Hypothetical Scenario Thoughts

[CrazyDan]

It was just after getting into the hobby, hadn't joined this forum yet. I was running just a coaster brake and both fenders on a nel lusso. That built in rear rack made it much worse. I had to use my flintstone brakes to stop myself... I got a front brake and removed both fenders that day.

 

[extremeodd]

When I picked up my cheap motorized kokomo last night the first thing I did before riding it home (other than inflating the tires) was to remove the damn front fender. It was already loose and just begging to kill someone.

 

[CrazyDan]

When I picked up my cheap motorized kokomo last night the first thing I did before riding it home (other than inflating the tires) was to remove the damn front fender. It was already loose and just begging to kill someone.

If you read the Travelling, Commuting & Safety threads, those front fenders have killed quite a few folks...

 

[ZekeNoScooter_8]

Holy sh$* Dan! Ive had this happen too, twice, but thank god no traffic. It was my first motored and I was green as anything. Didn't understand the alignment tolerances, stock tensioner, 50cc on a Kawa girls bike that looked like it just stepped off the set of M*A*S*H. I called her the Vietnam. By the time I ditched her she was the VietCong. Traitorous bit**.
First time was third ride, after midnite, bout 12 miles straight flat desert road to home, wintertime, nothing for miles. She locked up and didn't have the decency to even spit the chain. So no obvious reason. Back tire solid to the bike. Called a friend, rescued after bout an hour. The second time I was pulling my trailer, light, empty save for a 10lb backpack, and gas can. THAT time she spit the chain so my fears of my trailer arcing forward were unfounded.
In the end I figured out the "girl bike" was the problem. I learned about chain alignment and realized that even when I was just pedalling hard to start her, I could look down at the bottom bracket and see 5 or 10 degrees of twist, right at the rear engine mount. Well duh. Blew that motor couple days later (re torque the what....) . Disassembled. Literally cut up the frame (can't trust those VC!!!)
started trying to figure out a rear mounted 2stroke on a full suspension MB.
that's for another thread tho.

 

[CrazyDan]

Here is one of my ouchies: https://motoredbikes.com/threads/potholes-are-evil.49796/ . I've had a few injuries I've learned from in this hobby. Have a half dozen scars and some joints that'll never be the same again from wrecks. I try my best to avoid crashing now, yet might still happen again one day.... not looking forward to it .

 

[LewieBike]

This is where you should start being proactively maintenance focused.

Start thinking about switching the damn, junky 415 chain out for a #41 or a KMC 1/8" width single speed chain, if it fits the rear sprocket.

I'd also look to buy a double clamp chain roller/tensioner. Think about your engine's sprocket, you can buy narrower width sprockets for the HT engine. They sell ones that are claimed to be for 1/8" width but my experience has been they don't quite fit, so they will need to be ground narrower.

None of these engine sprockets are concentric and you may have a buy a few to find one that is close to being concentric. Frankly this is my biggest beef with these stupid engines, the sprockets would an embarrassment to any considerate company. They're a source of much rapid cyclic tightening and loosening and introduce a low frequency vibration that has to shorten the life of most of the other parts on the bike and engine.

 

[extremeodd]

Well, I just had to deal with the fun of a front tire locking up at speed. Was hitting a turn lane while in some extremely rare arizona rain when an idiot in a silverado decided that they wanted to turn left instead of going straight (this was a red light, line was maybe 5-6 cars long) and pulled out right infront of me. Jammed on the brakes, the front shot out from under me and I went down like a sack of bricks. Smashed the headlights, twisted the handlebars, ripped off the kill switch, tossed the pedal chain. So I collected myself and got onto the curb between lanes and power walked up to the guy and all I could really do when he rolled down his window was cuss him out and kept walking (if you saw the incredulous look on his face, you'd of done the same).
As I was standing at the front of the line of cars waiting to turn left, I looked back and the kid and his buddies were laughing their asses off which made me snap and I started doing a quick mental inventory of possible weapons on my person. Ended up settling on my kryptonite new york U lock that's about 6lbs. I took it off the bike, leaned the bike against a convenient signpost and waited for the light to change. For whatever reason, the person at the front of the line of cars thought I was after them and when the turn arrow finally turned green it took a sec of frantically but discreetly waving them through for them to go. Not entirely sure what he was thinking but the dumbass in the silverado started to slow way down when coming by, leaving me the perfect opening to swing the lock as hard as I could into his aftermarket headlight. My original intent was the windshield but I didn't factor on him slowing down so much and I had to change my game plan. Thank god it was a fairly large/busy intersection as him and his 3 friends looked pissed and did their damndest to pull off the road asap to try and "have a friendly discussion" with me.

