Dumb Moments...

[JSP]

Ok, so here is MY dumb moment from last night...

Back story: Since I bought the Bandit there was a very very small oil leak (weep) from the very front of the valve cover. Never a drip, just would create a sheen after a hard ride. Never bothered me, just wiped it down when got home. I did the valve adjust and such and hoped that would self fix the weep once I re-tightened everything down. It did not. Same thing. Left it be and didnt worry about it.

Well, its been getting a little worse so I decided to jump back in tonight and tear it all down again. Get it all completely apart, valve cover off and put some Ultra Gray in the valve cover groove (states to do so in service manual). I did that last time but not very much at all. This time a decent coating like I should have done the first time.

Anyways. Get her all back together, fire her up and she is purring pretty with no leaks. (the valve cover would not leak until higher RPM runs, so I needed to take it on the road).

I get it out, start romping on her everything feels good. I am about 2 miles from home now. On my way back it starts sputtering pretty bad. I give it gas it takes off, backfires, sputters, does not want to go. WTF. Racking my head what I did... Idled fine, ran fine at first. Coils in right positions... Made sure my fuel line was not kinked before putting tank on. Cannot figure out why its doing this.. Its still running but keeps cutting out on me. About a 1/4 mile from my house it completely dies. Will crank but not start at all. I'm pissed. WALK OF SHAME. It is dark out so I am afraid of getting hit by a car. Leave my lights on, dont care if drain the battery. Luckily I had no hills to push her up. Fat pig she is... Finally get her home, in the garage. Wheezing from being out of breath.

:rant:I go inside and start yelling up a storm about how I screwed something up, bike is dead, super pissed off. Wife wants none of it.

I go back to the garage, calmer head. It instantly hits me...















I RAN OUT OF GAS! Flip it to reserve, starts right up, takes off, no issues. Pushed that bike that far in the dark FOR NO REASON! AHHHHH!!!! My last 3 bikes being FI with no manual petcock, I just did not think about it...


I knew I was low on gas on my last bar, but I thought I had another fail safe to tell me. Once you get to the last bar the gas symbol starts flashing. I for some reason thought after that, the actual last bar would flash. I was wrong haha. Wish I would have though about that before pushing it.

Anyways, after all that, I looked for the valve cover leak and I see nothing. So at least I can laugh about it all now AND my leak appears fixed.


:surrender:

 

[BKP]

(You're in good company...)

Consider it the workout you've been meaning to get to...

 

[JT]

good story. im sure that would have happend to me as well


yea I had something similar happen in the vette. (did not push it 1/4 mile though lol) it started to stall and on throttle and I immediatly said o crap old restored car must be a mechanical isse. what could it be. im looking at temps pressures everyhting is fine!! WTF o yea gas I need that lol.

 

[leem00]

I do that kind of shit all the time especially when working on things like cars and bikes.

best bet is to always walk away and leave it for a while.

 

[Perdurable]

noob




i still love you

 

[JSP]

noob




i still love you

You better....

 

[MaximumHP]

When I was younger and had a scooter (My first two wheeled motor vehicle), I did something similar with the kill switch. Pushed it home and found, doh! Stupid kill switch was off!

 

[bleedinblue]

Just tell everyone that you had it leaned over so far dragging elbow that it vapor locked lol

 

[Marthy]

Back in my high school days I worked in a gas station for few months. I had my Honda MB5 back then... so after my shift and selling $4K of gas I jump on the bike and ride back home. Well right I got off the freeway (ya, my 49.9cc was that fast!) I felt and heard that swooop swooop.... out of gas! I did remember tight at that time that I switch the peacock to reserve on my way to work because I ran out of gas there too.

So back 25 years ago in my little town, there wasn't a gas station at every corner... especially still open at 1:00am! I had to push the dang thing almost all the way home for hours... ya no cell phone back then either to call Daddy

 

[MNGreg]

LOL!!! Thanks for sharing!!

Once you said you got back in the garage and started looking it over I had a feeling it was heading towards gas of some kind! But as mentioned, think of it as a mix of cardio and strength training! LOL

 

[CrazyCawi]

The other day I put the 250 up on stands after running seafoam through her for about 75 miles in the oil to clean it all up....so shes warm. I take the filter out(cartridge)....let it drain. Put the new filter in and o-ring on. Seal her up. I then drained the oil pan. Once it got done draining I realised I had to pee super bad. So I screwed the oil plug in just on the one thread so It wasnt laying on the ground. I go into the house to pee. On my way out the wifes like hey we need to get going. (Going to her grandpa's birthday dinner) so ofcourse I say alright let me finish quick. Ran down stairs and started to pour the oil in(amsoil btw)....and I was like wow this is flowing in really quick the funnel isnt even backing up or anything. Then I head a little *glug glug* *ploop ploop ploop*......out poured my whole jug of amsoil through the drain pan into the dirty oil pan....note to self: Screw in drainplug first.


What a great feeling. I just flushed my engine with one of the most expensive oils I could haha

 

[JT]

flushed my engine with one of the most expensive oils i could haha

the only way to do it!

 

[MNGreg]

What a great feeling. I just flushed my engine with one of the most expensive oils I could haha

She drank it up and peed it right back out!! Hey you did extra cleaning in addition to the seafoam now!

On a side note: Sorry to hear that, that Kinda hurts the pocket book. Atleast it was only 1qt right?

 

[CrazyCawi]

Yeah but still lol

 

[dart1963]

wait, you don't usually flush out all the old oil????

lol... that is an expensive lesson with top oils...

 

[RoadTrip]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-tCIRJH9p0

 

[danieljardim]

When I first got my license, I was riding my brother in law honda magna, well I filled the gas tank but never flipped the switch from the reserve back to normal, rode the shit out of the bike waiting to start choking so I could flip the switch, well, It just died on a stop sign. Had to push it ten blocks to the nearest gas station.

 

[leprecaun jon]

i have taken a liking to working on older and smaller engines lately.... getting use to working on carbs and such so i think i would have caught that....however i did run out of gas one day when i still had the silver bullet and had to push her to the gas station in the dark....luckily i wasn't riding alone and my friend kept riding beside me to help give light...but my maybe 120lb scooter does not compare to a motorcycle lol....i have trouble getting my fz6r out of parking spaces some times XD but thats partly because I'm 5'2....love my pig of a motorcycle but damn my buddies cbr600 is light comparatively

 

[JSP]

i have taken a liking to working on older and smaller engines lately.... getting use to working on carbs and such so i think i would have caught that....however i did run out of gas one day when i still had the silver bullet and had to push her to the gas station in the dark....luckily i wasn't riding alone and my friend kept riding beside me to help give light...but my maybe 120lb scooter does not compare to a motorcycle lol....i have trouble getting my fz6r out of parking spaces some times XD but thats partly because I'm 5'2....love my pig of a motorcycle but damn my buddies cbr600 is light comparatively

I think any other time I may have caught it, but being that I JUST worked on the bike and was on a test run, I instantly thought it was something I did... I got overwhelmed with anger that I screwed something up that common sense went bye-bye.

 

[Little Miss Dangerous]

You aren't alone!!

Haven't done it on the 6R yet, but on the race bike it's a different story.... I swear I've spent more time pushing it around the track and being ferried around in the pick up van than I ever did racing the damn thing!

My racing friend was obsessed with weight saving, and would only let me put the minimum fuel in to finish the race. The problem with this theory is that I tend to go out real easy at first, then once I'm comfortable the red mist sets in and I start riding really hard. It's like night and day for fuel consumption on the ZXR.

So of course, what was fine in one race is definitely not enough for the next.

Very embarrassing to have your bike die just as you get over the line in front of all the spectators. Or on the final corner and not even make it over the line. Or another time, after a red flag and restart, on the second lap. Not cool. It had a fuel pump in it too, so it was literally one minute, going hell for leather at almost 200km/h, then 3 seconds later the engine cuts out and I'm waving my arm in the air hoping not to be hit from behind.

After this had happened more times than I care to admit, I had an argument with the aformentioned friend that went something along the lines of 'If I really cared about weight savings, I'd give up my addiction to Yum Cha and lose three kilos thank you very much!" Except with a few sterner words thrown in.

The first couple of times I thought I'd bought a dud bike. Nope, just being a noob and listening to people who took things a lot more seriously than I did!