolt on the cam belt idler, and so there was almost no tension... Luckily, it either hadn't altered the cam timing, or only by a couple of teeth, so there was no "catastrophic interference" betwixt valves an pistons, which was what I'd changed the cambelt to avoid! :blank:

Onya Vman :laugh: I'm not the only one then, either kiwis are remarkably good at bike mechanics are remarkably bad at confessing their stuff ups. Here's another one I just remembered.

The baffle vibrated loose on my RD250 in the middle of nowhere, the grub screw that held it in place was nowhere to be found so I rammed it back in the hole and continued my journey. All was well till I hit the motorway and motorway speeds. A bloody huge roar was the signal for (baffle has shot out.!)

Try as I might, I could not reach the baffle before the bloody Truck following behind me, bastard was flat as a pancake.

I rode 120 miles with a deafening howl on my right side and quiet as on the other, I swear my right ear still rings from it.

[koba]

The baffle vibrated loose on my RD250 in the middle of nowhere, the grub screw that held it in place was nowhere to be found so I rammed it back in the hole and continued my journey. All was well till I hit the motorway and motorway speeds. A bloody huge roar was the signal for (baffle has shot out.!)

Try as I might, I could not reach the baffle before the bloody Truck following behind me, bastard was flat as a pancake.

I rode 120 miles with a deafening howl on my right side and quiet as on the other, I swear my right ear still rings from it.


Oh yeah, done that too!
Had a homemade pipe, though ramming the "baffle" in would work OK for a quick test run, it didn't.
Dropped it at 80kph, but no truck for me so I wnet and got it back, once It had cooled enough I tucked it in the jacket, took it home and sorted some grub screws!

[ducatilover]

i set my valve clearances under the rocker instead of between the rocker arm and the cam. a noisy innocent mistake. didnt fuck anything. but it pissed me off.

[martybabe]

Oh yeah, done that too!
Had a homemade pipe, though ramming the "baffle" in would work OK for a quick test run, it didn't.
Dropped it at 80kph, but no truck for me so I went and got it back, once It had cooled enough I tucked it in the jacket, took it home and sorted some grub screws!


i set my valve clearances under the rocker instead of between the rocker arm and the cam. a noisy innocent mistake. didn't fuck anything. but it pissed me off.

I guess there's something to be said for using the professionals over the home bodge but then again how would you learn anything? and money is always a factor innit.

Thanks for your candid input guys, it's good to know we're not all perfect, I was thinking this thread might drag up some (I fitted my own rear sprocket and the wheel fell off) stories, thankfully not. :scooter: Safe wrenching.

[Gremlin]

Since I'm in IT, I have had it from the other side... "I thought I could easily fix xyz problem, but now it won't even start"

:eek:

So I know very well that attempts to DIY can end up costing you more... hence, I just leave it to the professionals (of course, you have to trust said guys, but once you have a good relationship, it pays dividends).

[enigma51]

Just search for dangerous bastard that bloke has done a few ...... I think


PS this is not being abusive only stating the facts

[ManDownUnder]

I do recasll one guy in here filling his bike on a ride up North. Bike was fine till he filled it. Something about the engine not being the compression ignition type... so the diesel his tank was now full of wasn't quite the go...

It was fuel injected and hadn't been started so the diesel was all "contained" in the tank... so a bit of bodging later, the tank was drained, a non diesel fual added to the bike and away he went with the ocassional sneeze of blue smoke pouring out the back...

All very entertaining really... and all was well - it ended well...!

[vifferman]

Apparently my second to last fill was diesel - at least that was what I was charged for ($46 of diesel). Unfortunately, I was not terribly awake, paid for it, then didn't notice the mistake until a few days later - probably too late to go back and get a refund.

