The Life You Save May be More Than Your Own

Discussion in 'General VFR Discussions' started by zoom-zoom, Aug 31, 2014.

  1. zoom-zoom

    zoom-zoom Member

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    I was reading through threads on the forum today and just happened to see the thread "BOLT CHECK" started by fellow member karazy.

    Have you ever done some routine maintenance to your bike and thought to yourself, "Hey, maybe I should start a thread and mention something that I found while performing some maintenance item.". I bet the thought has occurred to more than a few of us, and we might have never bothered to share thinking that well, it might be a no brainer and why bother because most people would think to check it themselves.

    Karazy was doing some routine maintenance to his bike and noticed that the bolt on his shifter arm was loose, so he tightened it up and posted a thread suggesting that maybe it was worth a look for the rest of us. After reading his thread I went down to check the bikes in the garage. I had the battery charger hooked up to the battery on wife's 96 VFR and I needed to go check and see if it was fully charged and since it was good to go, I removed the charger and put the battery back up on the shelf.

    I purchased the 96 VFR for my wife in September of 2013 and it has only seen about 500 km's of use, by me, since it was purchased. My wife used to ride with her ex and when we got together she had her own bike. She owned a 1985 CB750 Nighthawk and when she decided to sell it just prior to becoming pregnant with our son Liam as she did not think there would be much time to ride. Now that he is 7 and is my riding buddy, Angie wanted to return to the world of biking so that once our daughter Chantal is big enough to ride she could ride pillion with my wife. To that end end, Angie found a nice 96 VFR for sale locally and we brought it home. Prior to starting riding again, Angie decided to take the prudent measure of taking a motorcycle safety course to brush up on her skills. Unfortunately, this year, life got in the way, and she has not yet taken the course and the 96 still sits in the garage virtually unused, but with a few extra shiny parts and some other maintenance items that I have performed since the bike came home.

    Getting back to the topic at hand, I checked the shifter arm bolt on my bike after reading karazy's thread. The bolt on my bike was good and snug, but when it came time to check the wife's bike I discovered the bolt was totally loose. The bolt did not however stick up at all. Visually it looked tight, and even though I had ridden it a couple of times had honestly not noticed the shifter being loose. Perhaps the bolt may have been holding on by a thread, literally. I removed the bolt only to find that the threads on the bolt about half way up were, well, gone. I removed the shifter arm and checked there as well, and the threads were badly marred and almost gone. Perhaps the previous owner stripped the threads by mistake or cross threaded them but, regardless, they were gone. It would appear that I now need to order a new shifter arm and bolt to replace the one on my wife's bike. The splines on the shaft and the shifter arm appear to be fine and undamaged so, there at least, things are fine.

    Now, would the bolt fall out while riding and the shifter arm fall off?? I suppose the possibility is certainly there, and could this lead to a disastrous mishap?? Hard to say I suppose. The fact of the matter remains, that it is not a bolt I would have really thought to check as it is one of those innocuous bolts that one would ASSUME would be tight. In over 20 years of riding, the only time I have ever removed the shifter arm on one of my bikes is on my 97 VFR when I removed it to have it chrome plated when I had some other parts done. I was doing some farkling, what can I say??

    Thanks to to karazy, I was able to catch something that might have gone un-noticed. Would something terrible have happened?? I shudder to think of what COULD have happened.

    THE POINT YOU ASK...........of all this incessant rambling. The next time you are doing some work to your bike and you think, "Hmmmm, is this simple maintenance item on my bike really worth sharing??" The simple answer IMHO, Most definitely.

    THE LIFE YOU SAVE, MAY BE MORE THAN JUST YOUR OWN.


    I, for one, would like to offer Karazy my heartfelt thanks for mentioning something that he deemed worth sharing, and it would appear that he was not the only one who happened to notice that the shifter bolt was loose.
     
  2. TNRabbit

    TNRabbit New Member

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    I had a similar experience last month with a less critical bolt in a close location. The center bolt on the kickstand that holds the kill switch on had fallen OUT & I was trying to figure out why everytime I put it in gear it would die~

    It thought I had the kickstand down.....

    All 3 of the other kickstand bolts are good to check every time you lube the chain; they get a lot of the oil drippage from chain lube & tend to vibrate loose.
     
  3. REEK

    REEK New Member

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    I think the simple "useless" posts are the most helpful. As long as I read it and am able to get up off my butt to go check things.

    With modern bikes, I think we all take things for granted. the engineering is so good that we assume things are good and simple mechanics that some of us learned long ago, we neglect. At a miniumum, I think the annual spring prep where we change oil/filter, check various maintanence items should include torquing critical (and non critical) bolts is a must. I once rode about 20 miles on my ZX7R with my front calipers completely loose wondering why my braking was so off. I had to hand torque them and tried to avoid dying and get home to fix the issue. THAT was more of a mini-stroke I had in the garage the night before than a rattle loose issue though.
     
