Things you've seen people do mechanically on bikes

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I'll kick it off
When I was about 18 I sold a BSA c25 Barracuda to a mate of mine
He phoned me up a few days later saying the bike won't start
He'd checked and cleaned the carburettor etc
When I got round there he had the carburettor loosely bolted on upside down FFS
The throttle cable was like a bow string! I couldn't believe it
 
Whats this? Are you biased? Why only mechanical?
Whats wrong with a good electrical f##ck up?
...or civil, for that matter! (only joking, everyone knows there are no civil bikers!)
 
robs ss said:
Whats this? Are you biased? Why only mechanical?
Whats wrong with a good electrical f##ck up?
...or civil, for that matter! (only joking, everyone knows there are no civil bikers!)
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Ok anything you have seen someone do on a bike
 
I saw a bike converted to a hard tail, the shocks were taken off and 2 pieces of angle iron same length as the shocks bolted in place.

Why ?
 
kommando said:
I saw a bike converted to a hard tail, the shocks were taken off and 2 pieces of angle iron same length as the shocks bolted in place.

Why ?
Click to expand...
You've just reminded me
I saw that done with two bits of dexion once
Admittedly they were shorter!!
 
The standard Commando story!
I serviced a friend's bike & a few weeks later he phoned & moaned & complained like a good un.
I went round. Bikes impossible to start! He got his son to kick it over to demonstrate! He really struggled until my friend said you even forgot to put oil in it!
Lol he had topped it up!
Drained the sump. Done.
 
I was once on my way to an autojumble at the Chatham historic dock yard
And I stopped to help a bloke that was broken down on a ww2 BSA M20
It soon became apparent that he was riding it with no seat!
We got the bike running and I asked about the lack of seat
He said yeah I really need a seat that's why I'm going to the autojumble !!
 
I was asked to look at a ZRX wouldn't run properly, it would fire up but not rev, the carbs had been stripped for cleaning and it hadn't run right since, he had a spare set of carbs so he stripped and cleaned them before fitting them but the the problem remained.

I will always remember the look on his face when i diagnosed the problem in 20 seconds, it not the look of someone that was pleased that his bike was going to run properly after weeks of being off the road, he seemed to be a bit pissed off.

I walked in his garage and picked up the spare set of carbs that were on the bench, I put my finger in the carb to lift the slides and the needles stayed where they were, he had not put the clips on the needles, I took the carbs that were on the bike off, and sure enough they were the same.

I would say if it wasn't for the carbs on the bench being accessible, the diagnosis may have taken a little longer. :)
 
kommando said:
I saw a bike converted to a hard tail, the shocks were taken off and 2 pieces of angle iron same length as the shocks bolted in place.

Why ?
Click to expand...
A couple of local heroes here in Northern Scotland did that to Japanese trail singles back in the 1980s.

The iron struts were shorter than the shocks had been. That made the back of the bikes low and the long trailbike forks stick out forwards.

That meant the bikes were way-cool choppers. I think.
 
Chris said:
The standard Commando story!
I serviced a friend's bike & a few weeks later he phoned & moaned & complained like a good un.
I went round. Bikes impossible to start! He got his son to kick it over to demonstrate! He really struggled until my friend said you even forgot to put oil in it!
Lol he had topped it up!
Drained the sump. Done.
Click to expand...

Same kind of thing , lad had a CBR600 and decided to change the oil, ----- they take a fair bit to fill to the top of the dipstick hole :) this fella had left Uni doing vehicle design to join the Fire Brigade, he was just as useless at everything else to be honest
 
Not a motorcycle story, hope you don't mind.
A friend of mine decided his Camaro needed a tune up as it was running a bit rough. He was mulling over trying to do the work himself or taking it to a shop.
He mentioned this to his brother in law, who said, " I can help you, I've always done my own mechanical repair work, it's easy stuff!"
As planned the brother in law arrived on a Saturday morning to help. They decided to remove the ignition points from the Camaro and bring them to the parts store in order to ensure that they purchased the correct part.
With the Camaro disabled, the brother in law's VW Bus was going to be used for the parts run.
My friend climbed in the passengers side and noticed something odd on the floor of the drivers side.
There were two mismatched rope ends laying on the floor, a skinny one and a really thick one.
The Brother-in-law got in, picked the rope ends up and laid them in his lap. Naturally my friend asked, " What's with the ropes?"
The B-in-law answered "Something broke in the steering and I haven't been able to figure out what's wrong just yet. I tied the ropes on down there and it steers just fine this way"

Glen
 
I brought a pair of wheels for a race project. I was pleased as I got them for little more than the cost of the new race tyres that were fitted. When I got them it turned out the front tyre was on the back! & Visa versa.
 
I got a C15, BSA 250cc single, it wouldn’t run. It’s had a new piston and rebore and it still won’t run.

OK, I removed the pushrod cover, swopped over the 2 pushrods and it started first time.

a nice cheap bike and an easy fix.
 
First bike I built was a Tiger Cub, built from parts. I didn’t know about engine breathing at the time… so I built it with NO engine breather.

I was over the moon when I found out cos the unstoppable oil leaks had been driving me nuts !!
 
Working on a little 2 stoke Indian 100 dirt bike. Got it started and it was stuck at full throttle. Couldnt throttle back and it wouldnt shut off at the key switch. Decided to put it in gear and dump the clutch to kill it. Bad idea. It took off full throttle and we landed in the neighbors driveway in a heap. I finally pulled the plug wire. Looking around to see if anyone saw me. Yeah, I meant to do that. Lesson learned.
 
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Told to me by a friend in the Western Washington Vintage club. A few years ago, his friend bought a gorgeous 1969 Triumph Bonneville at one of the big US motorcycle auction houses. He paid top dollar at the time $16k. Cosmetically it was perfect, maybe what the British call " Over-restored" but America tends to love.
He got it home and tried to start it, but the bike had zero compression and wouldn't start. He decided to take it to a local shop that was well known for their work on British bikes.
They also found that the bike had zero compression, not even a wisp of air out the plug holes on kickover.
They started disassembling and soon realized that all engine internals were missing, pistons, crank and rods, valve gear, everything.
He went after the Auction house but it was no use as all the machines were sold " As is, where is". This information was in his buyer registration forms.

Glen
 
worntorn said:
Told to me by a friend in the Western Washington Vintage club. A few years ago, his friend bought a gorgeous 1969 Triumph Bonneville at one of the big US motorcycle auction houses. He paid top dollar at the time $16k. Cosmetically it was perfect, maybe what the British call " Over-restored" but America tends to love.
He got it home and tried to start it, but the bike had zero compression and wouldn't start. He decided to take it to a local shop that was well known for their work on British bikes.
They also found that the bike had zero compression, not even a wisp of air out the plug holes on kickover.
They started disassembling and soon realized that all engine internals were missing, pistons, crank and rods, valve gear, everything.
He went after the Auction house but it was no use as all the machines were sold " As is, where is". This information was in his buyer registration forms.

Glen
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There used to be some custom bikes at shows like that
Maybe it still happening these days with the amount of trailer's about!
 
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