[Magua]

After recently altering my valve clearances I went about reattatching the rocker cover. A bit too much force and I snapped the bolt, leaving half of it inside the head. After many hours tapping it out with a nail and a hammer it was time to put the new bolt into place. Careful, careful.. snap. I broke it again :doh: Needless to say I spent another afternoon getting the second broken bolt out and resorted to a much smaller spanner for installing the third bolt.

[martybabe]

After recently altering my valve clearances I went about reattatching the rocker cover. A bit too much force and I snapped the bolt, leaving half of it inside the head. After many hours tapping it out with a nail and a hammer it was time to put the new bolt into place. Careful, careful.. snap. I broke it again :doh: Needless to say I spent another afternoon getting the second broken bolt out and resorted to a much smaller spanner for installing the third bolt.


Hahahaha, love it, do one job, make three, welcome to my world. Onya Magua.

[martybabe]

I do recalls one guy in here filling his bike on a ride up North. Bike was fine till he filled it. Something about the engine not being the compression ignition type... so the diesel his tank was now full of wasn't quite the go...

It was fuel injected and hadn't been started so the diesel was all "contained" in the tank... so a bit of bodging later, the tank was drained, a non diesel fuel added to the bike and away he went with the occasional sneeze of blue smoke pouring out the back...

All very entertaining really... and all was well - it ended well...!


Apparently my second to last fill was diesel - at least that was what I was charged for ($46 of diesel). Unfortunately, I was not terribly awake, paid for it, then didn't notice the mistake until a few days later - probably too late to go back and get a refund.

That's a really big problem in the UK. Talking cages for a bit, I worked for the AA in old England town and it was not uncommon to pick up 3 or 4 wrong fuel jobs in a day. $400 and 2 hours later they were on their way.That's assuming they hadn't run the engine.

The motor industry is making a fortune from inattentive peeps at fuel stations, just because no one thought to make diesel nozzles square or summat.Or is it a cunning plan?

[The Pastor]

I dont have diy stuff ups, i have learning opertunitys. Ixion will back that one up :D - dropped the pin that pushes the clutch into the sump - had to remove the sump to get it out!!! oh well it wasnt tooo bad :) (had the expert help of mr Ixion.)

[martybabe]

I don't have diy stuff ups, i have learning opportunities. Ixion will back that one up :D - dropped the pin that pushes the clutch into the sump - had to remove the sump to get it out!!! oh well it wasn't too bad :) (had the expert help of mr Ixion.)

Learning opportunities,Good call, I have anew name for my numerous cock-ups.:laugh:

[Macontour]

Years ago I did a lot of night riding and always believed that the more light you had the better! I ended up fitting a 130 watt high beam bulb PLUS 2 x 55 watt Hella spots to my Suzuki 550. Trying them out down a dark country road I blasted past a car and flicked onto high beam only to have the fuse blow at about 120 ks leaving me with no lights at all and not being able to see anything as I braked as hard as I could praying that the car I had just passed wouldnt hit me.

Once I got relays sorted out it was magic and my Friday night blasts Auckland to Palmy were great, light sufficient for 140 ks easy however drop to only 90 watt low when a car appeared at that speed was a bit scary!

[ynot slow]

Yep the old 130/90watt bulbs,used the 100/90 style in most cars due to the fact of coming off full 130w tp 90w was too great a jump,the 100/90 and 100w spotlights worked well in tandem.

Not a bike one,but changing the oil and filter on the v8 Fairmont years ago,drained the oil,filter off,day getting darker due to rain arriving,spun new filter on,topped up with oil,clean mitts and fire up the car,horrible splattering noise under the hood.Turned out the old filter gasket was still on,so had 2 rubber gaskets under the filter.Took oil out again,filter off,then back on,top up oil,clean engine bay and voila perfect,except for the smell of burning off oil for a few miles,made me realise what driving a chevvy smelt like.

[Conquiztador]

After 40 years of working on bikes there is a few stuffups that I have tried to forget...

