Interesting break down stories?

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nobbie48 said:
My brother bought a Honda Aero at GP Bikes and after a few days of riding it left him stranded at the mall. He walked home, got his truck and trailer, loaded up, phoned GP to complain and they agreed to look at it immediately. When he got there they flicked the kill switch and Vroom Vroom. Way to go bro. PML
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That happened to me at the Soo at the US border. Passed the questions and security, couldn't get bike started. I pushed ahead it so the car behind me can clear. The US customs guy was amazing, brought me a bottle of water, it was a scorcher. Got my tools out to take the switch apart and duh, it was in the off position. I never use the kill switch, always turn the key off. Fires right up. Spun around to give a big five to the customs guy as I got on my way.
 
Not that interesting. Chain was loose on the way down to Alabama, in Scranton. On further inspection, it was loose, tight, loose, tight; some of the links were seized. Got it in to a local dealer, and they squeezed me in and found a new chain. Had to replace the sprockets and chain after I got back. Now I check and lube my chain regularly.
 
Headed for Elora from Waterloo on my R80RT. Half way there a rear wheel bearing began making a lot of noise. Headed for home and half way there the clutch cable broke. Fun!
 
Newly married, 1 yr old kid, just bought a house... and the diff bearings in the wife's car goes CRUNCH... and she NEEDS the car.
So according to all my friends, the manual AND Autodata: the motor and trans have to come out... but you know me... I'm smarter than the average bear, I can do it inframe.
Out to the garage, put the thing on stands, get out a couple of bottle jacks and get the motor twisted far enough I can get the diff apart (to get the diff apart, I have to take most of the transmission apart).
Got it back together... figuring out the 14 ball bearing valves in the valve body was fun, and started the car on stands. It goes through the gears, goes into reverse and still holds pressure... BEAUTY!!!
Slap the wheels on it and go for a test drive, get about a mile down the road and when starting off from a traffic light the thing starts with CRUNCHA CRUNCHA WUGGA WUGGA... WTF????
I dashed to buddy's shop (it was closer than home) and wheel it into the shop, onto the hoist. I tell him that I just rebuilt the diff/trans and ask him to take a look at it.
I DIDN'T TIGHTEN THE WHEEL LUGS, all 20 of them. The cruncha wugga was the wheels flopping around.
So instead of being known as the genius that can do a FWD Chysler diff inframe, I'm the idiot that doesn't know the wheel lugs should be at least SNUG.
35 years later I still get razzed about that.
 
Spent a week of nights swapping out the K member of buddy's '67 Dodge race car, with a real cool tube coil over setup.
He did a couple of runs on Saturday, it works GREAT... on the third run of the day, he hit it HARD, pulled the front wheels off the ground AND THE RIGHT FRONT WHEEL FALLS OFF. OOPS. It seems somebody, NOT ME, didn't torque the ball joint and the upper ball joint fell out.
When the wheel landed it mostly fell back into place and buddy could sort of steer... he thought he had broken an axle and didn't know what all the fuss was about.
Dragged the car back to the pits and I had it fixed before the next round.
 
Being young, broke and stupid: didn't understand the necessity of a drive shaft loop.
Buddy has a '69 big block Camaro, running as big a tire as we could get in 1976. Nice launch, lowest 60 ft time we've seen from the car, hits third, twists the drive shaft and the front half tried to beat it's way into the car from below, taking out most of the floor pan and the back half dropped to ground, dug in REAL good and lifted the back of the car off the ground as it pole vaulted on the drive shaft.... tearing the pinion gear out of the diff. YAY!!!
It was a pretty exciting 3 seconds.
We got a drive shaft loop, a drive shaft made from square section tube (thanks Trevi truck center)... AND a dana 60 diff (with a different lug pattern). we found some 10" rims (kinda rare in 1976) but the offset was all wrong... so I mounted them reversed/inside out... using the stock lugs.
First hit, it tore the whole center section of the wheel out, on both sides

We eventually got the best time of 11.76 out of that thing, ALMOST consistently. Not bad for two broke 17 yr. olds, in 1976.
 
