am i BCFs biggest DIY cowboy?

[rpsmith79]

[virus]

I once had a throttle cable snap so I temporarily replaced it with strimmer wire running externally around the grip and held on with jubilee clips. It had a bit of stretch in it when you opened it up so it resulted in the most laggy throttle response followed by too much throttle as it sprung tight.

I rode it daily like that for 3 weeks because i kept forgetting to order a new cable.
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own: 81 xs1100g...
owned: 85 rat CG (sold), 91 GS500e (stolen), 84 gsx400f (scrapped), 81 z250 (siezed, siezed, scrapped), 83 cb250rs (sold), 84 gpz750r ratfighter (killed) 84gpz400 (sold), '80 cb650 ratfighter (wrote off) 95gsx6/12f ratfighter (killed) 91 xj900 (sold)
stinkwheel Well I just had my hands up a pigs fanny. Which makes your concerns pale into insignificance.

[Fat Angry Scotsman]

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

there's a bit of a question mark around the authenticity of that account imo
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"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[Nobby the Bastard]

Aside from the fact that skudd bought it off him.
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Triumph Sprint ST 1050

[Fizzer Thou]

Some of these comments have been fun to read.So I will add a few of those that I can immediately recollect.

The person who kept forgetting even the simplest of terms 'lefty loosey...righty tighty' as she was working on her bikes....

My younger brother using my needle nose pliers for attempting to remove a circlip.He broke the tip off one side then when I confronted him about the damage he almost immediately said that he would take them in to work and grind both ends down a bit as compensation.

The Honda 125 owner/friend who said he would replace his piston.He was just about to install the cylinder head with a new gasket when I had to intercede and suggest that he install the piston with the arrow pointing towards the exhaust port.

Our older brother who had an electrical fault on his Kawasaki GTR1000 that was easily found once I took the seat and tank off,but just pushing it around was a herculean task as the brakes were severely binding on.Having sorted the electrics,the calipers were removed to find that the pistons had displaced the dust seals on both front calipers.Once we had managed to remove the pistons it was obvious that new seals were required on both ends.The rear pads were okay but the fronts were worn quite badly, which unfortunately Boyers of Plumstead had not stock of,only the caliper seals.So with the strictest instructions to replace the worn pads as soon as possible,he rode away.
The following week I was asked to pop by on the way home from work as the brakes had 'lost their bite'.It took all of two seconds to notice that,due to the design of the caliper,it was all too easy for the most worn pad to drop out of place and the piston pads were now acting against the disc....

A friend of my younger brother popped by one Saturday while we were all tinkering in the shed.His CB750F1 front disc was a shade of blue that tended to suggest that it was a bit hot.The front wheel was almost impossible to rotate with the single front caliper in place,so once that was removed the wheel spun freely.Digby said that he was replacing the front pads every 1,000 miles or so,which,in my mind,suggested that there was something wrong.While he made teas and coffees the piston was removed and the seals and caliper were cleaned,reinstalled and bled,with a part worn set of brake pads that I had from my CB550 parts bin in place.Digby was surprised by how much faster his bike went on the ride down to Farningham pub....

I could go on with past experiences of 47 years of biking,but I do not want to bore people....
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Just talk bikes.What else is there?

Always have a 'Plan B'

[pepperami]

[dn38416]

I make quite a drama of rounded screws, and still don't really have much of a strategy.

It's some of the slow burn ones that crack me up though. I once bought some snazzy new NGK spark plug caps which were the wrong fitting, and spent best part of two years wondering why the bike was running crap. I had a binding rear brake for quite a bit as well, just because I couldn't get a rounded allen bolt out to remove the caliper holder.(...took it to a tyre place once for new pads, the guy proceeded to drop the whole rear wheel off rather than take the bolt out).

The thing is, there isn't really an alternative to doing some level of DIY. Like there are a lot of jobs that garages won't touch on older runabouts, partly out of sympathy, because it would cost them more than the value of the bike (twats). Or if the bike isn't moveable then the cost of a call out charge is extortionate. *Also let's not ignore the fact that professional mechanics can be equally shite and callous.

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

[Islander]

[chickenstrip]