On my beloved Royald Enfield Meteor Minior Sport 500 Twin when young, I had one of the valve spring retention thingies, that were made out of alloy, crack. I could not get a new one in a hurry, so went to a engineer asking him to make a new one. He had no alloy, but brass. So I settled for brass.

I fitted it and happily went on my way to a neighbouring town (yes, the reason was a female...). The w/e was spent doing what young men do with young firm bodied girls.

On the way back my thoughts were still with her and what she did to me. I came up to a car doing approx 100k/h and in my state wanted to show the world what a superman I was so I dropped a gear, went flying past (well OK, 130k/h. But for the RE that WAS flyng!). And while at the side of the car that brass thingy had worn through, my valve was shot in to the piston with all the force of those two springs and my backwheel jammed.

My reflexes had been sharpened over the w/e by not using condoms, so I pulled the clutch in an instance, rolled in the middle of the road while that car passed me on the inside. And then it was nice and quiet on the road while I stood there wondering what the fuck now.

A nice chap on a BMW boxer came past, stopped, evaluated the situation, opened his side box and pulled out a towrope and then towed me 30k's home. (Always amazed what there is inside those side boxes!)

It took me approx 3 months to get the bits and sort the motor. And that wonderful nymph, she did not wait around. As I had no way of visiting she found herself someone closer by. But so did I...

[racerhead]

A couple of years ago I went to change steering stem bearings on a Honda atv. Spent a bit of time removing the steering stem and all the plastics to make access a little bit easier. To remove the bearing I had to grind a bit of the bearing down so I could split it and to do this all I had was a 110mm angle grinder. Now getting the grinder into position was a little tricky due to having to work inside the frame tubes where both a arms attached to and also the front crash bars couldnt be removed. So after a few minutes scratching my head and finally getting it in place I switch it on and start cutting a groove into it. All is going well for a minute until I notice my left arm getting warm so I let go of the grinder with that arm and take it away from the flying sparks. Then after another few seconds I still feel my arm being very warm and decide to have a look and my sleeve is totally on fire at this stage so I panic a little bit and let go of the grinder and try take off my top. So now Im standing there with my arm on fire and a grinder still pinging around within the front of the frame. I decide that my arm is more important and take off my top as quick as I can and escape with only a few small burns. Then I pull the plug on the grinder to stop it and it eventually stops and I go to see what kind of damage is done. When I look in where the grinder is there are little nicks gone out of the frame tubes everywhere and worst of all the grinder had hit the front brake hoses and burst them:weep: But other than that I got away lucky enough. Learned my lesson that day though

[AD345]

Again not a bike one but a good one from my father and one that I use to remind me why I must ALWAYS get professionals to do my servicing (bad genes).

He had a mark IV Zephyr and was driving it home from Dunedin to Roxburgh one evening. Before setting off he decided to top it up with oil - which caused the first problem (unknown at the time). Anyway, he heads off and a ways down the road the "Low Oil" light came on, hmmm, stops, checks oil level - barely reading on the dip stick!. Tops up again at a nearby garage with a couple of litres then resumes with a mental note to get the car checked at the garage the next day.

A bit further up the road and the light comes on again!!. Dipstick shows a smidgen above bone dry so he chucks another couple of litres of oil in (he got extra at the garage) and decides to try to limp with what is obviously a sick car. Several hours later he rolls into home after a fraught journey with the orange light glaring balefully at him and promising evil times with the engine.

I get up early the next morning and he tells me all about the trip from hell "bloody car must be fucked, probably a crack in the block of something" (I doubt he knew what a block was but it sounded good.

I wandered out to the garage to have a look, strong heavy smell of oil in the air and I lifted the bonnet to see oil sprayed all around the engine bay and dripping off the underside of the bonnet! Holy shit! The engine has 'sploded or sumfink!

Dad came out an we decided to see just how much engine was left in the sump. Check the dipstick - bloody nothing boy.
hang on
That rubber grommet that sits at the top of the stick has slipped down dad (remember the FIRST oil change?). Push it back up and lets have another look.

