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General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
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Message started by LazyLemming on 04/23/09 at 21:53:34

Title: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by LazyLemming on 04/23/09 at 21:53:34

So, my oil filter arrived today, and I thus, I did my first oil change on my Savage. Everything goes well, I get the oil in, stick her in neutral, and leave her to idle for a little bit. Alls well and good. After a few minutes of idling, I hop on, pop the clutch, and shift her into first.

She stops dead... Won't start until I shift into neutral either. Soon as I go back into first, stops dead again. Continues doing this. I started panicing, wonder how in the world I could have crappity smacked it up changing the oil... I mean, even a monkey can atleast change it's oil... How could I possibly screw up the clutch with an oil change?

I sit there thinking.....

And thinking.....

And suddenly, it occurs to me......

The kickstand was still down.

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by serowbot on 04/23/09 at 22:35:20

Badda bomph,.. bomph!.... LOL!... ;D

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by ineclipse on 04/24/09 at 01:29:11

I disabled my kickstand switch when I went with Ed L's controls. Dont feel too bad. I usually keep the bike in nuetral when im not riding but ive had it lurch out from under me two or three times before i really got used to it and i VERY nearly let it go down the first time. Caught it with 1 hand about 6 inches from the tank hitting the pavement ;) .

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by alcoa on 04/24/09 at 05:04:47

gee if i did that 5 people would have been watching ;D

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by diamond jim on 04/24/09 at 06:51:18

Ha ha. About two weeks I'm hanging outside a gas station standing next to my bike. This stranger pulls up not far from me on his completely decked out V-Star 1300. He cuts the bike off, drops the kickstand and with helmet still on he immediately starts messing with the clutch lever adjustment. I walk over to him to strike up a conversation. I first notice that there's not a place on his bike that's not adorned with an LED. Honestly, I've never seen so many LEDs on a bike. And there's chrome everywhere. He's half talking to me cause he's trying to adjust his clutch and he seems to be struggling to do two things at once. I start peppering him with more questions of course. "Where ya from?", "Who do you ride with?", "Does your dog hump your leg too?". Anyhow, he stops fiddling with it, turns the key, starts the bike, pulls in the clutch lever, pops it into first and the engine instantly it dies. He does the whole process again. I can see he's starting to get frustrated. He pulls his helmet off and places it behind him on the lazy-boy inspired passenger seat with custom passenger arm supports. Again he commences to messing with the clutch lever adjustment. "Ahem", I say to him, "You're kickstand is down. I'm pretty sure you've got a safety switch on your bike". He mumbles a little to acknowledge I said something but I could tell he didn't hear me. Key, start button, engine on, clutch in, first gear, engine dies. Again. And again. He gets off of the bike, his countenance conveying his degree of irritation that an audience (me) is watching. It was starting to get painful for me to watch. I could feel a bystander trauma developing. I politely suggest the kickstand again, being careful of my choice of words and tone knowing that people often react unpredictably in stressful situations. Unfortunately, my words drift off again like dust in the wind. He scans the bike for a few moments. He walks around the bike slowly until he goes full circle. His hands go on the hips in a sort of half defeated posture as he now stares defeatedly at his bike. I'm thinking to myself, "yew can dooo eeet!", Rob Schnieder voice and all. A few more moments of silence pass and then I see this little light bulb suddenly pop on in his head, figuratively speaking. "Aha! The kickstand is down!". Aha, I think to myself. "Yep, YOU are right!" I said to him. I saw a slight smile of satisfaction upon his face that he figured out the problem all by himself.

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by Rocco on 04/24/09 at 07:47:33

i wouldn't feel bad @ all! after i laid it down the other day, i obviously hit the killswitch while it was on top of me. i then got up, bleeding everywhere looking @ my shredded peg, hopped back on and tried 2 start it...no avail....about 2 seconds later i remembered i had the killswitch on off.....

i had panicked like i had broken something....luckily it was just a slightly less then smart moment lol

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by youzguyz on 04/24/09 at 08:14:42

I would much rather have that embarrassment than the one that occurs when you take off with the kickstand DOWN.
I was on a group ride and the brand new HD ahead of me did that. I managed to get along side him and point out the error of his ways before the sweeping left turn that was coming up.
Could have been ugly.

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by bill67 on 04/24/09 at 15:55:18

Most harleys the kickstand springs up as soon as you lift the bike up.

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by Savage_Amusement on 04/24/09 at 16:13:31

I had one time that only my Wife and I know about. We were leaving somewhere one time at the end of a dead end road. I thought for sure I was in 1st gear, went a little bit and it died out. Tried it again and same thing. I was like WTF??? Then after messing with it for .02 seconds I found out I was in 3rd gear LOL. Did want to go up the hill for some odd reason that way. OOPS.

