Pipes glowing red?

[fredintoon]

What bike was that?

Hi Pro.,
so what was the kid riding? My experience has been that by the time the drive chain was knackered the bike would be oozing oil from every seam anyway. But that was old Britbikes. You told him the chain mantra, right? "Old sprockets eat new chain, old chain eats new sprockets, replace the lot or be sorry!"
Or did you sell him a shaftie?
Fred Hill, S'toon.

[Erik the Red]

Ahh, the good ol' oblivious to obvious...

Originally posted by prometheus578
"When did this oil leak first appear?"
"Oh, about two days ago."
"When did you last oil your chain?"
"Uhm... about two days ago."
"Next time, don't use the whole can of spray lube on the chain, makes a hell of a mess.

Reminds me of my own experiences back in the day. I was going to change my Honda's oil for winter, so I took it out for a quick spin to warm it up some. I got as far out as I was going to go, so I turned around and as I was getting on the throttle after the first shift, I heard this 'tink' and this awful metal crunching sound, then nothing.

Figuring that whatever it was was now gone I went to roll on the throttle again, but no response other than the engine winding up. I could cycle through all the gears with the same result- RPM's increasing, but no power. Fortunately, home was downhill.

I couldn't figure it out, and couldn't figure it out, so I loaded it up in the back of a buddy's pickup. We didn't have any tie-downs, so I rode in the back straddling the bike. Wind chill was probably around 35 F. We get to the shop 25 minutes later, I told them the symptoms, and they come out to take a look.

We're standing there and the guy asked "So when you took the cover off, was the sprocket damaged?" I said "I didn't take the cover off." And then a little light bulb went on as my mind made certain connections.

I looked, and sure enough, there was no chain where there obviously should have been one. And from the look the mechanic was giving me, he'd made the same connections a little bit before me.

Moral of the story? There really isn't one, but isn't it a relief when the fix turns out to be something nice and simple like that?

[prometheus578]

"Inexperience"

This is a sad one.
Yesterday, a guy bought a used Triumph Speedmaster. (paid cash, which will come in play in a moment)
As he was scheduled to attend the Rider's Safety Course this weekend, we told him that we would keep his bike here, he should use one of the "Course's" bikes, and pick his bike up next week.
Nope. He had never ridden before, this was his first bike and he wanted it now.
I told him to practice riding on the street here behind the shop, and then take it across the street and ride around a little behind the mall to get used to it. He said he would.
I told the boss that I didn't want to watch this, as I closed the overhead door. She had pleaded with the guy, also.
I pour myself another cup o' coffee and was just about to get back to work...
He walks in the back door and motions for me to come outside. From where I had left the bike for him... he had gotten no more than 10 feet and dumped it!
Windshield, headlight, mirror, both left hand signals, clutch lever, foot peg and shift linkage.
Paid cash... didn't need to insure the bike.
No... I didn't make fun of him!
I have most of it repaired already with bits and pieces I had lying around. I told him I would make it road-worthy till replacement parts came in. All that's left to do is quickly fabricate something to replace the broken turn signal stalks... and he can take it out and "practice" some more.
Shame, but stuff like this happens.

[skids]

Oh man! The guy is short on common sense and perhaps long on cash. He could be good for the business if he gets good enough to get to that other parking lot across the street so that he quits scareing passer-bys.

[HobbyMan]

He should have listened to your wisdom.