Soooo, I Made a Part

[SpkLife]

Sooo, I made a part….

I purchased a new to me beautiful blue 2009 1200 RT a month or so ago and while test riding prices the rear brake engaged towards the bottom instead of the top of the range of motion. 
I had to unclip the “clipy thing” that secured the plunger to the brake lever.

I made the adjustments took a ride and noticed that it seemed worse than before!! I pulled over and saw this…

[dirtrider]

2 hours ago, SpkLife said:

Sooo, I made a part….

I purchased a new to me beautiful blue 2009 1200 RT a month or so ago and while test riding prices the rear brake engaged towards the bottom instead of the top of the range of motion. 
I had to unclip the “clipy thing” that secured the plunger to the brake lever.

I made the adjustments took a ride and noticed that it seemed worse than before!! I pulled over and saw this…

IMG_3726.MOV 11.72 MB · 13 downloads

Evening  SpkLife

 

Post up a single picture or a couple pictures, I won't open an unknown movie files.  

 

Edit__  Skywagon sent me a picture from your .mov

 

Looks like you might need a   P/N--   07129934961 pin (just under $9.00 from BMW).

 

For now put a bolt & double nut in there, then replace with the correct pin when you get one.

[SpkLife]

Thanks for the part number. 
 

At the time I was in a parking lot. I love looking for parking lot debris that will fix a problem (short term…probably :-D). Found some wire, I think coat hanger. It’s too thin but if I bend a little here, a little there… I get this!

 

[SpkLife]

And the final product, it’s 4 wires thick in the middle and secured pretty good on either end by bending the ends down. It’s working pretty good 👍🏻 

[Hosstage]

I like it. I'm assuming that is just to get it home?

[SpkLife]

Thanks to dirtrider I have the part number but…

[szurszewski]

That’s a great low-cost roadside fix!
 

About anything will work in there, but the nice thing about the bmw part is that it allows easy pivot action and is readily removable/replaceable when/if you need to adjust the length or otherwise take apart the system. 

[SpkLife]

I really appreciate the helpful comments and information.

 

I’m newish to the community however have found this to be an amazing community. 
 

[SpkLife]

If anyones interested please use this thread to post anything you’ve “made” specifically in your travels.

 

Especially the ones that were meant to be temporary but… still there a year or ahem years later! 

[TEWKS]

This may fit here. It wasn’t made as an emergency roadside fix but made to keep stray rocks flying off passing vehicles on gravel roads and possibly busting my headlight. This was my old f 650 I found on Craigslist that was selling for way more than I traded it, years ago. Ouch! Anyway, I cut and bent all the steel tubing for this headlight protector, had a friend tack weld it with me and then somebody good finished the welding. I was pretty proud of the work.

 

[Hosstage]

Not a part but roadside repair, a friend riding an old Harley, the headlight plug melted. We cut it off, strip the wires back and wrap them around the spade connectors. I mention that will work until you can pick up a plug and do a permanent fix. He just gives me the look and says, it is permanently fixed.

Ok

[Skywagon]

Good looking headlight protector, but there is part of this story I have my doubts about. Pat sold a bike?  He has a one way garage. Bikes come in but they can’t escape

 

No picture but my roadside fix ~1995. I was riding an R90 and the clutch handle went slack. No clutch. I was in the mountains near Lake Tahoe. The bike had a mod that made the clutch easier to pull. It was a fulcrum type chain attached to the clutch rod. It broke and fell off somewhere. I crawled under and rigged up several tie wraps and it worked for the 3 hour ride home

[Hosstage]

Another actually fabricating a part.

Riding down to Davenport for the AMCA races and swap meet, a friend on an old Triumph, his petcock lets loose and starts leaking badly. He grabs a piece of wood, jams it into the bottom of the petcock, and off we go. It held for three days.

[Hosstage]

Reading Skywagons use of ty wraps, I've repaired a few shifter rods on Harleys with them, not an unusual part to break. Always keep a few on the bike.

[Scott9999]

14 hours ago, Hosstage said:

I like it. I'm assuming that is just to get it home?

WTH?  Haven't ya never heard of the "if ain't broke don't fix it" school of mechanical engineering?   🤣

[Hosstage]

6 minutes ago, Scott9999 said:

WTH?  Haven't ya never heard of the "if ain't broke don't fix it" school of mechanical engineering?   🤣

I may be running a few things using that engineering technique.

In the Harley world, we fix them until they're broke. Motor runs fine. I should fix it to run better. What could go wrong?

Anybody know a good machinist?

[Scott9999]

If you haven't jury-rigged a motorcycle fix, then you certainly have never ridden dirt bikes in the deserts of California.  You take your vacation time, pack up for the big weekend, take mama and the kids and the dog and three bikes and tents and food and tools and fuel, all packed into a mini Nissan pickup truck (cause, ya really can't afford all that stuff anyhow, or so the wife repeatedly explains), and head on out, three or five or eight hours, or whatever it is to your "local" paradise.  

 

Day one, young son or daughter's bike breaks something.  You don't ruin the trip going back looking for a motorcycle shop which is probably closed for the holidays anyhow.  You don't say "Sorry, honey, or sorry son, you'll just have to sit and watch."

 

Dad fixes bike "... by whatever means necessary ...", PERIOD.   Even it it means borrowing stuff from a neighboring rider (we try to get permission first, HONEST!   But in the desert, it's kinda like "finders, keepers" 🤣🤣🤣).