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by serowbot on 04/24/09 at 17:05:47

I get a brainfart every once in a while, usually at just the wrong time, where I'm trying to accelerate and for some reason, I downshift instead of upshift. I almost know i'm doing it as I'm doing it, but I do it anyway... happens about once every 6 months.... very embarrassing...
The biker equivalent of tripping over your own foot.... :-?

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by John_D on 04/24/09 at 19:39:09

My biggest kickstand related snafu was actually the opposite. Sitting in front of my garage, idling in neutral, straddling the bike, getting ready to take off, fiddling with gloves or some stupid thing. Remember I forgot something, and go to lean it on the stand to go get it. By the time I got it over enough to realize it wasn't hitting a stand yet, I about pulled some very important muscles trying to get her back up! ;D Thankfully, I was the only one in sight, which usually doesn't happen to me when I pull some bonehead move like that. :D

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by serowbot on 04/24/09 at 22:18:08

584F4E444F49411D181B1A182A0 wrote:

Thankfully, I was the only one in sight, which usually doesn't happen to me when I pull some bonehead move like that. :D

Oh, you're so lucky..........

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by Jay on 04/24/09 at 23:32:41

444F4A4A1011260 wrote:

Most harleys the kickstand springs up as soon as you lift the bike up.

The Savage most certainly doesn't. The other day I made a stop and was set to shut her down; when I spied a better, more protected parking spot. As I went to claim it, I felt the "chud" of the kickstand whacking the pavement. It didn't fold up even then. I had to grab it with my heel, while in motion, and raise it up. Scary moment, as I was just about to make a narrow left turn. First time I've don that after the EdL instal. Gotta be more careful.

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by John_D on 04/24/09 at 23:52:56

6670677A62777A61150 wrote:

[quote author=584F4E444F49411D181B1A182A0 link=1240548814/0#10 date=1240627149] Thankfully, I was the only one in sight, which usually doesn't happen to me when I pull some bonehead move like that. :D

Oh, you're so lucky..........[/quote]
Well, no one saw me that time. Now with other stupid stuff... ::)

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by Yonuh Adisi on 04/25/09 at 12:19:25

I've done the kick stand brain fart a couple of times myself. I think the most embarrassing time was when a a few guys came over for a ride we had planned. Just a bunch of a guys going for a ride with no where particular to go.

I was the last one to join the group. I fire the bike up, straddle it and start putting on my gloves. Grab the bars, kick it into gear, and pfft, it dies. WTF? Look around an OH, dumb a$$, the kick stand is still down.

Then there is the petcock snafu. Now you all know I have swapped the stock tank for a Road King tank, the Harley petcock is on, off, reserve. I kept forgetting to turn the fuel off when I killed the bike. Went for a ride with some buddies, all proud of my mods, stopped, forgot to turn the fuel off, and flooded the thing so bad I had to be trucked home missing the ride. :-[ :-[ :-[

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by speedingman on 04/25/09 at 12:52:52

When i first bought mine it was my first and i did not know about the saftey switch so when i went to ride it i could not figure it out i almost didnt buy the bike until i called a friend and he told me to put the stand up, lol. I thought something was wrong with the clutch, lol. Learned alot since then.

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by Phelonius on 04/26/09 at 15:09:37

Disabling the kickstand safety is simple. Follow the wires and up under the saddle you will find a green two pole connecter. Cut the wires about 3 inches from the connecter and strip the ends to twist them together and solder. Coat with liquid tape or just wrap then in insulating tape and put the connecter back in.
Job done.

Phelonius

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by Gary On A Savage on 04/26/09 at 21:19:05

3026312C34212C37430 wrote:

I did that today in fact. The Honda has a heel-toe shifter (which I love so much that I'm going to rig one up on the Savage). Every now and then I forget which end to stomp on to shift up. I seem to do it a lot getting on the freeway! :o I really don't do it too much on the Savage much though.

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by verslagen1 on 04/27/09 at 11:48:13

7F474A434041465A5C2F0 wrote:

Certainly if your mind is made up then go ahead. But an easy way to do this would be to use one of those wire tap plastic thingy's that you press a plate with a slit in it over the wires. To reverse, just take off the splice.

Title: Re: Stupid moment, you'll laugh.
Post by SimonTuffGuy on 04/27/09 at 12:49:23

Those plastic thingys aren't really meant to withstand the elements that the bottom side of a bike are going to put against it. If you are splicing with room to spare off of the connector, then you should have enough room to re-connect it if you need.

I wouldn't just use tape or whatever else... Find yourself a good soldering connector and heat shrink tubing or something.