If I was one of those the like to rev my motor while stopped I would have

Started by sctparker, March 29, 2016, 08:25:16 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 3 Guests are viewing this topic.

sctparker

If I was one of those that like to rev my motor while stopped  I would be telling a completely different story. All my life I've been told to stay in gear when you stop so you can get out of the way if you need to, on the most part I do that unless I am stopped for a long time. So today I decided to get the bikes out and take a little spin , and things got interesting soon after I left the house. I stop at a 4 way stop first in line on my side and the other 3 ways were loaded , as I sit there waiting my turn being the last one there and intending on making a right hand turn the grade is perfectly level so I just had the clutch pulled in and was still covering the front brake,  The truck to my left goes straight ,then the car across from me starts her left and about the time her car gets the passenger door  lined up with my front tire my bike lunged forward I grabbed a hand full of front and stalled the bike and got a angry look from the lady in the car I almost lunged into. Confused I tried restarting the bike and nothing so I put it in neutral it starts pull in the clutch and drop it in gear and it immediately barks the tire and dies, then I notice the clutch seems a little softer and figure out real quick it's not engaging . I was fortunate my right had a down hill so I restarted let it roll then got a gear, made some loops in a church parking lot (gymkana  came in handy there) waiting for the roads to clear and I went back to the stop sign slow enough that there wasn't anybody stopped and I didn't either rolled thru headed back home had a left to make but had to make a yield right since I couldn't stop to wait on the 2 lane highway traffic  to go left , go a mile or so and the road goes 4 lanes and I use one of the crossovers to get headed back in the right direction get back to the house and notice every time I grab the clutch there is something coming from the under side give it a look and its brake fluid coming from the hard clutch line under the bike, so I get another bike go for a ride , When I get back and take a closer look the line is a hard line that has a rubber sleeve around it , I look to see if maybe I had hit anything and maybe damaged it and the rubber didn't have any skint places so I preceded to peel they rubber  back and find the tube has rusted on the outside  to the point I can flake parts off with my finger it's basically rotten on the outside  resulting in a pin hole. So if you are one of those that think everyone likes to hear your bike when you are stopped for a red light or stop sign  you might want to think about doing it in neutral .   

norton73

Glad you didn't go shooting through the intersection.

I was told many years ago you should always put your bike in neutral at stops. The clutch cable may snap if you sit holding it in. On old bikes, it was not uncommon for a bike to have it's clutch start to get hot and start inching forward at a stop. Some bikes had such a heavy clutch pull, you'd better be a bodybuilder to hold it in for a full cycle of a light.

I know this goes against modern thinking, if I am riding old stuff, I'll be in neutral, if I am on a modern bike, I'll hold the clutch.
Loose nut holding the handlebars