So this week on Thursday after my ride to work I was thick headed enough to leave my keys in the ignition after I stepped off my bike and shed my gear to walk into work. Fortunately my bike is parked inside a prison, but alas the headlights managed to kill the entire battery 6 hours into my work shift.

Upon finding said key with dead battery I managed to use my tools carried in my saddle bags to remove the battery and put it on to a charger that I have in my classroom that is delightfully a mile away from the parking lot. shoot to 2 hours later and the monsoon rains that came out of nowhere manages to role on to the south side and spew out 3 inches of rain on top of me while I'm frantically assembling the battery and fairing. In a bid to move out before I'm completely saturated I leave the 2 allen wrenches in my toolkit inside the trailer located next to the parking lot.

Come Friday morning I decide to take a nice 30 mile ride up Mt Lemon in Tucson, a fantastically twisty road with amazing scenery and cool 70 degree weather. I reach the summit, grab a bite to eat at the lodge, gear up and turn around to head back down the mountain. No more than 2 mile away from the lodge I'm zipping down the mountain and *THUNK* my RPM's drop down to idle and I've lost all power.

I pull over to the side of the road as quickly as possible in case the chain snapped hoping it won't get caught in the sprocket and just when I put my foot down to dismount I slip on some loose gravel and drop the bike into a ditch. Shoot to 30 minutes later of me hefting my nearly 500lb FZ6 out of the ditch I move it farther down the hill to a flat spot and prop it up on the centerstand. I find that the chain is intact and in good shape, but putting the bike in gear I find that the chain isn't being driven and that there is an excess amount of slack in the chain. Thinking that chain whipped off the front sprocket I move to take the cover off the front sprocket and find that it is held in place by none other than Allen bolts..........

Being that I stupidly left my allen wrenches in my office for the weekend, and was to far up the mountain for any reception to make a call for a tow I used my pocket knife to cut the plastic cover off. Once the cover was removed I found that the chain was still attached to the sprocket, but the sprocket nut had backed all the way off the output shaft and the sprocket had slid off the drive gear. After using my remaining tool set to back off the chain slack I managed to slide the sprocket back on the drive gear, after which I set my chain tension again and hoped to baby the bike back down the mountain.

I managed to get about 5 miles before the sprocket slipped off the drive gear again, upon which I had to pull over, find a flat spot, kick up the centerstand, back off the chain tension, put the sprocket back on the drive, reset the tension and axle nut, put my gear back on, and drive for another 3-5 miles before the sprocket slipped again.

Long story short, it took me less than an hour to get to the top of the mountain, and almost 5 hours to get home. So my question is to the great Denizens of H-T, have any stories of just having one of those Days/Weeks?

 

Why didn't you just push start your bike? It only takes one person to do.


Back on topic, I think we've all had one of those days before. I think I've probably spent upwards of 40-50 hours sitting underneath freeway overpasses waiting out rain storms with other bikers. I once hit the canyons with a friend and we both ran out of gas because the route proved to be a lot further than we imagined. We ended up coasting within a mile of a lake where we bought gas off of some guy with jetskis. This guy was an inconsiderate ***** taking advantage of the situation because we got four gallons of gas from him and paid $80 for it.

 

Flat land+500lb bike+R6 engine=One hell of a pushstart on a dead battery.

Besides, charging a dead battery up with a single phase alternator is just begging for it to burn out, I'd rather pull and charge a battery than swap an alternator.

 

Going out to college because I had a calculus test, I go down, fire up my CB400SF, put my gear on and head my way to college. When I had just left my neighborhood, I just hear this loud CLANK and the bike loses all drive. I pull up and see my chain had just snapped. The chain guard is totally messed up and it blew the front sprocket guard.

Mind you, I live near the top of a STEEP avenue. So, I had to turn my bike around, and proceed to push it back towards my house, aprox. half a mile uphill. This with all my gear and backpack, under the scorching tropical summer heat at 12 o'clock in the noon.

Not only that, but my driveway incline is even more steep than the one in my avenue, so I had to struggle with the weight of the bike (And I was already exhausted due to the heat and struggling with gear).

After I finally parked it, had to go upstairs, change clothes and grab the cage. After dealing with hour and half stuck in traffic (Compared to just 15-20 minutes I would spend in the bike, lane sharing FTW), I arrive at the test late. Didn't had enough time and flunked it

 

After nearly 35 years of riding...there are a lot of stories hiding in the closet...The latest: (your never too old for stupidity), I was pulling out of my garage, heading to work pushing the g/d opener that was in my pocket. As I got to the bottom and looking in my mirror, I see that the garage is still open. I stop at the bottom of the incline (okay, I nearly tiptoe the damn thing as it is) and put my left foot down (right still on brake pedal) and instead of the bike leaning to the left (I was looking over my left shoulder), it went right and I couldn't get my right foot down in time to stop it. Now the bike's laying in the gutter, and in full gear I'm trying to get it up when my oldest comes out, laughing and helps me. I fire it up, put it in gear and realize my front brake lever is busted, crap, now I am going to cage it, I it run up the street turn around and cruise back into the garage, keeping both feet down....(wait for it)..that's when I realize I have no front brake lever and plow into the freezer. I parked the bike, tried to fix the big dent in the freeze and went to work. I realize that no matter how good of a rider you are, you're never exempt from stupidity