VTR1000.ORG

So, what have you done in the past, biking wise, that you wouldn't do now?

Or maybe couldn't do now

I'll start the ball rolling:

1980. I owned a Honda 250 Superdream..........with huge full fairing and topbox

Needed a new camshaft, but only available in Bristol

I had to go north for some training so...........

I left Bournemouth, in the January snow, and rode over to Bristol

Bought the camshaft, rode out to the motorway and parked under the flyover

Stripped the bike, fitted the camshaft and rode up to the Birmingham area

A week later rode back to Bournemouth

All in the snow

Sigh! Them were the days

Don't remember any weatherman telling me to stay indoors!!

Ran 21%nitro glow fuel in my rd125 50/50 mix with 4* ran great felt like it had 50bhp till It put a large hole in the piston (young and stupid )lol
Striped it down on the side of the road wile waiting for the AA to turn up .
When he arrived he asked whats wrong with it ?
I told him id holed the piston .
He said how do you know that ?
I replied it was running great till the engine died and locked up on me
So wile I was waiting 3 hours for you to come I took the head of and found a polo in the engine .lol



Sorry officer
The voices made me do it

After I trashed my first SV650 (Sideswiped a Next delivery truck, tucked the front end under the rear wheels!) I left it for about a year.

Finally got forks, discs, front wheel and mudguard together. Put it all together and...

front calipers farked! Rode my work bike on a Thursday to Bristol to collect 2 s/hand calipers, rode to Crystal Palace and fitted them/bled them, left the work bike there and rode the SV to Staines where I lived.
Friday morning rode to the Ace Cafe and then up to Austwick, N Yorks for a bike meet. 200 mile rideout the next day and then back to Staines on the Monday! Not a bad shakedown run after a rebuild!

never forget nicking lead off the /\/\/\/\/\ asbestos factory roofs and hearing a bike.... next thing, local nutcase ste smith comes leaping over the ridge on a beat up xl250 lol.

head the ball lol!!!
fook knows how he got it up there!
or down!

mentalest times for me were motocrossing - used to fall off. a lot!
used to put model aeroplane fuel (ether) in mine for a boost. works as well.

Similar to Flatline and Lloydie, roadside strip. When I started biking I had an FS1E.....DX mind you Premix in the tank (remember this was the days of the shot dispenser on the forecourt) and no matter what you did, shot in the tank first, fuel first, shake like buggery to mix together, you would get 1/2 mile from the petrol station and the bike would grind to a halt as the carb would fill with neat 2 stroke oil. Side of the road, with the Yammy tool kit, remove cover, remove and strip carb to pour oil out, refit and be on your way. I swear, I got this procedure down to 5 minutes, start to finish, and could practically do it in my sleep
Happy days

What sort of crap petrol did you get down your neck of the woods! I had a FS1E (non DX) and never had an issue with the petroil mix.

Kev L wrote:What sort of crap petrol did you get down your neck of the woods! I had a FS1E (non DX) and never had an issue with the petroil mix.

Good old 1978 ESSO.....probably stood for "Ever So Slightly Off"....

some good ones there guys

Who's next!

XT 250, ran it for so long on the same chain and sprockets (poverty) that when 'er indoors wanted to go to an open day at the local police garage, we walked back to the bikes only to find a group of coppers round my bike. I plucked up the courage to ask them what was up only to be asked if I would donate the sprocket to them as they didnt have one anything like that bad in their "black museum". Wondered why it was clonking when I pulled away

Rode the same bike to Reading, on the way a car spun across all three lanes of the M4 leaving me with handlebar width to get through, braking at that speed would have been pointless!

Parked the XT under a gutter downpipe, the hopper froze and the water landed on the bike and froze, so clever clogs chipped it off, rode off through the yard wondering why the bike felt odd, realised that the front wheel was frozen solid. So I rode it out to the main road where the shock of hitting the cleared road was enough to free it, brakes didnt work for a few miles though!

Went greenlaning on it with some mates, we were blatting along when just before what looked like bit of a jump before some bushes. The guy leading decided to stop and check the jump which was very unusual. He later said that he thought the bushes looked a bit odd, that was because they were the tops of trees and we were about to go over a shear drop........

Finally that bike got nicked, as trail bikes did/do, I saw it again many years later at an auto jumble, it had lost the saddle, tank and the electrics had been chopped out of it. I thought about buying it but the parts are like rocking horse poo, Still miss it even if was probably the worst 250 trailie of the time.

1981 my Suzuki GT750 blew crankshaft oilseal coming home from work. Couldn't see the road behind me cause of all the smoke. Had holiday ferry booked for next day so postponed booking for 1 day. Went on train to Carnells in Doncaster bought complete secondhand engine. Taxi back to train station, dragged engine on floor through station. Train to Hull then bus back home to Hornsea. Fitted engine that night. Set off for holiday next morning went through Belgium, Luxumbourg, France, Monte Carlo into Italy then back home.

No, I can't.

Luckily, neither could the magistrate....

1983 Christmas leave I had a Yamaha US Custom 400 and was desperate to get it to my ship in Portsmouth so I rode it from Manchester to Portsmouth. It was hell. First it hammered down with rain then it snowed hard, then when I was soaking wet through the temperature went down to minus 10 and froze me half to death. Arrived at my ship in a terrible state.