Careless Mistake

A couple of weeks ago I thought I'd better see if the bike would start; I hadn't ridden it for three months or so and it's been standing outside as usual.
I do have a small solar-panel charger just to keep the battery ticking over but......!
To my surprise and relief, it started quite easily.
Flushed with success, I blipped the throttle, forgetting I hadn't removed the security cable from the back wheel.
Bike stalled, cable wrapped round rear 'axle'.
It was not too difficult unwrapping the cable but it had snapped off the speed sensor.
One was not amused.
Anyway, I rode up to my dealer who ordered the part and said he'd phone when it arrived, which he did.
I rode back and he fitted it while I waited - all of two minutes!

He wouldn't charge me for the work but I forced him to accept a few pounds.
The part, including VAT, was £81.00., an expensive careless mistake.
Bike's going like a dream, though, so I'm happy.

Mike,

I'm glad all is well again and that you weren't injured when you did this. I bet it scared you a bit when this happened. The dealer sounds like a good one.

Thanks, Jeff.
I was nearly in tears - I don't usually do such stupid things.
The dealer's a great bloke and popular with motorcyclists round here.
He's definitely 'motorcycle' but treats me just the same as everyone else, not necessarily the case in all garages.
VP Motorcycles in Old Sarum near Salisbury.

Mike I'm sorry to hear about your mistake.  And like Jeff I'm glad you didn't get hurt. You're lucky to have such a good dealer. I've also got a good motorcycle mechanic and I send him all the business I can, good dealers with good mechanics are few and far between.

Face a little        and pocketbook a little   !   Could have been much worse.     Glad you're okay.

I guess we've all done a stupid thing now and then. I am glad you weren't hurt.

I won't admit that this past summer I was sitting on my SWing in the garage just checking it out before a ride. I shut it off and got off the SWing. It fell over because I forgot to put the side stand down before getting off. Luckily it fell "lightly" and didn't even get a scratch. After picking it back up and cussing myself out a bit I thought, "What A STUPID IDIOT!" Then I looked out the garage door to make sure nobody was looking or walking by. Whew!

NOPE, I won't admit it...

My dad used to tell me when you make a mistake even if it's a dumb mistake that's just getting educated and not stupid, but when you tell others about it then it becomes stupid.

See how well I did that? I didn't admit that I made a mistake. I just explained what would happen if I did make that sort of mistake.

Redemption is sooo easy.

model28a wrote:

My dad used to tell me when you make a mistake even if it's a dumb mistake that's just getting educated and not stupid, but when you tell others about it then it becomes stupid.

I won't ask how the discussion of a "mistake" and you came up. Hope it didn't scar you for life.

Thanks for your support and sympathy, chaps.

It really was a foolish thing to do. I've pushed a bike off a centre-stand before removing a disc-lock but this could have been far more damaging.

I was lucky - I hope it'll remind everyone how easy it is to become complacent without realising.

On a different note: on Sunday the USS Theodore Roosevelt arrived here for a courtesy visit. It's far too big to fit in Portsmouth Dockyard so it's parked in the Solent, the stretch of water between the mainland and the Isle of Wight. It's an hour's ride from here so with the prospect of good weather on Wednesday I may ride down to see it. If you want to Google and find where it is on Google Maps, type in 'Stokes Bay'.

Glad that you didn't get hurt except in the pocketbook.

Last summer, after attending a retiree luncheon, a retiree friend was going to stop at our home for coffee. I was anxious to get in the house to let my wife know and to pick up a bit before he got there.

I had ridden our Majesty to the luncheon. I backed the Majesty into the garage along side of my wife's Reflex and flipped the kickstand down. I stepped off and as I started walking out of the garage, I heard a commotion behind me. I looked back in time to see two wheel dominoes. I had not put the Maj kickstand completely down. The bike started moving forward and off the kick stand and fell on it's left side. It fell into my wife's Reflex which was on the center stand. The Maj bumped it with enough force and speed that it pushed the Reflex off the center stand. The tip of the Reflex handle bar banged into our 08 Odyssey. I was lucky because there was no broken plastic on either scooter but there was a scuff on the Maj, a couple on the Reflex and a small ding in the driver side of our Odyssey.

Getting careless or getting in a hurry usually pays off in ways that you could do without.