Well Holy Beverly Hillbillys Batman!

There's oil about 3/4 of the length of the entire dipstick! The bloody car is swimming in it!

"But what about the Low Oil light son?"

"Maybe the light is playing up Dad?" (It was - confirmed by sparky that day)

"Bugger"

he then decided to drain the oil out of the sump (good) and started by placing a 2 litre ice-cream container under the drain hole (bad).......


Thats a whole 'nother story

[Mikkel]

Not quite DIY - but more the joys of owning an older vehicle with a dubious service history.

My old 1984 Nissan Silvia which I had 5 years ago was a lovely car. It handled well and was for the most part a very nice car.
However, at the time of purchase the turbo behaved a bit oddly (it had been shagged silly by the previous owner running way too high boost off the mill) - but I didn't know any better and thought nothing much of it. A month or two later, after having been over tramping up the Copland track just south of Fox Glacier, the seals in the turbo gave up. As a result I was dragging a huge cloud of thick nasty smoke every time the car was engine braking.
It chewed through about 6 liters of oil during what felt like a very long trip back to Chch. Getting the turbo replaced (and upgraded of course since the labour cost is the same) cost a fair amount of dollars, at least I left it to the professionals though.

Later, visiting friends in Milford Sound over New years the car developed a water leak - somewhere, very difficult to get to. As a result the trip from Milford Sound to Te Anau became a relay from lake to lake just to keep it topped up. When the water level got too low it got really bad as steam formed in the cooling system and we'd have to wait for the car to cool down enough to purge the system and fill it again with water. The trick was to keep the water topped up at all times so no steam bubbles could form. It went through close to 20 liters of water during that trip - at least it was an easy fix once we got to the garage and the car was ready to go the next morning.

The DIY I did on that car was limited to trying to touch up some of the slightly faded trimwork. I spent hours and hours on masking and such and I never was happy with it at all. The rust repair that I did came out ok. But it certainly taught me that paying someone who knows what they are doing to do something beats trying to figure out how to do something while you are doing it, every time. At least if the result is important to you.

I loved that car and I still miss it!


That's a really big problem in the UK. Talking cages for a bit, I worked for the AA in old England town and it was not uncommon to pick up 3 or 4 wrong fuel jobs in a day. $400 and 2 hours later they were on their way.That's assuming they hadn't run the engine.

At least the resulting diesel/petrol mix that is pumped out, and can't be used for much, is very good for starting bonfires. DAMHIK.

[martybabe]

On the way back my thoughts were still with her and what she did to me. .

:blip::wait::wait:


so I panic a little bit and let go of the grinder and try take off my top. So now Im standing there with my arm on fire and a grinder still pinging around within the front of the frame.

Bloody hell dude, I got scared just reading that.:shit:





There's oil about 3/4 of the length of the entire dipstick! The bloody car is swimming in it!



Yeees, guilty of that one too, not quite so much oil though, I guess that's because I'm a natural spanner man :shutup:


Not quite DIY - but more the joys of owning an older vehicle with a dubious service history.

When the water level got too low it got really bad as steam formed in the cooling system and we'd have to wait for the car to cool down enough to purge the system and fill it again with water. The trick was to keep the water topped up at all times so no steam bubbles could form. It went through close to 20 liters of water during that trip - at least it was an easy fix once we got to the garage and the car was ready to go the next morning.

.

Water !:mad:

Bought myself a Triumph Spitfire (don't do it) every time I went out in the rain my arse got soaked, a complete and utter mystery to me, hours of searching and two garage experts later, still nothing but a wet arse.

Used to turn up at the girlfriends house, get out of my super sports car and look for all the world like I'd pissed myself, not cool, well it was kinda cool in winter.

