Cautionary tale

[Motu]

I once nearly lost it big time on the firt tight bend at Puke - the scrutineer told me to adjust my front brake as it was coming too far into the grip...but it was adjusted for my small hands,not his big ones.First corner I grabbed a handful of brake and locked the front up.Deadjusted it on the backstraight.Don't let someone else tell you how to set up your own bike.

[Motoracer]

Christ......that would have been entertaining

Not quite *Phew*. The nut came off and the sproket jumped off the drive shaft. Luckly it hung on to the end of it thoe so my new chain and sproket set were intact for long enough for me to realise what happend and come to a stop.

I was so lucky that this happend on the motorway as well and not going around a corner cause when the nut came off, the seal came off too. Which meant that the all the gear box oil pissed on my rear tire.

[marty]

after having a couple of (major) offs at BMX due to stuff breaking or not being tight enough, i now do a quick check of all the obvious bits before i ride. it takes 10 seconds, and could save my life. another thing that i do, if i'm riding somewhere and notice a problem, if i don't have time to fix it before i ride next, i'll put a post-it note on the dash to remind me before i tuck off into the distance again. this is a good one if you change onto the reserve tank on the way home, then forget you did so next time you ride......

one time at bmx i took my son's bike, turned it upside down to park it, and noticed the whole headset was about to break off - probably next time it was jumped! needless to say i always check that area now. i always check wheel alighnment, brakes, and that the front wheel nuts have got thread out past the nut. i use pink nail polish to paint a line across the nut/axle combo. i have white (twink) on both wheels of the aprilia - on the right side, so i can see it when it's on the stand.

as i had a fun time at the right left right corners at kaipaki church (near mystery creek) with oil dumping from an overfilled gearbox onto the back tyre, i ALWAYS check the tyre for shinyness - i never clean the tyre (i do the rim though) so that stands out if it has oil on it.

an easy quick test is to sit on the bike with the front brake on, and rock the bike front and back - if there's any loose front bits you should feel them - esp. brakes/bearings/headset.

that's the obvious stuff from me....

[SPman]

Just checked my bike .....my bike has a split pin on the rear axle. And its NOT THERE!!!!
Hmm - was there before it went for a service 3 weeks ago!

[merv]

Well I went into the city this morning to buy some bits for my little black consumer of oil seals,While I was there I checked out the rear of about fifty new and near new bikes.So I guess I owe Mike a big (SORRY MATE)
At lest 75% of the bikes I looked at did not have castle nuts on the rear.
They instead had a nylock type nut.

Yep even the dirt bikes just have nylocks now too and that's since I bought my first XR Honda in 1983. The old XL's had split pins and castle nuts before that.

[Zed]

Here's something to think about_:
Now here's the most important question: was it chance, coincidence, fate or something else that prevented a disaster??
Answers from CK and Zed will be particularly appreciated!

Hi Mike,

Personally I think that everything happens for a reason...and every mistake we make should be a learning experience too!

Wow, it sounds like your mate had a real close encounter there, because of negligence maybe, but what a change in attitide it will make for the next time you get on the track and all other such instances. I'm sure you guys will never forget it.


Zed

[MikeL]

Hi Mike,

[color=darkgreen][b]Personally I think that everything happens for a reason...

Zed
Thirty years ago I would have rejected that assertion as unprovable and unscientific. I still think it's unprovable and unscientific, but I no longer reject it.
Where we would differ is on explaining the precise nature of that reason...
The devil's in the detail!
Mike

[onearmedbandit]

Ha, I think it was Motu who said that this never used to happen on American/British vehicles, and is possibly a result of the Japanese fasteners. Try remembering a bit stronger there Motu, I've seen and heard of many of American/British crap falling off or breaking. However, the Japanese are fantastic at taking an idea and perfecting it.

I myself would any day of the week hop on a Japanese superbike and feel safe rather than anything the brits or yanks made.

[Motu]

Bits falling off British bikes was mainly from vibration,most modern bikes don't do that anymore,although high frequency secondaries are still with us.They were also old and nuts and bolts mangled by ignorant owners - we don't have ignorant owners these days do we?

A lot of fasteners on modern vehicles are what we call torque to yield,this means they are actualy tightened until they stretch...and they stay stretched and need to be replaced every time they are removed.If we want want to get anal about this then every fastener should be replaced if removed.

A typical result of this happened this very minute - a broken wheel stud.The wheel is removed many times in the life of a vehicle,slammed on with a hammer gun till she's dead tight,over time the stud become longer,the thread pitch is now different to the thread in the nut....with the speed of the air gun the stud and nut weld together - and shear off.Happens often,and of course we are the bad guys because we broke it.But this is only a recent problem,we have been doing it this way for years with no problems,a few years ago I did maintenence on a 1938 Chev that was a daily runner - 60yrs of ham fisted mechanics removing wheels,but still on the original wheel studs.No,the computer has computed the stresses for a 7 year life span,and that's the life of the component,rule of various sized thumbs no longer applies.

Not to say the Poms or Yanks didn't make crap,just a different sort of crap that comes from Asia.

[Coldkiwi]

I agree Mike.. its not proveable or scientific... but by cripes, the empirical evidence in my life points to it!

Wkid... all of my bikes have had rear split pins. I'd be freaked adjusting the chain for that very reason because I don't own a torque wrench (nor does my useless owners manual give me a torque to use anyway) so I basically hang on it and then put the pin in.

Sp man raises a shocker too... mechanics seem averse to putting split pins back in! I've had to ask two different shops to replace them when I've gone to pick up the bike from tyre/sprocket changes. Always worth a check and besides, the one they pull out is inevitably rooted so they'll give you a new one