Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Nuts & bolts

Some people might think this is funny...and we did have a little laugh with it here in the neighborhood. I will say now that I don't intend this to be a H-D bashing thread.

My neighbor bought a "used" 07 Street Bob a few weeks ago. Only 450 miles on it; I have to admit, I think it's a pretty sharp-looking bike. Leaving work this evening, he pulls out of the parking lot, and his shiny chrome Vance & Hines mufflers fall off his bike and bounce down the street behind him. Obviously, they're not shiny chrome any more. The two pipes on this bike are held together with a bracket, and are only attached to the bike by the clamps where the pipes connect to the headers. Apparently, the guy who sold him the bike (and who installed the V & H pipes) didn't tighten these clamps adequately, and they rattled loose. (I introduced my neighbor to Loc-tite this evening) The pipes are covered with a heat shield that got beat-up pretty bad, and just to replace this shield cost my neighbor about $300.

Several people on here have bought used bikes lately; check all the nuts, bolts, and fasteners...you never know how the previous owner maintained the bike. This was also a reminder to me to periodically check things on my own bike more often. Like I told my neighbor, at least it wasn't an axle bolt that worked loose...

Be safe,

Will

Guy on a really nice looking Victory came up beside me at a light . We exchanged the usual "Nice looking bike" comments. He powered away from me and further on up the road I saw something shiney fly up in the air. As I went by I noticed one of his mirrors laying in the middle of a four busy four lane. If I had been quick enough, I could have stopped and grabbed it, but would have run a risk of getting rear-ended.

I felt sorry for him as he was last seen turning around to make the retrival.

Gerry

Here's one for ya. I've just completed a 2800 mile trip, riding from the U.K. down to southern Spain and back again. During an overnight stop at a motel a group of cruiser riders pulled in and obviously we got chatting. They had a variety of bikes between them...Kawasaki VN's, Yamaha XVS's, Suzuki's and a Rocket 3. The only guy who had broken down during their trip (they had covered around 2000 miles by this time) was the lone Harley rider !! The rear sprocket nuts had shaken loose, the sprocket twisted on the carrier and jammed his rear wheel solid at 50mph on a stretch of open road. The bike went down, he escaped with some minor bruising and grazing, the bike had to be recovered to the United Kingdom from Spain as the local Spanish dealer didn't want to know !!! Surely H-D have some sort of 'duty of care' to help out in these kind of circumstances ?

I for one would never buy a Motor Company bike if that's their level of customer support !!!!

Lest someone think this can only happen to Harley's, I've lost the heat shield on one of my short TORs twice. The first time was in town and I was able to turn around and get it. My buddy tack welded it back on but alas it fell off again, never to be seen again.

After putting over 1000 miles on my used 04 TBA I was installing some nice billet tips on the pipes when I noticed the left pipe seemd to have a lot of play in it. Yep, the clamp bolt at the header was extremely loose and chewed up by improper wrenching in its former life. Sheesh! Now I've got to replace the nut so a real socket will fit and I can get it torqued to spec. You betcha I'll be going over the whole bike tonight (gotta ride tomorrow ).

Just did the 20th annual Gooch's Garlic Run from NJ to NYC this week. There were a few thousand bikes there, overwhelmingly Harleys and other V-twins. I didn't see anyone break down.

It happens to our bikes also !!!

On our recent trip to the GA. rally I vapor locked after about 10 minutes into the ride and thank god Rob knew what to do. Had to ride over 1,500 miles with the gas cap backed off.

I lost so many parts off my bike it was like I was dropping crumbs to Chy's house so I could find my way back home.

The CT. and NH. guys know how I take care of my bike, so it was not from mis-use nor neglecnt.

My wife has a brand new Yamaha V-Star 500 miles on it wanted to ride it to work this morning, been sitting for a week with the fuel on and now it will not run can get it started with the choke and if you hold the throttle open she runs fine, put the choke in and let go of the throttle it smells so rich it will choke you and it will not idle. So now I have to deal with it.

So goes live !!!

I should've told the anecdote that's actually germane to the thread title. Last night as I was finally tweaking and buttoning up my bike after an all too long "winter" I started investigating a squeak coming from my belt drive. I pulled off the sprocket cover and found that the nut was loose, allowing the sprocket to wobble and go in and out of alignment with the rear sprocket and cause the squeak. So I broke out the air impact (torque on that nut is 132 Nm) and cinched her down. The lock washer is pretty beat up so I contacted Brent about a replacement.

Lesson learned: do not ignore weird noises!