Anyway, eventually found a hairline crack by the bolt that fixes the seat to the floor pan.You could barely see the damn thing but when I sat on the seat the floor opened up just a little but enough to scoop up a few litres every trip. :2guns:

Excellent stories guys, thanks a lot. MB

[motorbyclist]

having just rebuilt and reassembled my XR200 - motor, chassis, you name it - i went to start it.....

well she kicked over.... sort of had compression but put that down to the auto decomp, she fired occasionally and did have a consistent spark, but the damn thing wouldn't start. bit of fiddling later and it will run but like an absolute dog, coughing, spluttering, backfiring and misfiring

pull of the airfilter and things are a bit better - good enough to ride down the driveway and half way back up the hill. some swearing later and i'm back in the shed puzzling over the problem - i'm getting fuel, air, spark, but it's really sick. get it "idling" and notice something funny in the open airbox....

some sort of mist is spraying.....

pull off the airbox and start her up. sure enough there's petrol coming back out of the carby! most confused i close the choke and kick it over slowly, and see that petrol is infact squirting backwards.

dad can't understand it so most confused i get on the phone an call up some rellies who might know the problem - they suggest the cams are out

"of course the timing is ok" i say

go back to the shed to check the cam positions.

it would appear that i had got the cams out of synch not by a few teeth, but by a good 180 degrees (and then maybe a few teeth either way)!

god only knows how the bike ran, but the fact the valves didn't meet anything and it was able to ride despite both blowing and sucking through the carby is beyond me!

[martybabe]

god only knows how the bike ran, but the fact the valves didn't meet anything and it was able to ride despite both blowing and sucking through the carby is beyond me!


Crikey, testament to a damn fine engine I guess. Good tale. :clap:

[rudolph]

When I was 12, I had a little 2 stroke yamaha, I tryed to run a horn of the HT lead, the result was every time you pressed the horn button I got a bad electric shock and the engine miss fired, not thats stuped.:shit:

[The Stranger]

After 40 years of working on bikes there is a few that I have tried to forget...

On my beloved Royald Enfield Meteor Minior Sport 500 Twin when young, I had one of the valve spring retention thingies, that were made out of alloy, crack. I could not get a new one in a hurry, so went to a engineer asking him to make a new one. He had no alloy, but brass. So I settled for brass.

I fitted it and happily went on my way to a neighbouring town (yes, the reason was a female...). The w/e was spent doing what young men do with young firm bodied girls.

On the way back my thoughts were still with her and what she did to me. I came up to a car doing approx 100k/h and in my state wanted to show the world what a superman I was so I dropped a gear, went flying past (well OK, 130k/h. But for the RE that WAS flyng!). And while at the side of the car that brass thingy had worn through, my valve was shot in to the piston with all the force of those two springs and my backwheel jammed.

My reflexes had been sharpened over the w/e by not using condoms, so I pulled the clutch in an instance, rolled in the middle of the road while that car passed me on the inside. And then it was nice and quiet on the road while I stood there wondering what the fuck now.



Yeah, but when it done in the quest of getting your end away it doesn't really count as a stuff up. Well done.

[Conquiztador]

Yeah, but when it done in the quest of getting your end away it doesn't really count as a stuff up. Well done.

Ok, I accept that. It is strange how small things change the path you take. Here a brass spring retainer did this to me. I heard a few years later that the girl in question had fallen pregnant with some young chap. If I had waited for that real alloy thingy for a week there is a chance that my life would have been soo different.

So perhaps I should have sent that brass-thingy-manufacturing engineer a Thank You card...

[Conquiztador]

When I was 12, I had a little 2 stroke yamaha, I tryed to run a horn of the HT lead, the result was every time you pressed the horn button I got a bad electric shock and the engine miss fired, not thats stuped.:shit:

Ahhhh. I LOVED that. Classic.

[pzkpfw]

Had an RD250LC 350 convert. Chain (or sprockets??) was/were fragged and needed re-tensioning every week. (Poor [lazy] student - no chance of actually buying new sprockets and chain).