A few years back on a snowmobile trip, one of my buddies threw a stud through his heat exchanger. Yanked the belt and we pulled it 150km to a small shed in Shining Tree. Shop owner was more than happy to help (he provided a propane torch, a shop light, and stuffed beers in the snowbank for us. 11 guys in total). We worked up some marine JB weld, wire brush, worked it into the fins, topped up the coolant and hit the trails for the remaining 2 days of the trip without a drop. Buddy ran that heat exchanger for 2 more seasons before he sold the sled. Sled community is very similar to the bike community....everybody is willing to help, AND equally make fun of you in a moment of need.
Similar situation in Cochrane a few years later and a car dealer let us use his hoist and welder (split edge of the heat exchanger in the tunnel)
Good times.
 
Probably about a decade ago or so on a group ride posted here
3 of us met up in Peterborough to go for a ride and swim up in Barry's Bay
None of us had met before
During a fuel stop on the way up, one of the bikes (an older smaller Yamaha/Suzuki savage type cruiser) started having trouble starting
We managed to get it going by bump starting it. We realized at this point the bike could not start on it's own.
Instead of calling off the ride, we agreed to keep going and helping our fellow rider bump start it each time we stopped. We probably did this 7 or 8 times over the course of the hot summer day. The bike was quite heavy but thankfully not full-size cruiser heavy.
We ended up in Barry's Bay, had a great swim and lunch and eventually we all made it back to Peterborough and then Pontypool and parted ways.
The day started out with hand shakes and ended with hugs
Definitely one of my most memorable rides from this forum and it wasn't because of the route/roads
 
Back in 2005/2006, on my R6 I came to a stop light at Winston Churchill and Britannia. All of a sudden the bike died.
Tried the starter a few times, no luck. By this point the light turns green and I'm still on the road and not moving. I started to push the bike to the side of the road, I believe the gentleman in the car behind me got out and helped me push the bike.

We took off the seat. His suspicion was correct. Loose connection at the negative battery terminal. Tightened it up somewhat, bike started, rode it home and tightened it some more.



2 season ago, a friend of mine went on a ride to Barry's Bay (from GTA). All of a sudden the bike would also not start. Dead battery.
Not much you can do on a Sunday in Barry's Bay. Another buddy had to ride down to Bancroft Canadian Tire pick up a battery and ride back up to Barry's Bay.
After that, they just booted home.
 
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bitzz said:
Newly married, 1 yr old kid, just bought a house... and the diff bearings in the wife's car goes CRUNCH... and she NEEDS the car.
So according to all my friends, the manual AND Autodata: the motor and trans have to come out... but you know me... I'm smarter than the average bear, I can do it inframe.
Out to the garage, put the thing on stands, get out a couple of bottle jacks and get the motor twisted far enough I can get the diff apart (to get the diff apart, I have to take most of the transmission apart).
Got it back together... figuring out the 14 ball bearing valves in the valve body was fun, and started the car on stands. It goes through the gears, goes into reverse and still holds pressure... BEAUTY!!!
Slap the wheels on it and go for a test drive, get about a mile down the road and when starting off from a traffic light the thing starts with CRUNCHA CRUNCHA WUGGA WUGGA... WTF????
I dashed to buddy's shop (it was closer than home) and wheel it into the shop, onto the hoist. I tell him that I just rebuilt the diff/trans and ask him to take a look at it.
I DIDN'T TIGHTEN THE WHEEL LUGS, all 20 of them. The cruncha wugga was the wheels flopping around.
So instead of being known as the genius that can do a FWD Chysler diff inframe, I'm the idiot that doesn't know the wheel lugs should be at least SNUG.
35 years later I still get razzed about that.
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I was scrapping a car and threw some old wheels on it for the drive, just a few miles. For the short distance I didn't bother tightening the lug nuts. Wrong! I had to stop in less than a half mile, go home for the wrench and do it right.

Those things unspool fast.
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