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What 'get you home' repairs have you made What 'get you home' repairs have you made
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Bodger Fix What they don't show you in the repair manual - tales of duct tape, bailing wire and WD 40. Bodge, Bush Mechanics, farmers fix, patch, temporary repair, or whatever your definition, tell us YOUR best story of a bodge that got you home!
Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



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  #1  
Old 3 Oct 2011
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I used twigs, bits of wire and matchsticks found at the side of the road to keep my exhaust system from falling apart during a trip back through France.

In our family car some years ago the wiper linkage from the motor failed in a rainstorm. To continue we tied shoelaces to the wiper arms, brought them back in through slightly open side windows and the kids pulled them backwards and forwards to get the wipers working. Worked perfectly for half an hour till the rain stopped.
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  #2  
Old 3 Oct 2011
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On our way back from Romania my Wife's Pegaso had it's second rear puncture, just before the Severn Bridge on the M4 at 2am. Had already used our spare 17" so stuffed in my spare 21" front and got home on that.
Years ago returning from MCC's "Land's End Trial" the exhaust pipe snapped off at the head on my MZ 250. Bodged it somehow with fencing wire nicked from Sedgemore Services fence, still made a racket but got me back.
Only time i've ever failed to bodge and had to rely on breakdown service was in Northern France a couple of years ago coming back from DLWF winter rally. Chain link snapped on the remotest, straightest bit of road in the country which would'nt normally be a problem except i'd lent my spare link to another guy on the rally.I now carry a spare chain and 3 links!
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  #3  
Old 28 Sep 2012
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Quote:
Originally Posted by backofbeyond View Post
In our family car some years ago the wiper linkage from the motor failed in a rainstorm. To continue we tied shoelaces to the wiper arms, brought them back in through slightly open side windows and the kids pulled them backwards and forwards to get the wipers working. Worked perfectly for half an hour till the rain stopped.
When my parents got married they spent their honeymoon (in November!) in Cornwall in a split-screen VW camper belonging to my paternal grandparents. My mum frequently recounts the tale of having to operate the wipers by hand while my dad drove after the motor failed, although fortunately for me, their marriage survived this ordeal
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Old 28 Sep 2012
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It's funny how memories of these things last. The shoelace powered wiper episode happened about 12-13 years ago when my daughter was 5. Completely out of the blue a couple of weeks ago, at the age of 17, she reminded me of it. Probably scarred her for life.
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Old 28 Sep 2012
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I hope to not be a constant contributer here, but here is another one. I crashed down a cliff in Kyrgyzstahn and snapped the end off the gear shift lever. I could have ridden for a while using the edge of my boot but instead did the following.

Using the OEM spark plug tool in a DL650 Vstrom tool kit, I cable tied and silver taped it into place and had my self a makeshift gear lever.

This lasted until I entered China and had another one made




Cheers from Shenzen, China
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  #6  
Old 29 Sep 2012
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I once had a throttle cable snap on my CB750, these bikes had two cables, one to open and one to close, so I popped the tank off and swapped the ends over on the carb linkages, that gave me a throttle that worked backwards, interesting ride home

I also had the throttle cable snap on a puch moped, this time I tied the cable around the footbrake lever and slackened off the rear brake cable, riding home with a foot operated throttle was a little interesting, on the same bike another time the throttle cable snapped again, so I removed the slide completely, leaving me with a motor that would only run flat out, a bump start and using the killswitch to change gear was easy enough with only 3.8 BHP.
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  #7  
Old 30 Sep 2012
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stewart H View Post
that gave me a throttle that worked backwards, interesting ride home
That's truly heroic.
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Old 1 Oct 2012
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If we're recounting historic stuff; on my FS1E, the spark plug threads got knackered and the thing used to fly out with a big POP, usually when doing a stupid overtake with my chin on the tank in typical FS1E high-speed mode. Always easily fixed using the foil from inside a pack of Embassy No1, wrapped round the plug before re-fitting.

The ignition switch gave up so once it was hot-wired, I used to stop it by either stalling or reaching down and pulling off the plug cap.

The stand fell off so I used to have to find somewhere to lean the bike or just lay it down.

The kick-start also fell off so in the last few months of ownership it was bump-start only.

The headlamp wiring melted one day so I used a push-bike light taped to the front to satisfy plod. Stayed like that for months.

The throttle cable snapped once but I managed to tie it to my knee so I could lift my leg to accelerate and get me home. I did a proper fix with this though; a knot in the end of the cable with a good blob of solder, filed to fit the twist grip. Ok, so I had to shorten the outer of the cable which meant that the revs went up if I turned the bars to much.

Still got £75 when I sold it as it was 1974 unrestricted model.

Happy Days !!!!
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