So going around corner one day, having missed a tensioning session, the chain fell off the back sprocket and when I accelerated the chain whipped forward and knoecked a bit of the engine case off. All the oil fell out of the gearbox.

Took the engine out to get the hole welded. The guy said it was a mistake. I think the engine would have been easier for him to work on if it was still in the bike.

Afterwards, the bike would lose power when warm. I stripped and cleaned the carbs, but no effect.

Eventually left the country and it was sold by my sister while I was away.

MANY years later read that the 350 cylinders had a different sized exhaust port than the 250.

That might explain the doubled-up washer things that I had found when I pulled the engine out, and replaced with only one on each pipe (which I guess were still the 250 ones).

I think when it was warm it was losening up, and the expansion chambers stopped working right.

Or I'm still completely wrong...

[martybabe]

MANY years later read that the 350 cylinders had a different sized exhaust port than the 250.

That might explain the doubled-up washer things that I had found when I pulled the engine out, and replaced with only one on each pipe (which I guess were still the 250 ones).

I think when it was warm it was loosening up, and the expansion chambers stopped working right.

Or I'm still completely wrong...

:clap: Yep you qualify mate, we seem to be forming a small but elite group of master bodgers here, with all this talent, we should run our own race team :lol:

[Headbanger]

I have a stunning and impressive record of DIY mishaps, But for now I'll just share one.

Back when I was a teenager I had purchased an 85 ATC250r, They were demon three-wheelers in their day and the power delivery was very close to how a mid 80's MX behaved. All or nothing, and then she come on,she went like a fucker, You pointed it where you wanted to end up and then just held on while all hell broke loose and you got to see how your luck held out.

Anyway, North island champs, Taranaki. Good sized turnout,plenty of spectators, After race one I decide to bleed my front brakes a little. Felt great in the pits.Ready to rock

Half way round lap one I'm going hell bent for leather, come screaming out of a corner, front wheel a few inches in the air, I hit the anchors to bring the front wheel down and set myself up for the corner I was about to enter, The front wheel hits the ground fully locked up,Im already in teh process of throwing her sideways and I open the gas riight open, Resulting in multiple barrel rolls down the track.

I get up,feel fucked.never fear, find the bike,crank her over,drop the fuckin clutch under full throttle,roar off with the front wheel in the air, when she comes down,boomfaa, Multiple barrel rolls down teh track.

Now I'm really saw.

Never fear, I find the bike,put it back on its wheels,kick her over, Drop the clutch, Front end sledges as I try to take off, come to a halt, stare blankly at the front wheel, rev her hard and drop the clutch,front end sledges, wtf?, rev her hard and drop the clutch again,front end sledges,by this time I have made it around a corner and well down the straight from the initial crash site.....continue to stare at the front wheel....oh says I, The front brakes are locked on. That explains the barrel rolls.

[martybabe]

I have a stunning and impressive record of DIY mishaps, But for now I'll just share one.

Back when I was a teenager I had purchased an 85 ATC250r, They were demon three-wheelers in their day and the power delivery was very close to how a mid 80's MX behaved. All or nothing, and then she come on,she went like a fucker, You pointed it where you wanted to end up and then just held on while all hell broke loose and you got to see how your luck held out.

Anyway, North island champs, Taranaki. Good sized turnout,plenty of spectators, After race one I decide to bleed my front brakes a little. Felt great in the pits.Ready to rock

Half way round lap one I'm going hell bent for leather, come screaming out of a corner, front wheel a few inches in the air, I hit the anchors to bring the front wheel down and set myself up for the corner I was about to enter, The front wheel hits the ground fully locked up,Im already in the process of throwing her sideways and I open the gas right open, Resulting in multiple barrel rolls down the track.

I get up,feel fucked.never fear, find the bike,crank her over,drop the fuckin clutch under full throttle,roar off with the front wheel in the air, when she comes down,boom faa, Multiple barrel rolls down the track.

