DODGY experiences

**Satch** · 10th December 2006, 22:30

Ok so heres the story

ive recently bought myself an 05 R1

all was going well and i embarked on a journey from auckland to kaitaia. Weather was good riding was beautiful. everything going great.

so im going along a flat level piece of road and whaK!!!!!! soething hits me in the boot, it hit me hard to, i look around and cant think what i ran over or where it came from, it gets me thinking tho.

so about 2 kms up the road i decide to pull over and wait up for someone. Im just turning into the gas station in welsford and go to slow down and viola no front brakes at all!!

i chop it down and use the rear and get in safe and sound.

Pull over and look and guess what but all the bront brake bolts the ones holding the calipers to the forks have dissapeared!! and the front brakes basically fell off!!!

DODGY, i know i should have checked but on a 1 year old bike i really didnt expect them to fall out!

the lesson here i spose is never ever trust the past owner of a bike

anyone else had dodgy shit like this happen to them?

**gijoe1313** · 10th December 2006, 22:38

Glad you handled that jandle well~ WTH? So you managed to fix everything up safe and sound? Good thing that didn't happen in the twisties before Kaitaia!

So, you going to track the seller back down and make him pay?

Only dodgy thing I had on my bike was an old knob off a completely different machine (not a bike!) that was glued to the tripmeter reset!

**SPman** · 10th December 2006, 22:43

Originally Posted by Satch

..

anyone else had dodgy shit like this happen to them?

When I bought the SP from a certain dealer in Barrys Point Rd, riding home and hear a knocking sound from the front end.......stop, and discover it was the second bolt in one of the front calipers almost out - the first one had fallen out - not bad for 6kms of riding!

**xwhatsit** · 10th December 2006, 22:47

Hmm... finding out my recently purchased bike had a cracked cylinder head! Well, that doesn't count, because it's a >20yr old bike, and the previous owner was a clueless n00b about to buy a GN250.

I have a theory... and that there is sort of a graph you can draw, which looks like a parabola, in terms of faults on bikes/cars/computers/etc compared to age of said item. Here's the graph...

Code:

  ja                         .a,
  ]Dqr                      ]ZW[
  ]E3[                      jCW[
  ]k]k                     _QGW[
  ]E"Q,                    j@)B[
  ]k $[                    jf]m[
# ]E ]k                   _Wf]B[
o ]E ]mr                  )D ]m[
f ]E  4c                  d[ ]W[
  ]E  )m                 jW' ]m[
f ]E  -$c                jf  ]m[
a ]E   ]k,              jW`  ]B[
u ]E    $c              jf   ]m[
l ]E    )m,            jW`   ]B[
t ]E     4L           _m[    ]m[
s ]E     ]Qp          jE     ]B[
  ]E      )mp        j@`     ]m[
  ]E       ]Qp     _j@`      ]B[
  ]E        "Qwp__amP`       ]m[
  ]E         "?$mWT"`        ]B[
  ]mggggagggaggaagagagggaggagaW[

             time

'Scuse the ASCII art...

When you have a new thingie, fresh from the factory, you'll get all the teething problems and manufacturers faults, bolts they forgot to tighten up etc. And when your thingie is 10 years +, you have problems due to just sheer age. And it all works out into a neat little y=x^2 graph. At least that's my theory

.

**Satch** · 11th December 2006, 07:52

Originally Posted by gijoe1313

Glad you handled that jandle well~ WTH? So you managed to fix everything up safe and sound? Good thing that didn't happen in the twisties before Kaitaia!

So, you going to track the seller back down and make him pay?

Only dodgy thing I had on my bike was an old knob off a completely different machine (not a bike!) that was glued to the tripmeter reset!

Yeah i was basically real lucky i didnt notice the lack of stop at a worse time. It couldnt of really happened at a better time as i was moving out of auckland and dad was 10 mins behind me with a trailer so on went the bike!!

as to tracking down the owner, it came thru an auction so that rules that out

yeah man, those twisies before kaitaia are awesome, the managmukas there calles, im currently about 5kms from them, so one those breaks are back up, ill be seeing a bit of them

**Satch** · 11th December 2006, 07:53

Originally Posted by SPman

When I bought the SP from a certain dealer in Barrys Point Rd, riding home and hear a knocking sound from the front end.......stop, and discover it was the second bolt in one of the front calipers almost out - the first one had fallen out - not bad for 6kms of riding!

Yeah man that sounds like the same sort of deal!! only instead of 6 kms i managed over a hundred. Shocking aye!!

**Satch** · 11th December 2006, 07:55

[QUOTE
I have a theory... [/QUOTE]

I like your theory, once a bike had aged all those little nigly things have probably been sorted by previous owners otherwise the bike would probably have been crashed by now!!

so beware of new bikes and old ones aye

**Whynot** · 11th December 2006, 07:57

Originally Posted by xerxesdaphat

Hmm... finding out my recently purchased bike had a cracked cylinder head! Well, that doesn't count, because it's a >20yr old bike, and the previous owner was a clueless n00b about to buy a GN250.

