Guilty ... confessions from the shed

[Motorhobo]

Late for a meeting spent 25 minutes frantically looking for my full-face helmet not noticing it was on my head the whole time.


Stripped, prepped and painted the tank, gassed up, put the bike on sidestand, paint job destroyed, repeat from step 1.


Put on new tire, neglected to tighten lugs. Life saved by unnerving wobbling seconds before wheel pops off.


Clutch pack not centered properly, stubborn refusal to acknowledge uncharacteristic vibration. 10k miles later clutch disk fails, transmission input shaft toast.


I'll stop at that so as to avoid another self-esteem crisis.
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[The Mighty Gryphon]

+1 on the ruined paint job.  Mine happened the same day i had put the bike together after getting the parts back from the paint shop.

Why the f*** can't one of the most expensive motorcycles on the market have a gas cap that doesn't leak?

[Soichiro]

Pulled up at a caff on a really hot day.  Bungied my jacket to the rack and stuffed the gloves under the seat.  A minute after setting off the engine died and didn't want to play. 
After half an hour of checking the usual suspects,  I noticed my gloves were covering the air intake.




After buying my lad a new bed,  which is a few inches wider, I realised I had to move the radiator 6" to the right .  After pulling the floorboards up to alter the pipework I found a Stanley Magnum slotted screwdriver under there.   Hmm, I thought, that's a nice find, I wonder who that belonged to.
Upon further examination,  I found my initials stamped in the handle.  It was hiding there for 22 years.

[M.Brane]

 Replaced a head gasket on my ZX600A (anybody who's owned one for any length of time knows why). Got it all buttoned up, and fired up. About five minutes into warming it up it seems more rattley than normal. That's when I remember I didn't remember to fill it with oil. Rode that bike another 40K (2 more head gaskets). The next time I took it down to the case, and no evidence of oil starvation. Still running great when i sold it with nearly 70K. Thank you Mobil 1.

[Past-my-Prime]

I'm not ready yet to say what i did with my K75. But all is good: I did just complete a 2,000 km (1,200 mile) circuit of Lake Superior that I should post pictures of.

Anyway, what happened in the shed did not stay in the shed. It was my first motorized conveyance, a go-kart with a lawnmower engine and a centrifugal clutch.  I started by disassembling the clutch to "roughen it up" hopefully to get less slippage on the acceleration. I was also doing other stuff, like cleaning the air filter and changing the oil and spark plug. I was about 11 years old at the time.  Anyway, got distracted and after doing all the other maintenance but before reassembling the clutch, I started it up. I learned what "centrifugal" means!

Multiple clutch pieces flew all around the shed and I never did find them all. I'm lucky none of them hit me.

[Chri5]

Did a spine lube all went swimmingly put it back together greased my wheel lugs (oops dont do that) rode it for a few days and noticed the rear wheel seemed to be wobbling so desided to retorque after work but before i could some little scumbag stole my brick. Luckly that mistake gave me great satisfaction when the rear wheel came off while the theif was ride my bike and broke his leg as my brick kissed the tarmac. He was subsequently arrested in hospital

[daveson]

Its good when a fail turns into a bonus. How many times has it been stolen?

My dumb thing doesn't involve a bike, but a car. Years ago I bought a ute at the auctions. As I was driving home on the Hume Freeway I saw a switch on the dashboard, thinking what does this do, I pressed it. Then I thought, why has the the rear view mirror gone black. I was driving down the freeway with the tilt tray up. The first thing was to slow down so the wind didn't take me away. The second thing was to look around and realizing there were no other cars within view, I thought, that's good I don't have to be embarrassed, nobody saw that. It wasn't advertised as a tilt tray, and was a dual ram one to boot. Bonus.

[beemuker]

Its good when a fail turns into a bonus. How many times has it been stolen?

My dumb thing doesn't involve a bike, but a car. Years ago I bought a ute at the auctions. As I was driving home on the Hume Freeway I saw a switch on the dashboard, thinking what does this do, I pressed it. Then I thought, why has the the rear view mirror gone black. I was driving down the freeway with the tilt tray up. The first thing was to slow down so the wind didn't take me away. The second thing was to look around and realizing there were no other cars within view, I thought, that's good I don't have to be embarrassed, nobody saw that. It wasn't advertised as a tilt tray, and was a dual ram one to boot. Bonus.

tilt tray? translation please

[bocutter Ed]

I would suspect some form of tilt-n-load.

[Laitch]

I would suspect some form of tilt-n-load.

In the States it's known as a platform dump body with shallow rails. Google clear identifies it as a tilting tray for a 100 gallon mobile tea service.

[daveson]

Yep,  so the tray tips up,  and the load slides out the back.  A great back saver.

I've heard of lots of different words in the US,  didn't realise that was one of them.

[E30_Crazy]

After a routine oil top-off, forgot to replace the oil fill cap on the K1100RS. Started the bike to idle and warm up, while I ran inside to grab my things and lock up the house. Went to stradle the girl and back out of the garage, and my foot slipped off the foot rest. Look down, and the side of the bike, my tool box, and the floor are covered in oil droplets at about 10-15 drops per inch.

[daveson]

Stupid stuff #2

One day I was removing a vanity cabinet (maybe it's called the sink and it's cabinet in the USA) the one you brush your teeth in front of,  in the morning. I removed the s trap (water trap for the waste pipe) I couldn't put it down without the water spilling out,  so I poured it into the sink.

I better leave it at that.

[Al]

Changed oil on my GF's car way back when.
 
By the time I had backed it out of the garage the oil light was on. Shut it down past haste and saw a pool of oil on the floor. What the @#$%?!
Turns out that the oil filter gasket ring stuck on the block. Apparently two rubber rings is too much and it puked the oil out between them. Told me the old Pymouth 318 had lots of oil pressure.

It was a rental garage and I had minimal tools and equipment there. I had to walk several miles home to snag some sawdust and a vehicle to go back and clean up. By the time I got back it was an 8 foot diameter pool.