Your own kiwi ingenuity moment

[MSTRS:Me]

Thats priceless! Top effort.

What was REALLY priceless was seeing him ride that sucker. Especially on left handers....

[surfer]

Metal battery box cover wore through the rubber/plastic around the live wire and caused it to arc on the side of the battery box resulting in it catching on fire. I had stopped to see what was happening as the bike wasn't running well. When I stopped the flames started to eat up the sides of the wire as there was no wind from riding pushing them back. Aaarrrggghhhh.

Fortunately I needed a piss so managed to put it all out. Replaced a grommet around the wire where it went in to the battery box and it was fine.

[Beemer]

My husband hit a hare on one of the 1000 Mile Grand Challenges and it broke the gear lever on his BMW. He wasn't interested in giving up, so he fashioned a new lever out of an Allen key and some of those metal clips (the name of which has escaped me) and continued!

He also made me a neat accessory for when I cleaned the chain on my RG150. It looked like a bit of wood, but it had a piece of thick wire at the top that was angled out and went into the middle of the wheel while the bike was on the sidestand. When you pushed the wood closer to the bike, it lifted the back wheel just enough to spin it while it was being cleaned and lubed - he even put a Suzuki badge on it!

He's made a lot of quirky things around the house too, but these are the nifty bikes ones I can recall.

[janno]

Fortunately I needed a piss so managed to put it all out. Replaced a grommet around the wire where it went in to the battery box and it was fine.

Yeah, but you're a guy. . . That option isn't available for some of us - not unless we are contortionists! The mind boggles!!

Anyway, you're lucky the current wasn't big enough to give you a tingle in the doodads. Or is that unlucky?

[Toaster]

Chewing gum to hold on the indicator and housing after the screw fell out.

[Street Gerbil]

Using a grommet from a burnt out computer power supply to stop wobbling of the rear hugger on my Street Magic.

[Flyingpony]

Couldn't pour new engine oil into my bike because its frame prevented the bottle from lining up nicely for no-mess-pouring. Standing around scratching my head I spied the yellow plastic funnel on the 5l fuel can. Fitted the oil filler hole like a dream, hands free too, and extends just right for oil to be poured down it's neck.

Was in mates cage and we ran out of fuel. Thought we were sweet as we were carrying spare fuel but quickly discovered its funnel was miles away in the garage. Stranded on road side at midnight we had to do some quick thinking or walk. Found a tiny plastic Cola bottle in the boot, down the hatch it went, BURB! Out with the trusty knife and wholla, we have a funnel.

[Timmay]

I was out for my first Wednesday night ride, pre ride check confirmed that my bike had emptied itself of oil again. These new plastic notes make great funnels when rolled up.

[scumdog]

Couldn't pour new engine oil into my bike because its frame prevented the bottle from lining up nicely for no-mess-pouring. Standing around scratching my head I spied the yellow plastic funnel on the 5l fuel can. Fitted the oil filler hole like a dream, hands free too, and extends just right for oil to be poured down it's neck.

Was in mates cage and we ran out of fuel. Thought we were sweet as we were carrying spare fuel but quickly discovered its funnel was miles away in the garage. Stranded on road side at midnight we had to do some quick thinking or walk. Found a tiny plastic Cola bottle in the boot, down the hatch it went, BURB! Out with the trusty knife and wholla, we have a funnel.

Arrr, in the old days we had to use a long screw-driver to whack the bum out of a Bavarian Bitter beer bottle to make a funnel - you young guys are so lucky...

[Conquiztador]

Had a 650 Triumph in my youth. The front tyre was worn (read no thread left!) but as money was not something I had heaps of I was hoping to get a few more K's outta it. Sadly it did not eventuate. And so a w/e when an hour from home, the tyre blew. I managed to stop without any more damage. But the tube was a goner.

So what to do... Took wheel off, and tyre off. Then I took off my T-shirt, the sweater and my longjohns (yep, was cold riding in jeans) and tucked them nicely in to the tyre. Tyre back on, wheel back on and off I went. Apart from some serious vibration and a fraction of jumping all went well.

I used the bike for about 2 weeks like it was before I had enough money to buy the new tyre and tube. Only to work and back.

[Katman]

18 years old, parked up at a beach in the middle of nowhere for the night, sat back, rolled a joint and discovered I didn't have a light.

After accepting the fact that cursing and swearing wasn't going to help I finally decided to try soaking a zig zig with petrol, pulled out the spark plug and held the paper between the plug and the motor while winding the engine over.

Took a while to ignite, but turned out to be a great night after all.

[Kiwi Graham:Me]

Used a screw to fix a puncture!!!!!!!!

I was out and about on one of our normal sunny days, called into a rural gas station for the all important top up when I noticed a nail sticking out of my front tyre accompanied by a faint hissing
The gas station was just that a gas station so no help in fixing a puncture. So I pulled out the nail and replaced it with a (larger in diameter) self tapping screw. re-inflated the tyre to 28Ibs and rode very slowly home. I had the tyre fixed the next day.

[turtleman]

My brother fell off his old XR250A twin shocker on gravel, and managed to puncture the steel fuel tank.
I fixed this by first covering the hole with a vulcanise patch from a tyre puncture repair kit that I'd sliced a very small hole in the centre of, and screwed a self tapping screw scavenged from the number plate on my bike into the hole in the tank with the patch in place. Worked primo !!

[jamiey]

Mines gotta be a Honda C90 with a petrol leak and no throttle handle. A small piece of old chewing gum fixed the leak, and a pair of pliers to pull the throttle cable, being only 15 years old the bike was v illegal and no cash to fix ot anyway, still plenty of fun in my local field!!!

[Motu]

My whole life is full of ingenuity moments,and all my bikes will have something that was near at hand and put to the task.

My first bodge was on my BSA Bantam as a naive 16 year old.Sometimes it wouldn't start,pretty common with elderly 2 strokes and young riders.Somehow I found that if I loosened the 3 screws holding the points baseplate it would start,then I'd do them up again.But it got worse and I'd have to lever the plate out and it would cut out if screwed in again.So I made a couple of little spacers to make the plate sit crooked - so that fixed it for some time.Ultimately even that didn't work and I had to find out the real cause - the alloy flywheel was loose on it's steel boss,and the flywheel was poling on the stator.