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Ducati electric bodge
Back in the early 80's I had a GTS 860 Duke. This was a time when they were notorious for awful electrics. True to form, I was on a trip round Scotland with my sister on the back, out on some remote country lane, when suddenly everything went ominously silent. Somehow I just 'knew' what it was (spending time poking around maintaining one's own bike pays off) and with the aid of some silver paper and duct tape, I had found and repaired the broken wire in the headlight nacelle and we were off again. She was mightily impressed (as was I secretly). :clap:
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I recently found a lovely little sheep track above Aysgarth. This had less than lovely gravel on a corner and a bit of ham-fisted riding got me highsided at about 15 mph. Having picked myself up and got the bike upright I had two minutes to calm down then decided what to do. The brake lever was rideable, who needs more than 2 inches to get a couple of fingers on. The footpeg was less great, no fun getting off the hill and 50 miles home holding a leg up. The brain that had held onto the clutch as the back wheel locked and threw me off then decided to start working. The pillion pegs fasten by the same pin used on the riders pegs. Knock off the circlip, pull out the pin, fit the pillion peg in the riders position and bar sorting the mirrors out it’s off home for a bath to get the “farming by-product” off, pain killers and something to settle the nerves.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-z...804_174943.jpg The next problem is work. It’s going to take 2 working days to get Guzzi parts (you’ve got to love Fowlers in Bristol when it all goes to plan) and plod, who hangs about pointing his laser at commuters, can get arsey about missing bits especially safety stuff . The peg is easy, epoxy, clamp up for an hour, refit, good as new. The brake lever is not going to glue. So, find a drill and the baleing wire and do some stitches of the type last seen on Frankenstein’s monster to hold the glue. Bandage with electrical tape and we have a lever that’s good to go. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x...804_172448.jpg https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x...804_174136.jpg Lessons learned for a longer rip would be: 1. Get brain sorted regarding clutch. 2. Replace the pin and circlip arrangement on the pegs with bolts and nylocs if at all appropriate. Getting circlips off is easy, back on not so. 3. Baleing wire, epoxy and tape are the bodgers friend. 4. Carrying a small drill bit or two may not be the overkill it seems. Borrowing a hand drill would make this repair easy. Given enough time waiting at the side of the road you might even bore the holes by hand, the brake lever material is soft alloy. Andy |
So, I'm accelerating on a ramp onto a motorway and the chain cuts, I manage to find a nice paved spot to stop and walk back to find my chain, happy that I was carrying a spare link, as Im walking back to the bike I find a piece of carpet, great to kneel on and spread out my tools, and then I find a large towel, even better, now I can wipe the grease off my hands when I finish the job.
All went well, and I was soo pleased with myself till I wiped my hands on the towel, it had been rolled up and was full of vomit:oops2: sorry no usefull info here |
clutch lever
busted it this week in the mountains. 50 km from home base vise grips save the day and every day if there is one tool you should carry this would be it and zip ties/tie wraps I removed the cable from the handle bar end and attached it to basicly the handle bare mount and pulled the clutch cable aft with the vise grip
although it was quite nerve racking driving in city traffic at 5 o'clock rush hour in Valledupar Colombia with this set up.i never stalled once and wish man was made with 3 hands, one especially to finger the bastards behind me honking there horns a handy capped motorcycle in Colombian cities is not fun |
For future reference, there's a big difference between fingering someone and giving them the finger. You might want to be careful with that one.
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ok you may be shot in Texas or any good ole redneck state in USA
Why do the latinos use there horn. any driver from any civilized country knows why they have a horn and use it accordingly not because of aggression on one job we were on in colombia we used a taxi from the hotel to the airport and back after the flights we used the same operator every day I would count how many times he honked in 1.5 km it was usually 15 so that's 30 times in 3 km. So the trip was 10000 pesos , I said to the Taxi driver lets make a deal he said what kind of deal, I said I would give you 15 thousand pesos if you can drive to the airport with out using your horn,But every time you use your horn I will deduct 1000 pesos he agreed and off we went , we arrived and he owed me 1000 pesos he used his horn 16 times my Colombian - Brazilian co workers were killing themselves laughing as I was trying to get a thousand pesos from this taxi driver. I ended up paying the regular fare 10000. the return to hotel trip he never honked his horn he knew it was not necessary A horn doesn't improve traffic flow |
We've gone from fingering to excessive horn ... the reputation for passionate Latin@s is well deserved, it seems
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mysterious clutch repair
Just read this baffling bodge in a report on Gunbarrel Highway.
... we devised a strategy for self-rescue. We laid the [DR650 rental] on its side and removed the clutch without letting any sand into the engine. We then took a metal plate, cut it in half, folded it over and replaced it, then topped up the oil. Bingo! We had an operational Suzuki again. The question was how long for? What do you think it means? They bent one of the metal clutch plates in half and stuck it back in? |
Did they say what the problem was in the first place?
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Fried clutch I presume (rental bike; sandy tracks in WA).
Someone suggested it locks the clutch solid which is a sort of solution. Assuming they mean not actually cut into 2 pieces but just score it then fold into a 'C' semi circle, would that jam a clutch? But if the plates are slipping then they're slipping. |
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Me too initially, but that's even more baffling.
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The more you think about it the weirder it gets ... I guess if a clutch plate was doubled over the whole thing would be misaligned which might cause it to jamb enough to be useable (?) afterwards I imagine the whole basket would be knackered though.
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Not a bike repair, but half way through a month-long trip, as I checked into a small rural Swiss pub as my overnight stay, I found that my riding pants had ripped at the seam. Right on the buttcrack.
Solution? A couple of layers of black gaffer tape. Got me as far as the nearest Detlev Louis store on the back side of Austria, and having not found anything appealing in their stock, it actually got me all the way back home to Estonia without too much embarassment. |
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