Most stupid problem you've had while commuting

well I have no daughters, so I think bluegoatwoods has the most
challenging and interesting situation.

I think the daughter who breaks em all, would be an awesome rider of a solid mountain bike. if the bike is getting wrecked, then obviously she's hitting it hard.
get her a bike with solid wheels and shocks for a birthday present, she'll love you forever.

the one you scared off MB's, needs to be with your group at a park or someplace,
and see your other daughters ride the bike safely first.
then be encouraged to have a go at her own rate, by the daughter who breaks things.
the safe rider seems to need no attention, yet ;-)

get mirrors either on the all bike's or helmets, so they can see
traffic coming up from behind, and will have a chance to avoid it.

my humble opinion.

my most stupid problem was when the little clutch pin, next to the small chain sprocket
came out. it caused my bike to come to a halt, as the clutch no longer worked.
I had to carry the back wheel.

this happened in crowded traffic, and I had to lock my bike, and walk 3km to work.
5km from home. come back at night with car, nurse the bike, carrying the back wheel, two blocks to my car.

the easy way out of this is to push the clutch pin down back into the engine with the toe of your shoe. you can't touch a hot engine with hands, but a shoe works.
when pushing down you can then use the clutch and it locks back in place.

So, I could have avoided a whole break down by pushing down with my left foot.

When the clutch pin has failed on me again, I just push it back in whilst riding, with my left shoe's toe. Saves a break down, until I can get it home to fix it.

I'm going to drill this out, and put a thin bolt through, as it happened again last night.
 
I have removed the baffle from the muffler which has increased the power greatly and also speed (40 mph). However, vibration has also increased drastically.

I was out for my first long ride yesterday with a friend who was following me with his car. I gave him all the tools that I thought I would need. It's a good thing he had a roll of duct tape in the car!

I was getting plenty of looks while riding and even had one woman cover her ears as I drove by (it is quite loud). But, it wasn't so fun when the clutch lever just snapped off and landed in the middle of the road! Now to pull the lever, I had to pull down resting it on the side of the lower piece where it snapped from and then pull back. It must have been too much stress on the brass piece with the screw holding the cable to the engine because that thing flew off (and I'll never find it)!

At this point, I had to push the cable into the slot and duct tape it there. Seems to work ok.

After a little while longer of riding the engine was not running as it should. It was skipping and stalling. Apparently, all of the vibration loosened the choke lever so it automatically chokes the engine. So, I started riding with my foot on the lever to hold it down, but that became too awkward so I used a piece of duct tape to hold it down.

The clutch lever that had broken kept falling off as I was riding so I had to put duct tape over the hole where the cable fits in. The idle screw also flew off somewhere so now if I pull the clutch lever and let go of the throttle the engine stalls. Also, full throttle does not work. Pulling the throttle about half way is now full throttle and anything more will make the engine stall.

I hit the local bike trail and had the chain fall off a couple of times. Good thing I had a screwdriver with me the break the chain and set it on again.

I love this bike and it is a lot of fun to ride and gets a lot of attention, but it is coming apart piece by piece and will soon be covered with a whole roll of duct tape!
 
I love this bike and it is a lot of fun to ride and gets a lot of attention, but it is coming apart piece by piece and will soon be covered with a whole roll of duct tape![/QUOTE]

When that day comes, I WANT PICS! :D

I haven't been at it too long yet, but today was my 'doh' moment. I have a friction drive and when I leave the house I pedal and let the engine idle to warm up 'till I get up to the corner at the main road (about 100yds.). This morning, same routine and waited for traffic to clear at the main road. All clear, start across, hit the throttle and rev. city but no-go! :confused: Forgot to lower the roller to the wheel :eek: DOH!
WC
 
Funny that Will Start should mention the clutch lever retaining pin failure. That happened to me last Saturday or Sunday. I was on my way to work. Suddenly no tension on the clutch cable, but still attached to the lever.

I got lucky though; there were some folks sitting on their porch. We didn't know each other, but they recognized me. I asked if I could stash the bike in their back yard. They said yes and when they came to understand that I was on my way to work they offered me a ride home. I accepted gladly and then drove to work.

When I checked the bike out the next day and understood just what had happened, my thoughts were something like; "This is all it was? I could've ridden easily".

Oh well, I suppose I shouldn't complain. It might have been worse.
 