  4. Allyance

    Allyance Insider

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    When I first got my bike, one of the recommended mods was a horn upgrade. While working on the upside bolts holding it on, I noticed the bolt that held in the right ignition stick was ready to fall out. Not a life threatening issue, but would have made it run rough.
     
  5. 34468 Randy

    34468 Randy Secret Insider

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    And I found missing bolts as a result of this same thread. So ya. If you find something amiss on your bike, post it up. Might cause the rest of us to look where we normally would not.

    Anyone got any suggestions how to tighten my loose screw?
     
  6. Badbilly

    Badbilly Official VFRWorld Troll Of The Year!

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    Better to have the shift lever made of softer metal than the spline coming oot of the tranny. What this does is if ya lose the shift lever to do a temp replacement with a pair of Vice-Grips.
     
  7. sunofwolf

    sunofwolf New Member

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    Ya, you better fix your warped rotors right away, your brakes will fall off
     
  8. skimad4x4

    skimad4x4 "Official" VFRWorld Greeter

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    Thanks for this!

    For a while now it has been very evident that within the VFRWorld community we have an immense knowledge resource.

    However as it stands, potentially important stuff like the post from karazy tends to vanish from sight and we are not efficiently gathering together the really critical stuff so others - especially new (or potential) VFR owners can be alerted to this sort of potential problem.

    So would it be possible for the forum MODS to help us all, by creating a master "things you should check" thread located at the top of each of the VFR generation sections? The thread could simply be a terse list of links to threads where the detail can be found. So for instance "loose gear lever bolt" and a link to the relevant thread is all that is needed.

    Access to this master thread would need to be controlled by the MODS to avoid master threads degenerating with extraneous content, making them hard to follow. (Just see how the original post by Rubo on 5th gen electrical gremlins has progressively morphed into a War & Peace thread where it is increasingly hard to follow.)

    In future, people just need to create a suitable thread to identify the problem. If it becomes obvious that the problem may indeed affect other bikes, hopefully someone contributing to that thread will alert the forum MODS by PM and ask them to add the problem to the master list for all relevant generation bikes.

    I know it means work for others, but it could make the best VFR forum even better.


    SkiMad
     
  9. sunofwolf

    sunofwolf New Member

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    :typing::lol:Blue Loctite on everything-it can't do anything but help. But I am really worried about Randy because he get's 110% wear out of everything, where as I replace most everything if its 50% worn out, but I only have been riding maybe 30-40 miles at a time, where Randy goes a 1000 miles at a time. I think it would take me 20 years to do 113,000 miles! I can't figure out BB, I never see his bike maybe he just rides someone else's bike when they aren't looking-you can leave a few loose bolts if he is around!
     
  10. Badbilly

    Badbilly Official VFRWorld Troll Of The Year!

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    Some famous dude once said, if the translation is accurate, " Give me a long enough lever and I will move the world." I wasn't around then but most folks at the time were under the impression that the world was flat and before there were service manuals for Hondas.
     
  11. Badbilly

    Badbilly Official VFRWorld Troll Of The Year!

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    A pic of the mach 1 91 is in the gallery. The 1200 is a stocker. The Yamaha and the BMW are not Hondas. The KRTT is not a Honda, I sold the Velocette.

    What I am trying to figure out is why anyone should follow your lead and put blue Loctite on their chain.
     
  12. sunofwolf

    sunofwolf New Member

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    :drum::shower::bs::focus::bandito:No BB you got the chain Lube wrong-only use red Loctite on the chain, not blue. that holds all the links together so they don't fall off.
     
  13. sunofwolf

    sunofwolf New Member

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    I have never seen BB post a pic of anything he rides! lets see some pics!
     
  14. Badbilly

    Badbilly Official VFRWorld Troll Of The Year!

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    SOW flunks satire again.
     
  15. sunofwolf

    sunofwolf New Member

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    :alien::clap2::tinfoil3:Still waiting for those pics or the only bikes you got are the one's you pick up at the Bottom of Bridge.
     
  16. RDMCD

    RDMCD New Member

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    Exhaust hanger

    When I purchased my 2000 it had 24000km on it. First thing I did after getting home was strip it down for a thorough cleaning. The bolt holding the exhaust to the "frame " just above the catalytic converter, was gone. I don't think anyone ever had the exhaust off of the bike so it must have just came loose and fallen off. No idea how long it was missing, and no damage done, just replaced it.
     
  17. sunofwolf

    sunofwolf New Member

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    Just imagine how many parts have been flying off Randy's bike and they aren't all Honda parts either.:grief:
     
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