Now I'm really saw.

Never fear, I find the bike,put it back on its wheels,kick her over, Drop the clutch, Front end sledges as I try to take off, come to a halt, stare blankly at the front wheel, rev her hard and drop the clutch,front end sledges, wtf?, rev her hard and drop the clutch again,front end sledges,by this time I have made it around a corner and well down the straight from the initial crash site.....continue to stare at the front wheel....oh says I, The front brakes are locked on. That explains the barrel rolls.


Beauty :laugh:, Scores; Observation 0/10 . Guts and tenacity 10/10. spanner skills 2/10 . sense of humour in the face of adversity 10/10.

That's good enough for me HB, your on the race team any role ya fancy bud,were all doomed anyway. ;)

[motorbyclist]

...Resulting in multiple barrel rolls down the track.
.... Multiple barrel rolls down teh track.

Now I'm really saw.

l....oh says I, The front brakes are locked on. That explains the barrel rolls.

lol i've had a similar thing where after a collision i found every time i entered a corner the front would wash out

it took a whole two laps of binning every corner before i finally pulled out to see what was causing the problem - front disc visibly bent where it evidently hit another bike, and was locking with or without the brakes

[FROSTY]

From a customer with NO mechanical skills .
He ran his bike completely out of gas
He cranked and cranked untill the battery died.
Then he called out the AA
AA man calls me
YER sold a dud the bikes FUCKED --I've gotta go to my next job
ER um-Ok -so does it have spark?
Dunno
Is fuel Getting to the carbs??
Dunno
Howsabout you find that out before saying the bikes fucked?
YER ok
15 minutes later.
Yer the plugs were black n sooty The bike idles wont rev
Did You bleed the air out of the fuel line
DO WOT ??
The fuel pump --like a car --airlock
Wheres that ?
Between the tank and the carbs.

15 minutes later
Yer the bikes running ok but theres smoke comeing out from the wires from the engine
Is your jump starter still on it?
YER why?
The bikes trying to charge its own lil battery AND your jumper pack
Ohh the plugs melted
Yea disconnect yer jumper pack

HMMM

[Gremlin]

:killingme

scary...

[martybabe]

From a customer with NO mechanical skills .
He ran his bike completely out of gas

The bikes trying to charge its own lil battery AND your jumper pack
Ohh the plugs melted
Yea disconnect yer jumper pack

HMMM

:clap: Oh brilliant, thanks for that Frosty.

[FROSTY]

A few Gems some not so nice
A fairly decent racer flat out in race practice Grabbed a handfull of brakes -Loud crack noise and no brakes. Messy crash
two caliper bolts were loose and finally went bye byes.
A fairly compertant mechanic just for the life of him couldnt get his bike going. He had it at one stage in a million bits.
His mate turns up and points to a switch on the right handlebar--er is that sposed to be turned to the off position?? prolly not being the kill switch.

[Mully]

On a bike, my DIY stuff ups are avoided thusly:

Me: "FROSTY, my bike is doing 'X'. I think I need to do 'Y'. How do I do 'Y'?"
FROSTY: "Bring it here and I'll show you" (code for "bring it here, and I'll do it while you watch and ask silly questions": "So I should have air in the tyres? Fascinating")

Local friendly spanner spinner, FTW.

On a cage I once tried to change a clutch for a broke friend of mine. I'd read up on how to do it, how hard could it be?

Commandeered her parent's garage on the Friday evening of a long weekend. Figured we'd be done by Saturday afternoon and still have a two day weekend.

I was wrong.

It took the whole weekend (until the Monday afternoon) to even get close. Even then, we had a pile of bolts left over.
Me: "Those? Those are surplus bolts. Everyone knows car manufacturers put in more bolts than they actually need to hold things."

In the end, she took it to a proper mechanic to get it re-done.