what STUPID thing did you do with your yamaha today?

NOT riding it

 

Here's just one: I took the left side cover off the XJ to do some wiring work and laid it on my other bike's front fender between the forks. They are almost the same color. Took the other bike for a ride and later wondered where I put that silly side cover.

Never did find it.

 

applied rear brake. it went "clunk" then proceeded to work normally.
I had a panic thought regarding shoe delam but settled in to "no way, I checked every time I've gotten fresh rubber"
stopped normally a few times. Pondered the source of the clunk. Stopped aiming up hill a bit. Next rear brake application after that another CLUNK followed by normal operation.
After the third time I'd figured out it only did it on the first rear braking after using it pointed uphill and decided there was some kind of backlash in effect. Decided to finish my day and check it out when I got home. THAT was the mistake. One more time was all my brake stay bolt had in it. Broke, wheel spun the brake hub and wrapped the "cable" half around the axle before breaking it. Got home (including a ferry ride) on front brakes only.
Aw well, coulda been worse.

 

Lost the the side cover, then ran out of gas. The rubber that holds the side cover on has been broken since I bought the bike.

I rode all the way to my daughter's soccer game. Ran out of gas just as I parked. I was really hoping that was was the issue as the bike parked itself just as I arrived. As I panicked, I gave the bike a little shake to listen to the gas tank and it was obviously the reason. Conveniently I was parked at a gas station!

After my daughter's game, I came to my bike and was suprised to be able to see the battery. No side cover. Then the guy who had parked his sportster 1200 next to me began raving about my bike. He immediately asked if it was a maxim and began to tell me how he didn't want to get a Harely, but got such a great deal trading it for a four wheeler. His bike was in mint condition. (I would be happy with a Harley, though I would make it look just like my bike anyway).

Anyway, I had to drive all the way home at 30 MPH looking for the cover. When I got home, it was right outside of the barn. I just emailed chacal about the rubber parts so this won't happen again.

 

YOU got lucky !!

A while back, I needed to clean some bugs off the 900 and the "other" bike, and I sprayed them with Windex (Ammonia) of unknown age. Well, this stuff sorta BURNED some streaks into the 900's aged and delicate windscreen, and took MONTHS to fade back to the usual smoke color. I also applied some tire dressing, which seemed to help.

Lesson - don't put any harsh chemicals on your old plastics !!!

 

Got my new speedometer cable and so excited to finally get it done, I didn't spray the bolt to the drive gear with WD40 and snapped the head off. I am spraying it periodically now and I will get an extractor or easy out tomorrow. :roll: So much for an easy fix.

 

Snapped off bolt reinstalling left side clutch cover after installing new gasket. For some reason thought the broken bolt would be in the clutch compartment (not thinking due to anger) so I pulled the cover back off only to tear my new gasket to pieces. Now I have to wait another week for a new gasket and bolts to come in.

 

Tried to remove a stripped out mixture screw by dremel-ing out the slot and ended up snapping the head off.... gonna try a screw extractor or easy out tomorrow.... if i try again today i might just hit the darned thing with a hammer....

 

I think I got you all beat. The damm thing caught fire today

 

I tenderized my hip and leg yesterday. I stopped at a pull off set my stand made a phone call kicked the stand up and started out. Nothing out of the ordinary right, no pants leg caught up in the kick stand going down the road I realized my leg wound'nt slide forward on the peg so I i yanked my foot forward wich set the kick stand out. Took out a mail box went air born and crushed a large wooden planter, bent my rear turn signal post tweaked front shocks.
Wanted a few days off work but not like this.
There has to be beter to get women to cut you clothes off than this. :lol:

 

I took it to a mechanic who asked me what a YICS was.

 

wow if they dont know what yics is id get out of there.

 

I mounted an ammo box, outfitted with a back rest, just behind a chopped up drivers seat. Added lately: Vetter Vindicator fairing with almost 4 inches chopped off windshield and removed lowers for added ventilation on hot days, a 100 watt stereo with MP3 input, aux lighting on front forks.

 

ummm, yeah I gotta hear the rest of this story!

 

I would say that unless you find a long time Yamaha mechanic most will not know what it is. Like I believe Fritz said, when you get a 30 year old bike it is mostly DIY.

 

Three things happened at once. Stuck float in the carb we didn't notice, stuck intake valve and using a can of ether to start it.

Gas puddled in the air box, engine shot fire through the stuck intake valve back to the air box, igniting the gas and the ether was the frosting on the cake to add a nice Hollywood effects fireball.

Thankfully it was more fuel than bike that burned, even though the airbox looks a bit warped. One of the wires on the new fuse block I installed burned off.

Another forum poster here has christened the bike "Fireball"

 

Hey, thought the deal was that I'd get creds if that name stuck? :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

 

Yes you get credit. I plead CRS for not mentioning your name.

 

A buddy gave me some fairly cheap grip heaters to test and see if he wanted to bother installing the same on his bike (he and I have inverse amounts of spare cash vs time and ambition)
Wired them in to the ignition relay so I couldn't accidentally leave them on and kill the battery (smart) using a piece of wire I happened to have around that seemed about the right length. Got all the connections soldered and heat shrunk and started tucking and zip tieing and discovered that bit of wire was just BARELY long enough to install the heaters and not tug lock to lock (lucky). Tested to be sure they came on when they were supposed to and didn't when they weren't (switch for heaters AND key on = heat. Key off = no heat) Wrapped one heater element on the bar, used the piece of giant heatshrink that came with, reinstalled rubber grip. Moved on to throttle side. Discovered the elements are just like grips. there is a big one and small one and I'd already put the big one on the small side. Decided to proceed. Heat shrunk it on and while checking for slack to allow twisting discovered it really needed adhesive to keep from spinning when the throttle gets twisted. Managed to slide it off, spray glue and slide back on. Grip on.
Final test fully installed. Key on, switch on... Wait for heat to make it's way through the rubber grip. Nothing. Killed some time by swapping in some LED tail light bulbs I had laying around. Come back, still no heat.
Got to thinking this "deal" on cheapo parts wasn't such a deal (I already had to re-solder the switch that came on them. Started thinking how I was kinda tired and didn't want to take them off but really didn't want to just leave 'em either. About an hour start to finish now, half of that waiting for these things to heat up. In the initial test they came right on and I could feel the elements get warm right away.
Oh what's this? killswitch. a minute or so later they were noticeably on.

sposeda be sunny and warm tomorrow so a real review will have to wait.

 

Nothing yet but the day is still young!!!