Priorities? an understanding?

For the past few days because the weather has been good I have been working and my bike outside on the slabbed area at the bottom of my garden, tank and other bits off, doing bits to the electrics and to clutch to try and make the clutch less stiff. I came into the house for something to eat as my wife put a large washing out to dry, about half an hour later the cry goes up from my wife , "it's raining!" as she runs to the door to get the washing in followed by me at a great rate of knots, as I get close to her she tries to hand me some clothes and just looks at me as I run by straight for the Norton where I immediately put it's cover on amidst an increasingly heavy rainfall. I look up and see her shaking her head, "what?", I asked, in all innocence, "NOTHING" was the reply, then .... "why the rush to cover it , you use your bikes all year round?", "but this is different " says I, "why is it different ?" says she, "because it just is!!!!!".
Will they never understand? :?

I've got the Norton out in the sunshine up in Aboyne just now. I'm stood looking at the bike, my good lady is stood next to me looking at her garden.....



d

I must admit to having a wife like no other.

I once was rebuilding a Honda CB550 four that had been sitting in a shed for years; after the obligatory carb cleaning, plug swap, disc brake overhaul, oil change and new battery, the time had come to fire it up and test ride it.

I filled it with 2-1/2 gallons of gas from a topped-off gas can, then started cranking. It fired up soon enough and started coughing, sputtering and backfiring. I hadn't yet installed the main breather hose or the airbox, and didn't notice it was pukking oil out the top and drenching the backside of the engine; I also hadn't put clamps on the fuel lines, which were a bit brittle and dribbling at both ends of both hoses.

Happily revving the engine, I yelled at Sally: "let's go for a ride!", to which she hiked up her blue-jean skirt and jumped on the back. As I kicked back the sidestand, (engine still backfiring quite a bit) I could feel my leg getting warm and I looked down and noticed a flame licking up from under the gas tank!

I yelled at Sally to get off the bike and as soon as she cleared off, I jumped off and the bike fell on it's side, the impact causing the fuel lines to pop off the petcock as the pressure built up from the sloshing. Next thing you know, flames were covering the entire engine area, with two "torches" of fire shooting out of the petcock. Obviously, a backfire had ignited the oil on the backside of the engine.

While I was figuring out a plan of action, Sally stripped off her skirt (thankfully, she did have on a slip underneath) and started trying to smother the flames! Although it wasn't very effective, it brought a tear to my eye while I ran for the fire extinguisher in my truck. Sally was still waving her skirt (now burning) around, with very little result, as I popped the pin on the extinguisher and it wimpishly spat out ONE little cloud of white powder, and gave up. Sally ran for the garden hose and came struggling back with it stopping and starting as it uncoiled, kinked, uncoiled and kinked, finally straightening out and providing a nominal stream of water which served perfectly to spread the fire to the entire bike and surrounding area. By this time the flames were 6 feet tall.

My Dad had heard the commotion, came outside and saw our frantic situation, then set about to find his fire extinguisher; I, in the meantime, was running for the house to get the kitchen fire extinguisher (everyone has one next to the stove, no?). I returned ahead of my Dad, and proceeeded to pop the safety on my 2nd extinguisher, then gave it all it had with a measley 5 or 6 second blast which somewhat started to put down the flames (by this time the gas in the tank as nearly spent, the tank itself swelled and butterflied to nearly twice it's original proportions).

With the flames still out of control, my Dad arrived on the scene with his industrial-sized extinguisher and proceeded to put out the fire once and for all. He sheepishly averted his eyes as Sally pulled her singed, smoldering skirt back on. She gave me "the look" and said "you'd better be glad I was here, or this would be worse. you owe me a new skirt".

To this day, I wonder if my Dad purposfully waited (maybe at my mother's insistence) till the bike was pretty much toast, before putting out the fire.

I did end getting the bike sorted and running again later, and got some use out of it with a crispy seat and rear tire with one quarter section toasted.

grandpaul said:

I must admit to having a wife like no other.

Click to expand...

That grandpaul is certainly dedication on her behalf.
To be honest, my wife has, on more occasions than I care to remember, put up with a lot regarding my bikes. We were only married a few months and I was restoring an AJS single and I was putting the berings into the cases. When I went on nightshift I started at 18:00 and finished at 08:00, so we'd not meet for a few days, anyway went on n/s and forgot to take the cases out of the oven not only that but she went into the freezer to get sometime for her dinner and the bearings were in there!, the only question that was asked was do we need another oven? On one of her birthdays we left at 6 in the morning to go to Inverness to look at a bike, we had to leave that early 'cos I had to be back at work that night, (roads weren't as good then), and we broke down en- route. I also went to buy a new helmet and came back with a new BMW R1200ST! she said that she thought I was getting a helmet to match my bike..... and I did !... the only thing she asked was could I afford it!
There are a good few more too, but as regarding my bikes she just lets me get on with it.....
Now I was looking at a Buell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mine was pretty non -supportive early on, but she saw the fun I was having and became much more supportive and didn't even blink when I told her I was getting an BSA as my next project.

kfh

My girlfriend helped me slap my rebuilt motor into my MKIII. She said that was the last time she'll help me put a motor in my Norton.

I gave her a look and said "that's ok, you can help me put a motor into the Triumph next time."

She didn't like that too much but she'll be there when I need her to be.