How dumb can you get?

[dangerous]

Hows about (a long time ago) doing the big N/I trip stoping at Thames I think for a break. There were three of us and my mate with a 750gt couldent get it started.......1 & 1/2 hrs later when the bike was in a hundred pieces on the foot path, tank off scratching heads I leant over and turned the kill switch on arrrrrrrrrrrr

[Zed]

In order to make me feel better this is the part where you share all your dumb experiences on the bike. I'll kick this one off with my dumb experiences.

Hey, we all make mistakes, they are only dumb if you keep repeating them.

Some of mine that come to mind:

- Turning my ignition lock on too far into park mode, which turned my park light on for 8 hours while I was at work, resulting in a flat battery!

- After incorrectly adjusting my clutch lever too much I released it at an intersection which caused the bike to stall, losing balance I dropped the bike going about 2kmph and basically walked off it at the same time, turning around looking at my machine on its side in the middle of the road was not a pretty sight, especially for a brand new Fireblade! I nearly wept.

- I had been given an opportunity to ride a brand new 1300cc Harley in 2000, which I glady accepted, and when I started off I managed to turn it around on a patch of grass losing my balance and nearly toppling over...thankfully I used all my strength to keep it upright and blasted off into the sunset. Those things weigh a tonne!


Zed

[dangerous]

Ohhh yeh bloody Harlys.....before coming back from Brissie I sold my 97 VFR but I still had a rally to do so I rented a 1450 twin cam super glide. I rocked up at the gate turned the key off, removed the helmet waited to pay my entry, did that then tryed to start the thing sat there for 5min the gate staff watching woundering what the hell I was doing on a brand new HD......Well stuff me bloody HD changed the switch blocks around on me for the last 5min I had been pushing the left hand indercater on and off, shit I felt like a dick (the right hand indercater is on the right side switch block)

[Wenier]

I havent really done anything major.

The best was spending about 5mins trying to start my bike b4 realising i had turned the kill switch off which i dont normally.

And the other would have been spending about 5mins trying to figure out why my bike kept stalling when trying to take off. Turns out i had the stand down and when in gear as soon as the clutch is released slighty it cuts the engine.

I felt like a right dick when i figured out wut i did in both cases.

[Kwaka-Kid]

ive done the oil cap thing, with no oil cap just down my road then i rememberd, looked down to see the light spray of oil all over my jean legs

ridin with blown forkseal, like, full on. for nearly 2 years too!.

hmm, oh prolly jsut the sual of riding around on special KY tyres (slippery, due to age) will spend today at work trying to think of things.

[erik]

Riding my bike, when it was (still is) having engine problems. The engine stopped going around an uphill corner, but there were parking spaces on the side of the road just after the corner. So I stopped, and tried to restart it, but it'd cough a bit but not want to run. I was getting worried that there was something major wrong with it (there still could be I guess...), but after maybe 10 minutes of sitting there trying to start it (not continuously, I'd turn the ignition off in between attempts to not flatten the battery) I discovered that it was just low on fuel. So I put it on reserve and rode to the gas station.

[Slim]

A variation on Erik's story:

I warmed up the bike for a ride one day, hopped on it & roared off down the road only to find that it was missing & farting around. Since I'm not far from town, I decided to head into the Honda shop for them to check it out, but it died completely while I was waiting for the lights to change. So I call a friend who asks me to check several things (which I already had & all were aok) and then he hops in the work van & heads over to help me out.

While he was on his way, I checked the fuel tap, found it on main, turned it to reserve, gave it some poke & lo, it started. So I waited for my friend to arrive, who looked a bit sheepish himself for not thinking of the fuel tap either.

[moko]

O.k.,once pulled up outside the pub where my mates were all looking on as I flipped out the sidestand and leaned it between the gaps in the drain cover at the side of the road,being good mates it was forgotten within 5 years or so.Fuel tap?,yep,loads of times.Without fail you`ll find that when showing off to bystanders your bike will jump out of gear or you`ll do something really stupid.Once had my RD400 nearly vertical being a smartarse and playing to the crowds in a busy town centre,if I hadn`t been totally out of control and shitting myself it would have been impressive.Overtook a line of cars once on a blind bend and nearly collided with a Police Bike coming the other way,then tried to lose his Norton 850 Commando on my CB200,lets just say he wasnt exactly happy when he caught me.
In N.Z. got pulled by a Cop on the way to Taurangi,no probs but not for the first time couldn`t get the bastard big BMW off the stand as it was so bloody top-heavy and my mate on the V-Max with almost slick tyres had to come and give me a shove when all he really wanted to do was keep out of the way,Cop was pissing himself laughing,to be fair it was funny,frigging lardy pile of kraut crap,nah,brilliant bike as it goes.

[Timber020]

I took a rather sorted (well it was fast) KDX200 for a run after doing some carb work that basically had no clutch, rear brake or kill switch (had head butted it in an accident and broken it. Got it on the firebreak and let loose, was doing over 120kmph when the thing found more speed from somewhere, and wouldnt stop. Full noise along firebreak making the cars on SH1 look slow. Managed to turn the gas off somehow and pulled off some jumps from hell, all the while getting closer and closer to where a river crossed and there was no way I could make the xmas traffic.
I have never been so thankful for the sound of a bike engine coughing and finally dying.
Turned out that I hadnt screwed the cap of the carb right down, whole top came out including the slider so it was sucking air down in new found powerband amounts.

OH I did take a GSXR750 for a ride that had no front brakes......boy they just dont slow down fast enough.

[Coldkiwi]

Well there you go... conclusive living/riding proof that Natural selection is bollocks! Andrew, everyone makes mistakes... but I think you're significantly ahead of the going rate!

did the lock on thing the other day and took a chunk out of my mudguard (ARSE!!!) but I'm now learning and have a special bungee cord I put over my dash so I will never do it again!

[Kwaka-Kid]

hgahaha omg @ theese disc lock things, bet id do it too tho. rode my mates gsxr250 breifly with no front brakes, that sucks, rode hte gs1000 with fork oil on both front discs for about 6months or so, was good, man u hauled in the brakes as hard as you could and i swaer it was no better then the rear.

[wkid_one]

From my previous post

Originally Posted by wkid_one

IF you use a disklock - put it hard up against the calliper in the direction you intend to move....this way the bike won't move and you won't ride off with it on and damage callipers or fenders.

[Andrew]

Andrew, everyone makes mistakes... but I think you're significantly ahead of the going rate!

So just what are you trying to say by that?!

[Kwaka-Kid]

That your a special young lad! If only i was so special Anyways you could also find a place to park ur bike like up against a wall so u have to wheel it backwards before taking off etc, enough so that if u do wheel first you will just tap ur fender/brakes, or is this what you did? (dont know, with cruddy bikes like mine you only use the steering lock)

[curious george]

Bwahahahahaha! It thought this was a tribute thread to KK!!!!
I think Andrew may have beaten you though KK!
As for me, I think I've done the drive off with the fuel tap turned off once or twice.....

I forgot to tighten the front wheel of my BMX as a kid, and then tried a new jump.....that hurt a lot.