Stupidest thing you've ever done to your bike?

britbike220 said:

Getting off the bike and not putting the side stand down and walking away, more than one time.

Click to expand...

How do you do that, let alone more than once?

RIDING IN TO THE GARAGE TO FAST ON TO MY HYDRAULIC BIKE LIFT
TIPPED OVER WITH THE BIKE ON TOP OF ME AND DISCOVERING THE PETROL TANK LEAKS
WHEN THE BIKE IT'S SIDE BURNT MY LEG A TREAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[quote="swooshdave]How do you do that, let alone more than once?[/quote]

Certainly not proud moments. I get preoccupied with work, life and shiney objects and forget what I'm doing occassionally. I have also ridden into the garage when the door wasn't all the way up and not ducked far enough, you get the picture there, right.

I've gotten off bike a couple time w/o kicker down. There were distractions of course like having a friend just pull up in a new car next to me as I was
still in the sense of bike self balancing state and let go so it hit the new door paint.
Also once stopped sitting on bike taking it all in no thought effort to balance and get off to have bike fall away and break the spell, but not much hurt to a Commando.

Impressive how much impact Cdo take and just fine or minor mirror or signal while moderns loose hundreds of buck of plastic and lights and bars levers pegs dash radiator etc.

One weird event made me feel stupid and lucky at once, pulled over just past a crest to check loose wire, kill buttoned off but DID Not Key Off, so side stand barely holding back from rolling down hill, hands near chain and spokes I found the bad connection when it firing the Boyer and almost leaped off the stand to fully start and run to the bottom w/o me missing a finger tip or two. BEWARE.

britbike220 said:

[quote="swooshdave]How do you do that, let alone more than once?

Click to expand...

Certainly not proud moments. I get preoccupied with work, life and shiney objects and forget what I'm doing occassionally. I have also ridden into the garage when the door wasn't all the way up and not ducked far enough, you get the picture there, right.[/quote][/quote]

I locked the tips of all my fingers (right hand only) in a car door once watching a pretty girl walk across the the street to greet me. So I understand the distractions. Amazingly she didn't seem to think it odd that I stood there talking to her with my hand slammed in the door, so I guess she was used to men acting that way around her.

So Dave, you feeling a bit better about your fastener fiasco?

Certainly not proud moments. I get preoccupied with work, life and shiney objects and forget what I'm doing occassionally. I have also ridden into the garage when the door wasn't all the way up and not ducked far enough, you get the picture there, right.

Real close to that. I rode my bike into the back of my van . The door was a couple inches too short. The bike went to the front of the van and didn't even fall over. Picked myself up off the ground a couple minutes later wondering what the ___ happened.
It would either be that or handing someone my beer and saying watch this. Then scattering trans parts . Jim

DonOR said:

going 60 in a 35mph zone. $150 fine.

Click to expand...

I was clocked at 115+ in a 55 posted speed (still not sure if it was true, but the cops insisted). It was flat desert road and I was hopping up a guzzi i had at the time. In Az (at the time where i was living) anything over 2x the speed limit was automatic arrest w/ 24h "special observation" to make sure you weren't trying to off yourself + impounding the vehicle. I remember calling my dad and starting off with "you'll never guess where i am", after he stopped laughing and bailed me out the next day it cost me a bundle at the time, don't remember the exact cost, i never went above 1.5x the speed limit afterwards- lesson learned!

Parking on a downhill slope and NOT IN GEAR with just the side stand for support. Bike rolled forward, flipped the side stand up, then went over. Onto my brother's bike.

Stupid.

duh, Dave, I had killed to a stop in 1st gear so it would stay put by letting it roll till TDC compress restrained and primed it to jump forward a piston stroke in gear.
Now I use that trick w/o it in gear to do a quick Boyer conduction check up if I sense stumbles. I'm shaking my head or laughing at the events that aren't mine.

OK learning curve stupid judgment oversight was fixing a rear flat and not putting the bead lock back in but did see the bead seat indicator wasn't quite even around. Shrugged it off being pretty used to low and flat ridding. 5 miles later at 50 on narrow secondary road just after a crest rear de-rimmed, shot ahead of R hip for tank slap onset so hard it broke off stem stop and fork leg to crust front of IS tank as it shot me into on coming lane requiring more will power to struggle it down than I thought I had.
Weird state to know your terror would end by bail out, at cost of bike, or hang on hard as you can for chance of worse hi side crash but if successful save the day. I did but barely. BTW good idea to carry something to cut tire bead wires out of sprocket if you try to limp home 5 miles. Rim locks don't seem so stupid to me no more. I had Peel tri linked by then and think that controlled some or a lot of the bike whip lash. Never again please and same to yo'all.

Thinking I needed to and thinking I could rebuild the top end of a nearly brand new Commando in 1971 with higher compression pistons when I was 20 years old and having only watched (not actually done) the rebuilding of my Yamaha 2-stroke racebike. What a disaster. The bike 4 month old bike had to be pulled (yes in those days you could pull a bike with a rope from a car) to a shop about 90 kilometers away that knew what they were doing.

