Bike Related Bodges........

[Didge]

What do you reckon are the best things for bodging up yer bike. Stuff like bungies, gaffer tape that sort of thing.
Also, what's the best/worst bodge you've ever seen or done? (Ade will probably love this subject).

One bodge I'm guilty of, was when I was a lot younger in the early 70's. I drilled a hole through each handlebar clamp, and the bars on my BSA Starfire, and screwed in self tappers, so that my 18" ape hangers wouldn't move if I had to brake hard. :eek:

[Duncan]

My old DKW fractured the filter bowl on the petrol tap when out somewhere. Unscrewed clamp, removed bowl and put in a £1 coin and replaced clamp. Everything worked just fine after that. It stayed in and I sold it like that 2 years later.

Have repaired numerous engine casings with liquid metal and Araldite and gaskets from Shredded Wheat boxes used to be the norm. Once made up a chain with loads of offcuts and 4 split links in different parts of it when I wanted to get a rebuild running.

Had scavenge oil pump fail on old Triumph meaning oil would go into engine, do all the bearings but not return to the oil tank. Rode it 65 miles back from Southampton stopping every 10 miles to drain sump into an old bucket stolen from a field then empty it back into oil tank.
Another occasion kept blowing fuses so wrapped silver foil round fuse and promptly set fire to wiring.

If bodging becomes an Olympic sport then count me in....

[Spanner]

Watching Ade using Araldite on the side of the road during our rideout at last years monster weekend to try and stop his oil pressure switch spewing oil was quite amusing. How he didn't come off his bike I'll never know. The right hand side of his back tyre was covered in oil.

Personally have used chopped up feeler guages as packing to stop my rear brake disc warping when tightening it to the back wheel. The wheel had a lowspot at one of the mount points. I expect somebody whacked it with a hammer trying to get a previous disc off. Apart from that nothing more than cable ties and sticky tape has been required.

[bod]

Superglue...Im know as the "superglue kid in our parts"
Never on bikes, but most of the cars I have owned must of had about 3 tubes dotted around them by the time I come to sell them :)
They carn't make cars like they used to,or am I getting ham fisted? ;)

[Vman]

Tail chops on all the Monsters.... :confused: :eek: :( :bunny:

[A Yerbury]

ducati off centre paint jobs..side mounted battery...kinky fuel lines..sidestand idiot cut off switch...flaky engine paint..I suppose best bodge was a corner of a vhs cassette used as an insulating grommet on the starter motor as ducati no longer supply the grommet. still working.

[Didge]

Yerbs, yes what a crappy idea, having a battery mounted on it's side. I know they are 'sealed gel batteries, but I wouldn't trust the bloody thing to stay sealed.
Good 'n with the VHS tape bodge.

[stef]

the classic 'stanley knife' butchery on the underside of the rear light, and presto, you have a plate light ! dont think this works on the monster though.
it was enought to give me an MOT on a old CBR.

[Fodder]

At a company I used to work for one of the electricians had an old rat bike Triumph (one of the original T150's I think). On his ride in to work one morning he broke one of the rear shocks, so he cut a couple of scrap bits of angle iron to length, drilled some holes at the approximate distance removed both rear shocks and replaced them with said iron, Voila! instant hard tail. This would be a fine bodge to get you home but a year down the line they were still there. You can imagine what an untreated low grade mild steel left on a bike would look like after a year of British riding. :eek: What made it funnier is that one of toolmakers at the company, who by rights was a perfectionist, was restoring an original Triumph Trident back to its former glory, and the condition and general abuse of this poor example used to regularly bring him to the brink of tears as it sat, unloved outside the workshop in all weathers. :D

[IpauloGTS]

When I had my arm in plaster (late seventies) I clamped a pair of mole-grips to the twist-grip of the RD250 for a couple of weeks to allow a bit of precarious riding.

[The Kevlar Kid]

Dare I mention screwdrivers through oil filters.......

My best bodge was probably on a car. Had an old VW Scirocco that had a crankcase pressure problem and kept blowing oil out of the breather and therefore into the air filter and down the carb. As it would do this in batches of about half a liter at a time, it would stall the car and make restarting a bastard. It also meant that it would run out of oil pretty quickly.

I straped a two litre coke bottle to the bulkhead, removed the end of the breather from the air filter, extended it with a bit of garden hose and a jubilee clip and shoved it into the coke bottle. I then just empted the coke bottle of oil back into the engine every evening - nice...