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Inspired by a recent Harry Lime post, what is the worst (most dangerous) bodge you ever saw, or will admit to doing yourself?

Going back 20 years I knew a guy who lost a finger pushing the gearbox sprocket back on to the splines while moving. Not a bodge, but rank stupidity, but he had been riding like that for ages, pushing it back on every few miles.

I think the worst bodge I saw was a guy who clamped a fork leg into the bottom yoke with a wood screw into the aluminium on the other side.

Not a bodge exactly, but my first bike was a BSA C15 (no don't mock). It didn't have a suppressor cap on the spark plug, and the top of the plug was very close to your knee.

Often friends would ask for a shotty (Scots for a go on it). If they were not aware of the exposed spark plug top, it was interesting to watch as they set off. It was never very long before they brought their knee in and touched the plug. That usually induced a bit of a wobble and some swearing.

I would claim that I invented sticking the knee out when cornering But only as a means to avoid a vicious belt through the knee, especially on right handlers.

Ha! Familiar! Oh to have started on a C15. My first was a plunger Tiger Cub! Bodges : my pal lost a spring clip on his rear chain near Colony Hatch North Circ, when it was a cross roads. He unwound a piece of chain link fence and joined his drive chain ends well enough to get the five miles home. Years later, my clutch failed about midnight on my old GS1000. It was the clevis pin on the cable / actuating lever had disappeared. I tore off a twig from the roadside bush that was about the same diameter required. Thumbnailed the bark to act as retainers and managed the ten, suburban miles home. Must say though, none that dangerous. My old man lost part of his forefinger testing the play in a primary chain, just as someone tried to kick-start the bike into life after a rebuild.

oyster wrote:Oh to have started on a C15. My first was a plunger Tiger Cub!

A Tiger cub! That were a luxury. We dreamed of owning a Tiger Cub. My dad had a Bantam 125 and were glad of it. Us kids had to push him 3 miles up hill to bump start it.

20 years ago, I was on my way back home to Sweden from a UK tour on the GSX 1100. Somewhere between Calais and Antwerpen, Belgium, I lost the gear shift pedal. Luckily, I had a pair of small pliers with me. So I had to take off from standstill by slipping the clutch in 3rd gear, bend down and shift up to 5th by hand, with the pliers.

Watching my local scruffy bike shop forcing a self tapper into a C90 carb to replace a lost mixture screw

Or listening to some guy behind the counter in a motorbike shop in Chester telling a customer he needed EP90 in the gearbox of his KH250 ...... every bone in my body wanted to butt in and put him right

I once bought a BSA a10 as a non runner. Turned out that the earth brush in the magneto was missing. This lies perfectly concentric with the magneto centreline. I got an hb pencil, bit of bacofoil and the spring from a biro pen, just to get her going. Hey presto worked perfectly. Ran the bike 2 years and sold her on with the bodge still in place. I honestly forgot it was there.

Corvus wrote:I got an hb pencil, bit of bacofoil and the spring from a biro pen, just to get her going.

Are you MacGuyver?

Deleted.

metropolis2k wrote:

Corvus wrote:I got an hb pencil, bit of bacofoil and the spring from a biro pen, just to get her going.

Are you MacGuyver?

No.

Although I look similar.

Similar sized rocket too.

on a long run back from oop north on my r1100s , the return spring on the rh throttle body snapped and left the butterfly wide open ,
Now riding everywhere with a wide open throttle wasnt a good idea, and on a closed throttle it ran as a single ! badly
at the time i had long hair , one layby , one strip down and one hair band later i was back moving ... made the throttle pretty heavy

left it like that for weeks untill it snapped , then replaced it with a lod of laccy bands.

tbh thats just one of many , dispatchers do it best

If you squint at the photo at a certain angle...............

You can just about make out the repair...............



One of the best engineers I've worked with - but don't tell him I said so..............

Al

Couple of scavenged drinks tins and jubilee clips to hold an exhaust together when it fractured on my old XJ900 in the middle of nowhere up the far NW Highlands,

I was put to the back of the pack I was touring with

Blackal wrote:If you squint at the photo at a certain angle...............

You can just about make out the repair...............



One of the best engineers I've worked with - but don't tell him I said so..............

Al

That looks Like an R1200ST

The Teutonic Tangerine wrote:

Blackal wrote:If you squint at the photo at a certain angle...............

You can just about make out the repair...............



One of the best engineers I've worked with - but don't tell him I said so..............

Al

That looks Like an R1200ST

Thankfully from the right angle <runs>

That also looks like a BoxerEd r12s in front and a Wild Pheasant Car Park?