The Picture tells a thousand words....guess how I had to remove it :shock:

Trying to add to the BLING BLING for this bike...Both pcs are 17-4 Stainless and I even used Anti-Seize Lubricant
I fitted the brand new cush blocks into the rear wheel and it being tight me thinks to my self i'll just tighten her up and let the plastic set.... :idea:
Right......when I tried to remove the axle it turned nice for about a rev. then bound up.... I got a bigger wrench and then it spun on the swing arm, which I had to re-weld and powder coat again.
I should have learned from Amal Carburettors with similar metals against each other…. :?
Lessons learned!
If you never make a mistake you haven't built anything.
CNN

Stupid things...Too many!

At the passport control at Porstmouth, put the rucksack on the petrol tank while i got the passports etc out, knocked it off the bike but the handle caught on the handlebar so i left it there.
''Is something burning sir?'' said the customs guy...The bag was on fire when i lifted it up. :x

Forgetting to put the Earth lead back on when i had trouble resarting the bike after fitting a new carb kit, pushed the electric start button and watched the smoke come up, fried the wiring and the ignition. :shock:

Moving a cooker by sack barrow early one morning, down my sloped driveway, as I walked backwards, the rubber handles came off the barrow, (it was brand new and had been in the van all day and night in hot weather). The barrow and the cooker fell on me, knocking me to the ground and the cooker fell off the barrow onto the footrest of my 4 month old Dynaglide...which fell over onto me as well.
I managed to push this lot off me, tank paint on thebike ruined, cooker dented and knackered and the next morning I couldn't walk- had a twisted pelvis.

Had an empty,small cardboard box in the eh garage and thought, that will come in handy, so threw it up into the loft to store it. I bounced off a rafter came straight down onto the 850, right on it's corner and smashed the speedo...

Still, enough about last year...

maylar said:

Parking on a downhill slope and NOT IN GEAR with just the side stand for support. Bike rolled forward, flipped the side stand up, then went over. Onto my brother's bike.

Click to expand...

I think that's a lesson every motorcyclist has to learn by either doing it or observing in person...

Stupidest thing on my Norton was kickstarting with a dying battery on electronic ignition. Kicked back so hard my vision turned white. Crutches for a week, fortunately nothing broken.

comnoz said:

... I rode my bike into the back of my van . The door was a couple inches too short. The bike went to the front of the van and didn't even fall over. Picked myself up off the ground a couple minutes later wondering what the ___ happened... Jim

Click to expand...

Good one Jim. I'm still laughing....

Well I can laugh now, now that the stiches are out and the arm is healed up.

MichaelB said:

comnoz said:

... I rode my bike into the back of my van . The door was a couple inches too short. The bike went to the front of the van and didn't even fall over. Picked myself up off the ground a couple minutes later wondering what the ___ happened... Jim

Click to expand...

Good one Jim. I'm still laughing....

Click to expand...

Thought it was a good idea to take the bike off the stand to pop the forks up and get the instruments off, flailed like an idiot trying to get it back up to a point were I could get the caps back on, dumped it over on its side. Like hobot said, it's amazing, but the bike seemed no worse for wear...

I've only had a few months, though, I'm sure I'll come up with something better... It was a toss up between the garage dump vs. the forgetting to tighten the intake valve cover and getting a nice oil bath, coasting down some hills and getting a lot of blank stares. But that was more fun, especially since I managed to save the cover. The dump over was just... stupid.

Tears in my eyes guys, good food for the soul + relief I'm only as stupid as normal : )
Great education valve in these admissions, I must review a few times to savor and avoid.

I had just finished restoring my 74 interstate and was about to start it for the first time. I had the seat off and the cap off the oil tank to see I was getting return. I had primed the oil lines and kicked the bike numerous times without plugs or ignition to get oil through the pump. I straddled the bike and with the ignition on she started with gusto first kick. My mistake was that I had the oil lines on the wrong way but I realised instantly when I got a Castrol GTX3 enema. As the bikes revs rose oil shot up through the filler all over the workshop and all over me. Cursing and swearing I ripped off all my clothes which had been instantly saturated and started cleaning up the floor and the bike. I was down on my knees my bare arse still dripping oil when my wife who had just arrived home from work opened the garage door. Her first thought was that I had a kinky secret but for 3 days she only stopped laughing long enough to phone all our friends and brighten their day at my expense.

Oh yeh, thought of another one..

Removing a front fork tube. A block of wood atop the fork nut, tapping with a brass mallet to free the taper from the yoke. Tap..tap.. oops. Missed with the mallet and bashed the speedo lens. Grrr.. off to Nissongers for a $140 repair (it needed rebuilding anyway, but could've waited).

Stupid.

gregmac said:

I had just finished restoring my 74 interstate and was about to start it for the first time. I had the seat off and the cap off the oil tank to see I was getting a return. I had primed the oil lines and kicked the bike numerous times without plugs or ignition to get oil through the pump. I straddled the bike and with the ignition on she started with gusto first kick. My mistake was that I had the oil lines on the wrong way but I realised instantly when I got a Castrol GTX3 enema. As the bikes revs rose oil shot up through the filler all over the workshop and all over me. Cursing and swearing I ripped off all my clothes which had been instantly saturated and started cleaning up the floor and the bike. I was down on my knees my bare arse still dripping oil when my wife who had just arrived home from work opened the garage door. Her first thought was that I had a kinky secret but for 3 days she only stopped laughing long enough to phone all our friends and brighten their day at my expense.

Click to expand...

Dangerously close to a winner here. :mrgreen: