Your Dumbest Bike Maintenance Moment

Following on from a new members post which seems to have been a highlight of last week for many organs, I thought it would bring some light hearted cheer for you all to share with the rest of the org your biggest biking related facepalm moment.

To get the ball rolling, I could pick from a few but the one which comes with the luckiest escape has to be:
Fitted a new chain and sprocket kit prior to AR last year, during the ride down whilst exiting the motorway noticed my clutch lever felt a bit heavy so pulled over to inspect it. I found while pulling in the clutch the chain would bounce up and down. To my horror looking through the gap at the sprocket cover I could see my front sproket had come off, the nut completely loose rattling around staying on by pure luck.
Manged to get to a garrage thanks to AndyBrads blackberry where I had the finer points of a locking washer explained to me. Turns out in my haste to fit the front sprocket I never bent the washer over the nut... stupid really could have been a lot worse, but lesson learnt!

[dizzyblonde]

Suzy broke down yet again, only a short way from home, dark night off on the nighshift one cold November.

FOoking bag o sh1te!

Pushed her home.

Called YC after the weekend,

He came over to take a look

' Lou, what do you need for your bike to run?'

'eerrrr, dunnoo petrol'

#slaps head#

Wasn't totally stupid, her fuel sensor had got a little corroded, so the light failed.

DOH.

[timwilky]

damm you, you are thinking similar to me today with my inexcusable ineptitude thread. I wonder if we were prompted from the same source

Don't think I've had a really bad blonde moment on the bike, but I once spent an hour with my head upside down in the engine bay, trying to figure out how to remove this engine cover



removed all kinds of screws, clips, still it wouldn't come loose.

Went in the house to search the internet and the Seat Cupra forum gave me the answer,

"put your hands underneath it and pull like hell"

So, cover off I put it on the floor behind me, and serviced the car, until it came to replacing the air filter. Air intake is obvious, but it's just a open black pipe, couldn't see anything that looked like an airbox anywhere, so back into the house onto the Seat Cupra forum

"Can't find the airbox!"
"Did you get the engine cover off?"
"Yes"
"Where did you put it?"
"On the floor behind me"
"Then you've found the airbox - It's behind you!!"

Undid the clips, opened the engine cover, and there is the air box moulded into the interior shape of the cover, and a nice wee slot containing the old air filter.

Bl00dy modern cars...

[fizzwheel]

first one.

I had been doing some work on the bike, I think I had unbolted the clutch and brake lever to spin them around the bar a little to improve my comfort. Un did the bolts, moved the levers, went in doors put on bike kit and thought I'd go and try it. Went to start bike, ignition on, all the dash lights on, thumb the starter and it was dead as a door knob.

Cue 20 minutes of cursing and swearing, then I looked at the kill switch, set it back to the run position and off we went.

second one

Trying to remove the baffle from the blue flame can with circlip pliers, cue again much frustration and general throwing of tools around in a temper, Liz comes out of the house, picks the pliers up and takes the circlip off at the first attempt and then looks at me smuggly and goes back indoors again.

I dont help myself sometimes do I...

Originally Posted by Owenski

Following on from a new members post which seems to have been a highlight of last week for many organs, I thought it would bring some light hearted cheer for you all to share with the rest of the org your biggest biking related facepalm moment.

To get the ball rolling, I could pick from a few but the one which comes with the luckiest escape has to be:
Fitted a new chain and sprocket kit prior to AR last year, during the ride down whilst exiting the motorway noticed my clutch lever felt a bit heavy so pulled over to inspect it. I found while pulling in the clutch the chain would bounce up and down. To my horror looking through the gap at the sprocket cover I could see my front sproket had come off, the nut completely loose rattling around staying on by pure luck.
Manged to get to a garrage thanks to AndyBrads blackberry where I had the finer points of a locking washer explained to me. Turns out in my haste to fit the front sprocket I never bent the washer over the nut... stupid really could have been a lot worse, but lesson learnt!

can i follow that up with the guy i was following on the ar also forgot to tighten his rear axle nut, i mean....


i think my greatest was on a mini, i used to take the wheels off regulary to clean under the arches (yes yes i know) and procedded to jump on the breaker bar to make sure the wheel nuts were nice and tight afterwards. Driving from barnsley to sheffield (and passing a school) all of a sudden i herd a clunk, followed by the car grinding its way down the road. Needless to say the wheel nuts had sheared off all within the space of a few feet and the front wheel popped off and under the car.


lesson learned about torque wrenches.

[STRAMASHER]

On my 1st bike, a Mean-Green KDX125SR, and my 1st (of many) punctures on it, I took the wheel out and over to a bikee mate to get the fairy liquid oot and start to get it fixed.

Job jobbed.

Put the wheel back in and could not get the rear caliper back on so I err,em... Sellotaped the caliper to the swingarm and rode the few miles to the local garage.

I feared the mechanic would split his sides when he saw it from laughing(and invited others out to see my bodginess.)

Turns out I had dropped a wheel spacer. Found it at the house and everything went back on fine.

And then my chain fell off going round a roundabout.....

On me first 125, I pulled into the petrol station, as normal, filled up, payed etc. Then I set off as normal only to try and turn left out onto the road to find I'd left the sidestand down, then when I got home, I tried to put the bike on it's stand and realised I hadn't put the stand down, and duely fell over.

Next, on the day of trading in me 125 for me SV, I gave it a good clean, that included the brake disc, for some reason or another, I thought I'd clean it, so I picked up what I thought was a can of brake cleaner and soaked me disc in it, to find it was WD40...oops

oooh bike. i think the dumbest was playing with the idle on the sv before leaving work. It didnt seem to be doing anything so i set off. As i got to the top of the ramp at work i realised i had actually lowered the idle and as my front wheel bounced down the curb it stalled. Thing is im quite short and the rear wheel was on the curb. thus i was paddling in mid air! bike on its side and infront of a load of people. Gutted. I tend to leave things to settle before riding off now

[Biker Biggles]

More a lack of maintenance moment but,
On an old Brit bike with cable operated brakes I had failed to notice the front cable was past its best and it duly pulled the nipple off at the lever just when approaching a 90' right hander downhill and too fast.