bodgers

[fido]

Not bike related and only anecdotal but I heard of a lorry years ago that had its chassis break in the middle. It was box section chassis and the owner cut out the damaged part, planed some oak timbers to be a tight fit in the box section and just made the whole truck a bit shorter, slapping some underseal over the joins . I don't know if they shortened the propshaft  or just relocated the rear springs and mudguards.

[muskrat]

Gav it's bad enough yourself and a non BSA as your avatar but you should have left your girlfriend out. Sure your not kiwi, sorry RR, kiwipom & kiwiGF.
The gear lever fell off the plunger 100 miles from home. Found a 14mm ring spanner is a snug fit and got me home.
Had a friend who used a piece leather belt as a big end bearing in a Fergie, should have tried that MF.
Cheers

[gavinoz]

I know i know but when they look at you with those big yellow eyes....
Mind you i liked the Honda ag almost as much as the C15 i used to have, by crikey it was a tough little bu--er and could take a lot of abuse. there was a lot of dodgy bolts and tie wire on that bike.

[bsa-bill]

Had a friend who used a piece leather belt as a big end bearing in a Fergie, should have tried that MF.

if that's a Diesel Fergie they're about 16:1 as I recall, obviously not a Chinese "leather" belt

[muskrat]

Petrol but I think it was running on kero, Bill. And the front tyres were packed with straw. Easier to keep in than air.
Cheers

[Topdad]

Worst ever on an A10 combo ,we were up near Sedburgh west riding of yorkshire  my outfit was the recovery vehicle, always someones bike breaking something or other during the week . Half way though the week the forks went sloppy and when we checked the fork leg had cracked and parted company with the stanction ,completely donald ducked , after a little head scratching we visited a guy in the village and got a fork leg of  that sort of fitted however wrong for brake and just fitted where it touched! real problem after a few hours was the brake anchor ,by the way we were on a moor in the wilds. Anyway after scavengeing in hedges ,as you do ,we found enough stuff to jury rig the anchor plate front brake and it looked okay didn't have any strength but hey ho we were only 16-17 yr olds and course i could ride to liverpool without using the front bike ???!! I forgot to mention i did have a seat fitted to what was just a back garden gate  bolted to the sidecar ,one of my mates,Bruce  used to set very comfy on it , obviously no 'elf' an safety in those days. believe it or not we got as far as Burscough, the turning of the A59 to Parbold when merry hell broke loose , car 2 infront slammed on  and then the car infront did the same  needless to say I ..WELL DIDN'T , I just watched like a rabbit in the headlights at the brake plate turning round and round along with the cable winding round the spindle , then at the back of the car ,it was a moggy minor and heard a bump a growl followed by " get this effing car of my leg, it's got my leg " 3 of us lifed the moggy of his leg expecting the worst , and ...not even a bruise it had a rubber rear bumber which luckily had just flexed out of the way , anyway having given the car driver the bums rush for stopping so quickly, ( young and cheecky hey !! and very very lucky ) and of we went for the last 14 miles covered very carefully without even the pretence of a front breake it was very scary but we made it and we all lived to tell the tale , our only excuse was that we were young and stupid,by the way we all survived our motorcycling days and 2 of us are still riding  (plus 1 friend who will be giving the boss in motorcycle heaven a hard time R.I.P Spanner ) Best wishes Bob.

[metalflake11]

I'm sure leather has been used in engines straight from the factory. Panzer tank engines rings a bell? I think it may have been used as a seal for oil.
Straw in his tyres muscrat!?......That must have taken ages pushing it through the air valve! Over here I know they used to fill the drive axle tyres with water for some purpose or other.

[Butch (cb)]

MOT warning on the front spokes being overly corroded in the front wheel of a Honda RS250 I was using for commuting. Rode it round to the next MOT then wire brushed them all and put some nice thick hammerite over them. Worked lovely.

I was doing a thousand miles a month on that bike and trying to do everything as cheap as possible. It used to get through two sets of chains and sprockets a year. I had an oversized gearbox sprocket that I'd use every six months to get another two weeks out of the chain once it had stretched out side of the adjuster limit.