One rides my motor assisted bicycle to a neighboring town every day and does a paper route.
Bike hasn't let her down and always returns in good working shape. Nice piece of machinery. (Dax 50cc two-stroke)


The other two pedal and I don't let them anywhere near my bike.

My wife's motor assisted bicycle is down due to my one daughter's negligence and abuse. I'll get it going again one of these days. But I'm not in much of a hurry to turn over an MB to either of those two.

As it is right now I think of that bike as my spare parts pool. And I'm in no hurry to change that.

Thanks for asking. I'll let my girls know that they're developing a reputation in the MB world. :)
 
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I didn't get the connection with the 12 step program, is this about drinking and riding?

EDIT: I thought the post was from this thread: http://www.motoredbikes.com/showthread.php?t=6004&page=3 re: 12 step

hahhaa. I'm drinking, but I am not drinking and riding. I'm drinking and tyuping (joke: typing).
But I can relate to your story about the birds. I started wearing bike helmets after a youthful sprint home for dinner at age 16, that was interrupted by a large dog chasing a terrified cat. The dog had tunnel vision and lost all but 2 teeth. I was lucky I still had all mine, but I came back to consciousness searing on the pavement like an egg on a pan.

I ride every day when weather permits. Put on about 9,000 miles a year. Saving money and having fun.

I was traveling in Ohio on a country road doing about 38 MPH.

As I was riding I noticed a small bird was attacking a flying crow and neither of them were looking at where they were flying. They suddenly veered right into me.

Sad to say, both of them hit me and they both were killed. Luckily I was wearing a full helmet.
The crow hit my head and the smaller bird went into my front spokes.

So watch out for those birds.
 
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re: stupid problem while commuting. The first week I rode this to work, I came out 3 days in a row to a flat rear tire. I thought maybe one of the employees was letting the air out to heckle me, but it had a small leak in the tire, a tiny pinhole. I actually found the little piece of metal inside the tube! Ugh!

It could be worse

Viral Video: 14 yo boy goes to park $50 000 sports car, slips off the clutch, rams garage wall instead of turning off key. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hqx61roe-k&feature=related

Teaching one of my daughters to ride. She had ridden just a little bit the day before and everything seemed well and she had enjoyed it.

I put her on and she pedalled a bit and then dropped the clutch. She took off like a
rocket. We live on a dead end. Houses on one side, terrible drop-off with woods on the other side and at the end. She was headed, full speed, straight toward the trees and drop-off at the end. I hollered "Clutch, Mary!!!" But she couldn't hear me, anyway. What seemed to save her was some rough ground right at the end. It slowed her down enough that she could turn and then, apparently, it stalled. She couldn't give me a good description of what happened. She was too frightened.

When I looked over the bike in hope of figuring out what went wrong, I noticed that the throttle assembly had been turned on the handlebars through at least one or two revolutions. So that the cable was wrapped a couple of times around. No wonder it was stuck WOT.

I asked her if she couldn't figure out that something like that would be trouble. I don't remember her answer, but it wasn't much in any case.

so now I have one daughter who is scared to death of motor assisted bicycles and is showing no inclination to ever get on one again. I have another daughter who wants to ride, but destroys bikes. (both my wife's and my own a couple of times.) She breaks something every tie she gets on. She is now barred. And one daughter who rides quite a bit and seems to do it right. When she returns my bike, it is in working condition.

I'm batting .333 with my kids. I guess it could be worse.
 
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Haha, you guys are going to LOVE this one:

There i was, young and dumb with my first MB (without any brakes or kill switch mind you) I found a friend to cruise with, we were just finishing up his bike and firing it up.

I decided to quickly adjust my needle setting... in the dark.
I did not properly align the sleeve back up when re-inserting it throttle linkage back together.

I jump on and fire it up, BAM! takes off at WOT in a small alley.
After i quickly figure out what the **** is going on, i quickly pull the clutch in, oh no wait!!! that could ruin the engine!!! so i let the clutch out, fighting for traction with my shoes in the gravel, i cram my foot in the front wheel and stop the bike.

NEVER did that linkage get misaligned, still rode without brakes or a kill switch.

My next build is def. going to have all the safety features hahah
 
Gumby, brakes have "shoes", but shoes (vans, nikes etc) do not have brakes.

That is just silly.

Next time, also test the throttle linkage and clutch by pulling the cables/levers and watching, before riding. Please? This community doesn't want to hear about another MB wreck or injured rider.
 
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