Walk of shame

M

mindactivated

Active Member
How often do you guys do the walk of shame? I'm not talkin' bout the girls who sleep with someone and go home the next morning in the same clothes. No...

I'm talking about your bike breaking down and being close enough to home to just walk the bike instead of forking up a couple of bucks for a tow.

This riding season:
me = once
friend #1 = three times!
friend #2 = once

It hasn't been a pretty summer. :(
 
twice this season on my pops honda shadow before I replaced the stator and all is well.

a good running bike shouldn't break down.
 
Never on a bike, but ive done it with a car (broke down the end of my street so i pushed it home....)
 
Block Shake-Down Run Walk of Shame:


The first time I basically took the GS850 out after the carbs were properly sync'd, jetted, and the exhaust and everything dialed in. I planned to only go up to the little neighborhood church parking lot and back, but to actually test the bike I had to hit a couple straightaways. Well, FAIL. On the way back, all of a sudden the bike started surging and acting funny. My first thought was a fouled plug, a stuck float, etc., Nope. :( I was out of GAS! Luckily, a guy who's driveway I walked the bike into to stop, came out and commented on the bike and let me use his cell phone. Yeah... a little embarrassing to have your brother bring you a gas can literally like a 1/4 mile from the house to make it back without a walk up and down hills.
 
twice for me, in the same week!! rookie mistake i guess, anyways now im waiting for a new rectifier to come in the mail. Ive had to talk myself out of riding it about 50 times this week for fear of it dyin...but if i dont get that thing out on the road soon i think im gunna die!!
 
RULE # 1 Never leave home with out a cell phone.

RULE # 2 ALWAYS KEEP THE BOLTS TIGHT ON THE BIKE. ;D

RULE # 3 IF you ride a lot at night stash a flashlight somewhere and make sure it works.

My bike taught me those one very COLD effing night in January about 5 miles out from the house, was out for a nights ride when I pulled over and decided to adjust my coat and gloves. Nights are clear and cold but the roads never really ice all winter around here. And sometimes you just gotta take a ride to clear your head. WELL, get back on, flip the switch kick the starter pedal, and Bitch decided not to start. Fucking E start wasn't working then so since I was on hill so I figured turn her around, coast down the hill pop the clutch in gear see if she would start back up, no dice. Coasted a bit more doing the Flintstone motorcycle trick till I could get her off the road onto a farm road out into a pasture and parked it. No light, no tools, 815 ish pm, dark as only a no moon night can be, and cold. I messed and screwed around with a few things for a few minutes before I reached for the phone only to remember it sitting on my desk in the effing house. GODDAMNIT!!!!

SO I shut the gas off grabbed the keys and WALKED the 4 1/2 miles back to the house, thinking the whole time my wife is gonna KILL me, I have no trailer, no way to get the little bitch home, wtf am I gonna do blah blah blah. I chose to NOT take a ride home from any of the neighbors, hell I know them all, just for shame and pitty's sake,well that and I needed to learn my lesson again. Not like I haven't had this happen before once or twice in my life. ::) I live out in the sticks so there really was only 4 houses in that 5 miles

Get home load up the wife, the kid, some tools and a FLASHLIGHT and head back out. 2 minutes later find the damn problem, freaking 30 year old fuze blew, little gum wrapper out of the floor board of the car and the bike fired RIGHT up and OFF I roared back down the road PISSED as HELL.

Still laugh about that night and the wife still talks about it like it was some great learning experience for her dumb ass husband.
 
Haven't pushed the Suzuki (thankfully) but I broke down 3 times last year on the Cl175. Word of advice- get a small bike if you plan on breaking down and pushing it! :D

First was down hill from home- clogged fuel filter. Second was a bad ground- uphill this time. The last time I was miles from home and a guy showed up with a trailer to give me a ride. Unfortunately, the bike fell over in the trailer ......
 