Am I in the wrong? Oh god yeah. Was that stupid? See the previous answer. Was it justified? See previous two answers. Was it probably my fault? See the previous 3 answers. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. He's lucky I decided on the lock and not the motorcycle battery I had in my backpack. If you can pay for a truck, you can pay attention.

Its not quite a chain locking up at speed but now we know my nonhypothetical reaction to a front tire locking up.

 

[CrazyDan]

Are you ok? Were you wearing riding gear? Full helmet? I don't think I could have kept my composure as well as you did. 3 guys in the truck wouldn't have stopped me, I might have tried to fight them all at once with no weapons... I'm an idiot, ignore me. I have tried to take on 3 at once because the driver almost killed me... only 2 tried, the 3rd decided to just help his buddies back to the car. I'm so glad my hothead ass hasn't gotten locked up for my stupidity (yet).

 

[extremeodd]

The closest thing to gear I was wearing were full length jeans (ripped my vintage JNCO shorts getting on the bike just before this ride). Otherwise it was just a t-shirt and a big ass 17in laptop backpack with a motorcycle battery in it, thank f*** I didn't land on that. One upside to the rain is it reduces your friction with the ground, only ripped open the knee of the pants (that pisses me off more than any other part of this, 2 goddamn pairs of pants in an hour. I ONLY HAVE 3 PAIRS) and got a light knee scrape, right palm scrape and a light bruse on my right hip. Luckily I was only doing 15-20 tops as I was trying to go from one side of the 3 lane road to the other and I do so as quickly as possible when only 9-10 car lengths from the light.

The only reason I was restrained and only hit his headlight, is because I'm on probation via an interstate compact agreement and I cannot afford to f*** up and have the state change their mind about agreeing to let me do my probation here.

This is why you don't run on old tires, considering the conditions* a new tire probably would have shot out too but the tire being bald didn't help at all. Plus gear would be a wise idea, if I would have gone down differently I could have easily bonked my head and forgot math or something.

Stuff like this is making me glad I scooped up a 1981 Yamaha XV750 for $70 the other day and got it running/driving earlier today. People will still do dumb s**t but I'll be at least that tiny iota more visible.

*The first rain after it being dry for a while makes the roads stupid slippery as all of the built-up oils float to the surface. These wash away but that takes some time. Being the desert, every single time it rains, its been dry for a while and it gets slicker than eel s**t.

I should say that I totally won the interaction from a financial standpoint. I was able to straighten out the handlebars, the lights are probably fine just the housings got mashed, I already have a 5 button switch that has one of the switches reserved for a kill switch so no loss there. Whereas that guy now has to replace his aftermarket headlight which probably isn't the cheapest unit in the world. Still wish I could have spidered the windshield but that might have escalated things too far.

 

[tishla310]

So the past couple of days I've been commuting and having this persistent question. I hope it isn't a premonition...

Say someone (not me) is doing his normal 22 mph cruise and his chain suddenly loosens and binds up in the drive sprocket (proper name?), what is going to break?

A: His chain?
B: His wheel?
C: His head?

It could be all three but it wont happen if you tention your chain properly. I had this issue when I first built my bike but i was going low speed so nothing was harmed