It is funny how bikers will select just the right motorcycle helmet, motorcycle boots or motorcycle jacket to protect their head, skin and feet before they ever think about getting on a motorbike. Nevertheless, they will just hope on their bike with out a thought of doing a pre-ride safety check.
Pre-ride motorbike safety checks are important. They insure that you make it to where you are going and back again safely and help prevent brake downs.
Over the years, I have heard horror stories about terrible motorcycle crashes because of a blown tire or a brake or suspension malfunction. Fortunately, this has never happened to anybody that I know.
On the other hand, my wife did have a break down one day because we didn’t give the bikes a good going over before we went for a long ride .
My wife Sherry rides what a lot of biker women are riding these days, a Harley Davidson Sportster 883 Low and I ride a VTX 1300 . Sherry didn’t like the feel of the center controls so we had forward control’s put on her motorcycle . She loved the way her Harley rode after we added the forward controls.
All was good, so one sunny Sunday morning we decided to go for a bike ride in the country. It was a beautiful day and the ride was wonderful. We took the back roads for about 90 miles or so and then decided to head back home for dinner.
The shortest way home was to take the freeway .
As we turned down the onramp towards home it was a good thing I looked in my mirror because Sherry was stopped along the side of the freeway onramp flashing her high beams like crazy .
I pulled over, parked my Honda, and walked back to her to see what the problem was.
As it turned out, the linkage that connects the foot shifter, to the transfer case had come off and Sherry had no way of shifting gears.
This was a big problem. We were ninety miles away from home , we didn’t want to leave a brand new Harley sitting on the side of the road and I could not leave Sherry there alone sitting on her bike sportster while I went to try and find linkage. Although that would have been impossible because it was Sunday and none of the bike shops are open on Sunday where we live.
Not all was lost though. I asked Sherry if she knew the last time she had shifted gears. She told me she had down shifted just before we turned onto the on onramp of the freeway. So , I went on a quest up the ramp to see if I could locate the linkage and the two bolts that held the linkage in place.
“Wonderful!” About half way up the onramp , I found the linkage. I was half way home. I still needed to find the two bolts that fastened the linkage on to the motorcycle so Sherry could shift and we could continue our ride home.
I went up one side of the freeway onramp and down the other looking for the ever so elusive linkage bolts. Frustration was setting in, as I looked and I looked again for those bolts.
It didn’t help matters that a couple of half drunk hill billy’s in an old 1982 faded red colored pick-up truck had stopped by my wife and started to bother her. I think they thought better of it when Sherry told them to go do something with themselves that I am sure neither one of them had done with a women in years and they saw me walking up the ramp scowling. They drove off gesturing, I guess they though that we were number one or something.
Back to the problem at hand, I had the linkage but no bolts to put it on with . I had my Honda , however, it is a metric bike and Sherry’s motorcycle is good old American standard.
If you know anything about metric and standard bolts, they do not fit. The threads will not match up. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop me. I found out that the seat bolts on my Honda are just about the same size as the bolts that hold the shifter linkage for the forward controls on a sportster Low. The difference is the thread pattern is a different . They did fit just enough though; I just didn’t tighten them in.
After my discovery, it did not take long and we were back on the road heading home.
I guess the reason for this story is not to take doing a pre ride check for granted.
You would have thought that getting work done on your new Harley by a certified Harley Davidson dealer would insure that the work would be done correctly . Well as it turned out, the mechanic that switched the controls on Sherry’s motorcycle didn’t put lock tight on the linkage bolts and after a few months of riding the bolts vibrated out.
Could the problem have been eliminated if the mechanic had changed the linkage the right way? Yes, it could have. However, it could have also been eliminated if I had taken the time and done a pre ride check.
We were lucky that it was just a linkage that failed and not something that could have caused injury or death.
For your safety and the safety of others , take the extra time and do a pre ride safety check. It will save your life some day.
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