residentg

My son and I were loading up our dirt bikes to go dirt biking last summer, when I noticed that the cap was missing from my coolant resevoir. I realized that I left it on the floor, and it was now swepted up and somewhere in a garbage dump. I did not have a spare, what to do? I noticed that the cap on my bottle of Coke looked to be about the right size, so I tried it on, and sure enough it screwed right on (and it was red)! I took it back off, drilled a small vent hole in it, and off we went, without mention by me of what a dope I was for losing it in the first place.

Lets hear your improvising stories. Thanks.

JB

VTRsurfer

Have you seen the film "Dust to Glory"? Tecate beer can and a zip tie.

thetophatflash

I think it was summer of '72. My buddy and I were cruising in Eastern Washington, near Yakima. It was saturday, after 5:30pm. I was riding my 1970 Triumph Tiger and my buddy on his '68 Triumph. We were both sitting comfortably on our Bates Solo seats when he gives me a signal that his bike has a problem. We pull on to the shoulder. I remember there was nothing nearby that could offer any hope for repair parts. The evening light was that wonderful golden color as we sat down to discuss the event that made him want to stop. It was a quick diagnosis. His primary drive chain was smacking the inside of the housing and would cause serious damage if it wasn't adjusted. After an attempt to draw up the tensioner, it was obvious that the tensioner bolt was broken, so we pulled off the primary cover and indeed the long through bolt that bowed the tensioning surface up into the bottom of the primary chain had broken. Even if there had been a hardware store open, they would have nothing like that. As we sat there on the side of the road pondering our options, it struck me that all we really needed to do was to bow the tensioner surface into the primary chain. But, what to use? Sitting there I noticed there were lots of smooth river rocks laying about. I picked up one. It didn't fit, so I pulled a smaller "part" from the supplies at hand. It fit very well. Feeling pretty confident, we buttoned her up and gave it a test run. It was magical. It worked perfectly. We finished our weekend riding to the Colombia Gorge and then up through the backside of Mt. Rainier and on to Seattle. To my knowledge, the rock was still in place when the bike was sold some time later.

Hawkrider

I've done a lot of improvisation over the years. The most recent:

My buddy has an 03 Yamaha R1. His stator was toast so he came over to get some help wrenching. Off comes the fairings, sidecover, and rotor bolt. Service manual says you need a special tool to get the rotor off. Simple tool - basically a big bolt with a 20 x1.5mm thread. Now, I've got a lot of crap in my garage, assorted nuts, bolts, washers galore from years of wrenching on bikes. Nothing! Not a single bolt that size. So we contemplate continuing the event the next day. I'm sitting there looking at my latest project, the VF500 Interceptor, and notice the rear axle is about the same size. Out comes the calipers and thread pitch gauge, off comes the wheel, and off comes his rotor! Of all things....

Bytes

I carry a small role of baling wire and wire cutters in all me vehicles, including my SH. You can fix many things with that stuff, including holding your buddies fairing to it mounts after he wrecks his bike. I guess I got that habit growing up in south eastern Idaho. Farmers can keep almost anything running with a role of baling wire.

lazn

It begs the question why no one makes things out of bailing wire and duct tape to start with.. then it'd never break

revhead1957

When you are miles from anywhere and you have fallen off and broken the clutch lever.....

toy4xchris

a while back my buddies girlfriend ha left her lights on and killed her battery out in the middle of nowhere so my buddy bout some 12 gauge wire in his truck bed that he hooked from his truck to her car as a make shift battery charger/jumper cables it took a bit to charge but worked.

RK1

Way back when a friend and I were riding from Phila. to South Florida in January.

Temperature high thirties and rain ahead. Too poor to buy rain suits.

Answer? A box of Hefty Bags and a roll of duct tape. Torso gets a bag with holes cut for head and arms. Legs and arms each get a bag. Wrap entire bagged self enthusiastically with duct tape to preclude wind ripping off plastic. Pay special attention to head/arm cuts in torso bag and places where arm/leg bags mate with torso bag. Looked ridiculous, worked fine.

peterpanic