I have a theory... and that there is sort of a graph you can draw, which looks like a parabola, in terms of faults on bikes/cars/computers/etc compared to age of said item. Here's the graph...

Code:

  ja                         .a,
  ]Dqr                      ]ZW[
  ]E3[                      jCW[
  ]k]k                     _QGW[
  ]E"Q,                    j@)B[
  ]k $[                    jf]m[
# ]E ]k                   _Wf]B[
o ]E ]mr                  )D ]m[
f ]E  4c                  d[ ]W[
  ]E  )m                 jW' ]m[
f ]E  -$c                jf  ]m[
a ]E   ]k,              jW`  ]B[
u ]E    $c              jf   ]m[
l ]E    )m,            jW`   ]B[
t ]E     4L           _m[    ]m[
s ]E     ]Qp          jE     ]B[
  ]E      )mp        j@`     ]m[
  ]E       ]Qp     _j@`      ]B[
  ]E        "Qwp__amP`       ]m[
  ]E         "?$mWT"`        ]B[
  ]mggggagggaggaagagagggaggagaW[

             time

'Scuse the ASCII art...

When you have a new thingie, fresh from the factory, you'll get all the teething problems and manufacturers faults, bolts they forgot to tighten up etc. And when your thingie is 10 years +, you have problems due to just sheer age. And it all works out into a neat little y=x^2 graph. At least that's my theory

.

its called a "Bathtub curve"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve

**car** · 11th December 2006, 11:13

Originally Posted by Satch

anyone else had dodgy shit like this happen to them?

My old man introduced me to the "bathtub curve" when I were but a lad and, consequently, I've never bought new, or even near-new. Plus, the moths in my wallet don't light the sunlight too much.

I've had three amusing "new-to-me bike" experiences, to date, though:

1) the week after picking up my ZXR750R, I was out for a hoon, just weighting up the footpegs on those LSL rearsets for a fast sweeper, when the outside peg just fell off, and I just about fell off the inside of the bike. I went back but never found the peg, and ended up riding without one for a month, until I got chatting to one of the guys from Harris at the NEC show, who just happened to have a spare.

2) I got a train out to Warrington, from York, (about two hours) to pick up an old Can Am Bombardier and ride it back. The seller told me I was insane, and reminded me that the bike had been standing in a shed for 18 months. I broke down twice: fuel starvation, but it turned out that it was just the regular tap was blocked up and the reserve tap was fine; later all six bolts holding the clutch together worked out or let go, the clutch came apart and smashed up the inside of the cover. I'd made it twelve miles on my own, then another hundred or so on an AA trailer.

3) Riding the RVF400 back up the A1 from London to York, it was raining and cold, I had my big all-weather suit over the leathers. Over about 60mph, the suit just inflated and, the RVF being so narrow, I couldn't see jack in the mirrors. I was just tootling along at a steady *ahem* when I noticed a sign ahead of me reflect a flash of light. I looked over my shoulder to see a police Volvo T5, blues and twos on, with two angry coppers in the front seat gesticulating. Oops. I began to pull in, expecting a reaming, and the T5 flashed straight past me. The cop in the passenger seat was looking at me, wagging his finger at me like "naughty, naughty boy!" Up ahead, on an adjoining road, an artic had turned over, there was smoke reaching for the sky. I guess that's where they were going. Lucky me.

**xwhatsit** · 11th December 2006, 12:04

Originally Posted by Whynot

its called a "Bathtub curve"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve

Oh, tits. This always happens -.-''

**ManDownUnder** · 11th December 2006, 12:09

Originally Posted by Whynot

its called a "Bathtub curve"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve

Bathtub curve? I thought that was when your going at it in the bath - and she arches her back just as she goes slightly cross eyed with that "far-away look"

**xwhatsit** · 11th December 2006, 12:16

Originally Posted by ManDownUnder

Bathtub curve? I thought that was when your going at it in the bath - and she arches her back just as she goes slightly cross eyed with that "far-away look"

She goes cross-eyed? Dude, what have I told you about not using the wrong hole?

**ManDownUnder** · 11th December 2006, 12:20

Originally Posted by xerxesdaphat

She goes cross-eyed? Dude, what have I told you about not using the wrong hole?

You're confusing me with Maurice. I'm the one with technique, experience, rythym, style and endurance.

He's the one with the "any hole's a goal" philosophy.

A true gent always comes 2nd... or 3rd or 4th - depending on the task at hand...

**MSTRS:Me** · 11th December 2006, 12:23

Originally Posted by Satch

Pull over and look and guess what but all the bront brake bolts the ones holding the calipers to the forks have dissapeared!! and the front brakes basically fell off!!!

Oh, lucky! New bolts (locktight?) and all's well. I suppose the caliper was swinging in the breeze. Imagine if you'd hit the brake with the caliper still 'in place'. *shudders*