Frog that suuucks. I got stranded one time about 45 miles from ANYTHING in the Ocala national forest because of a "charging problem". Talk about pissed. I had no cell phone reception and had to wait 3 hours before somebody rode by to jump the bike off. Guess what said charging problem was... My mf'in positive battery cable had worked loose. Didn't even need the jump once I realized it. Shameful. Just shameful.
 
1. 1974, Honda S65, generator wire broke killing ignition (flywheel magneto) 15 mile 'walk'
2. 1977 blew big ends out of Honda 175 twin, 230 miles from home towed home by a CB250 (thanks John)
3. 1978/79 (forget which) cam chain worn out on 550/4, did 591cc kit when I changed everything (it had done 30,000miles) 8) (RAC, similar to tripple A)
4. 1985, ran out of gas in 'left hand drive' VW beetle (faulty fuel gauge, 3 days before Christmas, middle of a 5 way junction ::) ) gas station was less thn 200 yds, I pushed it, Beetles are pretty light)
5. 2004 blew fuse on1978 XS650 on way to work (called friend with a pick up)

That's all, not too shabby for 40+ yrs riding old bikes.

CB360 has been great so far, even when I do damage to a cylinder it's gotten me home (the red 'zone' is only 'advisory' ;D )
 
On my FZ, before I knew fuck all about bikes, it would happen once every couple months. That bike had been thoroughly molested by the previous owner, and my not knowing how to maintain it didn't help the situation.


Since I started learning to wrench on my bikes, it's been much better. Only once last summer, on my 360. I was on a shake down run after getting the carbs back together and the timing and points adjusted. Guess I should have changed my fuel filter as well. I was only about a mile from home but it still wasn't the highlight of my week.



The GS has been a great bike, but recently I had a coil go out on me. I was really on the throttle at the time and the RPMs were up there a bit. I thought I really fucked something up. I pulled over and saw that one of the connectors on one of the coils was pretty corroded and had broken off. The bike started and idled, so I limped it home four miles or so on two cylinders. Luckily I had a spare set of coils at home and I was back together and running great within a half hour. I've since picked up a set of Dyna greens and they'll be going in sometime very soon.
 
Ok this is probably one of the more embarrassing stories here... 5 years ago, I had a 99 katana 600 I had just got running. Go out for a shakedown, feeling like king shit. I didn't replace the chain cause I was stupid and cheap. But did soak it in wd40 for a week to free it up (been in the rain and sitting for a few years) so I come to a crossroads about 2 miles from home, (and I lives way out in the woods back then) and I sees a moped leaving the stop sign. Since I swapped sprockets before leaving, its got plenty of low grunt so I come out of the stop on the back tire and im going to show this sod on a scooter that real bad asses ride bikes! Wrong. About time I even up with him I see a motion in the mirror and my rpm's redline. I realize the chain just shot out the backside and I lose power instantly. Front end returns to the ground, I try to shift back to neutral but the chain took the clutch rod with it and half the cover. Moped man puts on away. I coast on to the side, gather the bits, and trudge home for the truck. I used to be a real idiot sometimes. And now to this day im weird about passing scooters. Just seems wrong I guess?
 
On Monday on my way to a bbq. Clutch cable end popped out of the sprocket cover half a mile or so from my friends house and half a mile from the bbq in opposite directions. He wasn't home but I can get into his garage, and my triple-a doesn't cover bikes (didn't know that). Pushed it to his house (cursing about the tool kit I didn't put on the bike after the last time this happened; yeah, this was the second time), adjusted the cable, ate burgers.

It actually happened the week before too, but I was in a Lowes parking lot at the time. Lesson not learned.

I will have a full tool kit with me the next time I take it out, in addition to loctite-ing the adjuster nut while still in the garage.

Oh yeah, a couple years back I took a test run around the block and the carbs fell off. Not proud of that one.

Man, this thread is making me feel stupid.




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Stupid shit happens to everyone at some time or other. I started a pass at Bonneville a few years ago. 200 yards out the engine dies and I'm fumbling around like an idiot until it dawned on me I forgot to turn the fuel on.
 