[basilr]

My wife's 09 F800ST headlight hinged locking pin (if that's it's called) is still held in place by the peel-back lid from a small can of Tuna. I don't remember how we did it, but it was in 2011.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

f

[The Rocketman]

Many years ago my son and I were about 45 miles from home on my (then) 1982 Suzuki GS850L. Went to downshift to get on the ramp to enter the highway to head home, and to my surprise my foot went straight to the ground. My shift lever was gone. Had to make a quick decision to either stop the bike in 5th gear and try to find it, or head straight home, hoping to not have to down shift. Ended up going straight home, grabbed a flash light and headed back to where I thought we lost it. After walking almost 2 miles in the dark, saw it shimmering in the middle of the road. As I went to retrieve it, a mini-van hit it, tossed it about 20 feet up in the air and mangled it to death. Went back home (bummed) and ordered two new ones. One to install, and one zip-tied to the frame in case it ever happened again. If it happened during the daytime, I guess I could have bought a pair of vice grips, clamped them to the shifter spline and made a makeshift shifter, but everything was closed when this happened. Turns out it never happened again. Hard to figure out what spares to keep on a bike in case things like this happen while you're out on the road.

[TEWKS]

Ahh, shifter falling off worries… Never gave it an ounce of thought in the ten years owning the bike until now. To change foot pegs on a GS you have to remove the shift lever. You know how that usually works! 

[dirtrider]

38 minutes ago, TEWKS said:

Ahh, shifter falling off worries… Never gave it an ounce of thought in the ten years owning the bike until now. To change foot pegs on a GS you have to remove the shift lever. You know how that usually works! 

 

Afternoon Twerks 

 

You might not have to actually remove the lever, first try just removing the bolt then push the lever in towards the trans, that might give you enough clearance to get the pin out. 

[TEWKS]

Hopefully my new nice but “cheap” wider pegs won’t snap on me while riding on some remote road down in the Carolina area. I’m going to have the stock pegs with me just in case. 
 

I will try that trick if needed, thanks DR! 

[taylor1]

Friend of mine came down from P.A.to N.C.to visit on his Kaw. 900  Somewhere on the way down his shifter broke. He stopped and bought a pair of vice grips. Rode around here for a week and made it home with them. Oh to be young !

[Skywagon]

1 hour ago, taylor1 said:

shifter broke. He stopped and bought a pair of vice grips

 

Had a Hodaka Ace 100 as a kid I bought with a custom vice grip shifter.  Rode it that way for a few years and sold it.  I thought it was a factory feature.

[dirtrider]

20 minutes ago, Skywagon said:

 

Had a Hodaka Ace 100 as a kid I bought with a custom vice grip shifter.  Rode it that way for a few years and sold it.  I thought it was a factory feature.

Evening David

 

Yes, that was the norm back before foldable shift levers on off-road bikes. We would typically carry 2 pairs of butcher pliers (Vise Grips), a small set to use on broken clutch levers & larger ones to use for shift levers.

 

It took a while but we eventually figured out that cutting 2 small V notches in the clutch lever just inboard of the end ball would usually allow the clutch lever end to break off but leave enough lever to allow clutch operation. (most clutch & brake levers come with those weak area notches now)  

 

We would also run a cable from the shift lever to the frame to prevent small trees,  thick grass, & downed tree limbs from jamming between the shift lever & engine case or frame. Some of us would also do the same with the brake pedal. 

 

You had a Hodaka Ace 100  eh?  I had a wombat 125 for while but broke just about every part on that thing in less than a year. I finally sold it to my brother, he had better luck with it as he was a fair bit lighter than me & rode it a LOT easier than I did.    

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

On 2/23/2022 at 11:09 AM, dirtrider said:

Afternoon Twerks 

 

 Fantastic autocorrect there.

[TEWKS]

Yeah, I’m definitely not a Twerker. 

[dirtrider]

13 hours ago, TEWKS said:

Yeah, I’m definitely not a Twerker. 

Morning  TEWKS 

 

Sorry about messing up your screen name, (I didn't do that intentionally). I did have help as my spell check did have a hand in it.

 

My part was in not using all caps as I have spell check turned off for caps. 

 

Mitch, thanks for catching that as I will make sure I double check that next time. 

 

[taylor1]

5 minutes ago, dirtrider said:

Yeah, I’m definitely not a Twerker.

Pat , I just got a mental image of that. Life will never be the same  

[Hosstage]

14 hours ago, TEWKS said:

Yeah, I’m definitely not a Twerker. 

It's the little things in life that we are thankful for!

[TEWKS]

1 hour ago, dirtrider said:

Morning  TEWKS 

 

Sorry about messing up your screen name, (I didn't do that intentionally). 

 

DR, no offense taken at all. Actually, I appreciate the material it led me to. This funny business gig takes teamwork!  

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

On 3/2/2022 at 7:15 AM, dirtrider said:

Mitch, thanks for catching that as I will make sure I double check that next time. 

 

 

Don't feel bad - autocorrect burns everyone now and then, and once in a while it's kind of funny.

 

A while back I tried to google Takuma Sato (an IndyCar driver) using voice-to-text on my phone.  Instead, my phone searched for "Talk to Masako".  Which was interesting, because Masako is my wife's name.