Biker botch jobs, whats your best one?

[tigertim20]

Picked up my Commando last year from Blenheim....charging system died going thru Martinborough. Got two big jim lantern batteries wired in series and that got me to National Park....two more got me to Auckland. For want of a wiring diagram and a meter I could have fixed it...

nothing compared to this French dude who's car broke down and he made it into a motorcycle...
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=773613

Everyone has used vice grips to replace a broken gear lever eh?

a kid who lived on my street to use tow of them to replace a steering wheel on a crapped out car he bought, the steering wheel spline has shagged itself.
It worked fine for 5 months or so, he said he was just careful to take them off and put them back on every day to make sure they were tight.
silly cunt should have been dead.

[Voltaire]

hahaha! some doozies in here! c'mon lads, dont be afraid to share your stupidity!

Not many commandos around - did you by chance, buy that commando of a middle aged chap in Blenheim by the name of Rex or something like that?
could be the guys I used to work with, a funny story about the history of that bike . . .

Les was his name, gave me a tour of his work....the RNZAF workshop. I think the bike was owned previously by an aircraft mechanic.....braided hoses everywhere......and obviously not an electrical type.
Funny sorty...
Always wanted one and its a Combat one year only model ( one year only as they all shit themselves due to bearings, poor workmanship.....)

[puddytat]

Used a 4'' nail once to fashion a join for a chain to get me home.....which it did.

[unstuck]

Had an old mudbug and when out in the mountains once the throttle cable snapped, so got a bit of string and just used that for a cable. Had to hold the string in one hand,it was an art form keeping that bloody thing mobile for the rest of the weekend. Had a rear wheel bearing seize up on a Er I had, smashed the bearings out and just put the axle back through the hub and rode on.

[Oakie]

I kept blowing fuses in my old CB125. After blowing another one I replaced the fuse with a nail (at least I think it was a nail ... it was 34 years ago). Problem solved! Although in hindsight it was just 'symptom solved'. Stoopid!

[actungbaby]

Everyone has used vice grips to replace a broken gear lever eh?

my freind did on his it i tryed drilling into my step thru 50cc honda

was just old dunger i brought and spine was gone put pin in from memory

Broke of and ended up riding to work stuck in 3 gear dam that was slow.

my cb 400n got written of by elderly chap in his car so had like week riding to

Work on the stepie i had waddle my legs to get enough omph to get bike moving

even scraped centre stand as well round the corners hehe

Thought was hot stuff lol

[unstuck]

And of course we have all welded kick levers and gear levers on stripped splines right.

[Oakie]

And of course we have all welded kick levers and gear levers on stripped splines right.

Oh yeah ... that's right. XL175 from memory (kick-starter)

[actungbaby]

Kiwis are known for their ingenuity, but theres a fine line between kiwi No.8 wire she'll be right type ingenuity, and a lazy arse botch up.
what silly things have you done with bikes?

Well my best seems to be on vfr 750 i brought i used a inner roll from tape
as spacer for front axle to keep wheel spining in right place

In wore down but rode for few hundred miles like that

i bolted on xr 200 footpeg to right hand side over the exsiting footpeg bracket

Thats still on there as orginal was sheared of well , wheel the pin holds peg
on been snaped in half just needs to be welded

faring is held toghter with tape tied with straps rad is held by strap and the left hose as , being cheap the top holding loops got damged , that was me

so damaged that i hope to get those reapired this week.

I did find my xr 200 headlight somone used a coke bottle lid metal i think
to fashion front hedlight holder pushed wire through felt that was bit , naff
even for my standreds

Seems common fix for honda trailbikes they weld gear lever on

I think bit primtive as tends to bake the seal on engine cover

I pawned my ps3 orginal machine last week and taper proof screw , where fits in top cover had no place to hold it, so stuck some my 2 yr play dough in there

and put rubber bung back in and worked a treat

With 3 my broken ps3 i brought from trademe , easy to do the cables to the blu ray drive going to mb get secured with plastic clip fairly easy to break.

previous owner forgot to tell me about that so thought worth a try
I cut thin strips plasic like in what things sealed in , and sliped them between cable and the clip holder then taped them down , fixed all 3 that way.

Worst thing i done is borrow chain breaker and rushed and munted the points by having them in wrong postion opps

[tigertim20]

Had an old mudbug and when out in the mountains once the throttle cable snapped, so got a bit of string and just used that for a cable. Had to hold the string in one hand,it was an art form keeping that bloody thing mobile for the rest of the weekend. Had a rear wheel bearing seize up on a Er I had, smashed the bearings out and just put the axle back through the hub and rode on.

I truly beleive that mudbugs are invincible. I had one as my first bike when I was 12. Neither of my parents knew fuckall abotu bikes at the time, and I sure as hell didnt (other than knowing they were cool)
In the first 8 months, a single drop of oil never went into it.
several times Id be riding along and it would slow down with a BBBUUUUUURRRRRRRRrrrrrgggghhhhhhh noise and stop.
every time that happened i pushed it home but it always started the next time i went to ride it.

was quite a while before someone noticed and told me what was actually going on, Id thought it was running out of gas.

Thank fuck Ive learned a bit since then huh?

And of course we have all welded kick levers and gear levers on stripped splines right.

almost every dirt bike ive owned has had something welded on a shagged spline.

I was surprised my most recent project didnt to be honest!

[unstuck]

I truly beleive that mudbugs are invincible. I had one as my first bike when I was 12. Neither of my parents knew fuckall abotu bikes at the time, and I sure as hell didnt (other than knowing they were cool)
In the first 8 months, a single drop of oil never went into it.
several times Id be riding along and it would slow down with a BBBUUUUUURRRRRRRRrrrrrgggghhhhhhh noise and stop.
every time that happened i pushed it home but it always started the next time i went to ride it.

was quite a while before someone noticed and told me what was actually going on, Id thought it was running out of gas.

Thank fuck Ive learned a bit since then huh?


almost every dirt bike ive owned has had something welded on a shagged spline.

I was surprised my most recent project didnt to be honest!

I could do a bit of welding on the stator before I send it up if you like.

[skippa1]

And of course we have all welded kick levers and gear levers on stripped splines right.

haha!!!!busted....did it on the ol XS650

[Drew]

There's a chance I have you all beat here.

At the tender age of 15, I owned a couple GT500 Suzukis. And I was given a TS250 that Jimmy had holed a piston on. I theorised in my innocent stupidity that one slug from the titan, would be the same as a TS one. As it turns out, bore and stroke are the same, but the gudgeon height is different. So I took to a Titan piston with a hack saw to shorten the skirts.

Guess what...I WORKED. Thing was a fuckin mongrel to get started, but once the revs were up it went pretty well.

Alas, whilst hacking at the skirts I had cracked one of them, and when it came apart, it really came apart. So I took the motor out, turned it upside down to shake all the piston bits out, and repeated the process.

[MSTRS:Me]

Heath Robinson had nothing on the Mair bros...

Done the welded Honda kicklever, the drilled gearshaft due to stripped spline. Found out that an 8" crescent can NOT exert 200 pounds torque (without using a bigger hammer)

[SMOKEU]

Just ask anyone who has seen my TS185 - the whole thing has been Maoried up!