Never on my bike considering it's not even finished but I'm sure when it is, I will have plenty of them. I have had several break downs on my car though. That old cabby of mine is hell of fun... but has had many problems. Thank god parts are cheap on it. In fact my subaru broke down a lot too... maybe I should stop buying cheap cars.
 
Walkin_Stick said:
Oh yea. That's goin in my sig. Love it.
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aaah, ouch bro. laugh. I guess i deserve it though, theres really no defending that one. oh well, laugh.
 
Well I have been there a few times. Once after I first got the GL, I didn;t know it still had the original main fuse, 30 years old and just s trip of filament in a plastic holder, well it broke, didn;t blow, just cracked and I am riding to work and bam, nothing bike just dies. Well I coast into a parking lot, look for the fuse, can't find it?? Call the wife, please come get me and take me to work, so off I go. Get home, check manual see the fuse looks nothing like a fuse ;D go back, connect the two red wires bike fires up I ride home go get a new 30 amp balde fuse and spares and learn lesson. Next time riding along, throttle cable lets go. Walk home, get truck and tools go back, try to swap push to pull, only to find out been done already, so can't put a GL1000 in an x-trail so now what. I get a brain fart, cranked Idle up to 3000 rpm, drove home just using clutch, worked great, then had to go back and get the truck..... Worst one was when the piston blew on the 400.... was on my way to a course for work on the trans Canada, about 5 miles away, blam bang crunch. Shit! At least someone stopped and gave me a ride, I had to leave the bike on the side of the highway until almost 8 that night before I could get may buddy to go get it with me. That one sucked.
 
Rocan said:
RULE # 4: Always have a stick of gum handy
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Don't you know we MacGyver Shit around here ::) :D

The great thing is after that ride I have never had an issue with her since. I can let the thing sit for a week and it cracks right off first spin and takes me where I want to go.

Did the walk once when I was a kid, dad has all sorta farm land and we had a few old beater honda 3-wheelers. Took one out for a nights spin in like June-July ridding out on one of the back 40 fields chasing coyotes, in the dark, with no head light, holding a flashlight in one hand. At least there was a moon this time, that's why I was out, I new the coyotes would be more active. I would shut the thing off and sit and listen and wait for them to call then tear after the sound and use the flashlight to find their eyes. Has having a blast for about an hour until I hit a pretty big ass ditch that sent me and the bike flying quite a-ways. Landed it ok but had no GO, was still running, shifted but no movement. Got off, poked the flashlight under the fender and a I'll be damned if the chain hadn't broke. I looked all over for that fuker before I realized that I was a good 2-3 clicks from home in the middle of field with packs of wild dogs around me, suddenly the "man I'm out having a blast" feeling turned into a "well lets get our silly ass home before we get roughed up by the wildlife that I had been so thoroughly trying to PISS off for the last hour" one. ;D

Long story short, pretty much ran home the whole way, was 16-17 so was still in decent enough shape to do so. Went back the next morning and looked around found the damn chain, loaded the 3-wheeler in the truck and hauled it home. Lesson learned here, never WELD a chain together when you can use a master link. I had lost the master somewhere so I figured I would just use a link and braze weld it back on. The bounce snapped that link in half. ::)
 
Frogman that reminded me of my first three wheeler ;D My Da built me a little hopped up Yamaha tri-zinger when I was 7 or 8. Man, I used to ride that thing all over the woods out here.

One day, the old man had just filled it up and set me loose and I was hauling ass around some old fire lines (trenches cut in the woods to stop wildfires). I used to get going in those trenches and then jump out of them when they turned. Well after about an hour of that I ended up a couple miles from the house and figured I'd better turn around. Now anyone who's ridden those old three wheelers knows that you don't just "turn around" when you're riding. My front tire caught a pine root and I went ass over tea kettle. No big deal, but the bike shut off....and after about 6 pulls on the rope..SNAP. Walk of shame at a young age ;D
 
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