No official "stupid me" thread or award?

[davewallen]

I think it's time we (listen to me, sounding like I've been here more than 2 months) have an official "stupid me" award, be it monthly, weekly, or daily (let's hope not!).

I will nominate myself with the following tale: Upon getting my 850 2 months ago, everything was fine. On a day when the temps got a little colder, I noticed a puff of smoke upon starting. Gee, I thought, it burns a little oil!
SO, without checking the glass (of course) a few days later I add a QT.

4 days later, when I get up to 60-70 MPH, I notice smoke in my mirrors, I look like a jet contrail going down the highway. Damn, I thought! I'm REALLY burning oil now! SO, a few miles further, I stop to get gas and drop another QT of oil in. My left foot is soaked with oil, which appears to be coming from the cylinder head gasket, and pooling on top of the (transmission?). Over the next 2 weeks, I put a QT in whenever I go on the highway. The bike continues to soak my foot, and the smoke continues to kill every driver I pass.

Of course, when I finally go see my wrenchie buddy, (right AFTER getting off the highway and burning another QT, but before filling) and we stick it on the centerstand, the level is past the glass. We drain a QT out just to get it to a reasonable level.

And, needless to say, I no longer have an oil leak.

Although, I do have a buddy who thinks I'm an idiot...:?

 

[spyug]

You win!

Thanks for the laughs.

Cheers,
Spyug

 

[marvinsc]

Not sure I would have confessed to that but because of Your Honesty, the First Award goes to You!:-D

 

[Johnny K]

Lol. That really isn't a bad idea for that thread as I many times being a newb have "dumb" questions (but honestly no question is dumb because everyone has either been there or done that).

 

[bonanzadave]

I picked the hottest most humid day to do some wrenching. (feel the sweat dripping in your eyes) The Bike was on the center stand with the swing arm removed waiting for new bearings to arrive. I had removed the fork caps as new springs were coming as well. One upper fork slider was stuck and It had been soaking with PB blaster but still not budging. Sooo, I got a socket on it and started to "persuade" it with a hammer.

This is where it gets bad....

After a couple taps with the hammer on the socket the fork slider and spring come shooting out of the fork trailing a stream of black nasty fork oil like a comets tail. The whole front end drops down and up goes the center stand and down goes the bike. I was frozen in my disbelief and didnt react fast enough so it fell over onto a 5 gal bucket of drain oil which completely emptied onto the garage floor.

I could continue the story but the language gets R rated. Getting the bike up off its exhaust in a small sea of drain oil and dropping it on my toe is another story best forgotten.

 

[tkent02]

Parked my GS 550 (or perhaps Honda 750, Yamaha 650 or one of the others, it doesn't really matter) in the Carolina sun, on the sidestand. Went to look for a pop can to flatten to keep the stand from sinking into the asphalt too far. Found it, flattened it, under the stand, all is good. Went about my business, came back in a while to find the tires had sunken in so far that the bike had fallen over the other way.
Doh!

 

[marvinsc]

I Believe We have a Tie!:-D

I picked the hottest most humid day to do some wrenching. (feel the sweat dripping in your eyes) The Bike was on the center stand with the swing arm removed waiting for new bearings to arrive. I had removed the fork caps as new springs were coming as well. One upper fork slider was stuck and It had been soaking with PB blaster but still not budging. Sooo, I got a socket on it and started to "persuade" it with a hammer.

This is where it gets bad....

After a couple taps with the hammer on the socket the fork slider and spring come shooting out of the fork trailing a stream of black nasty fork oil like a comets tail. The whole front end drops down and up goes the center stand and down goes the bike. I was frozen in my disbelief and didnt react fast enough so it fell over onto a 5 gal bucket of drain oil which completely emptied onto the garage floor.

I could continue the story but the language gets R rated. Getting the bike up off its exhaust in a small sea of drain oil and dropping it on my toe is another story best forgotten.
__________________

 

[Ironriot]

Parked my GS 550 (or perhaps Honda 750, Yamaha 650 or one of the others, it doesn't really matter) in the Carolina sun, on the sidestand. Went to look for a pop can to flatten to keep the stand from sinking into the asphalt too far. Found it, flattened it, under the stand, all is good. Went about my business, came back in a while to find the tires had sunken in so far that the bike had fallen over the other way.
Doh!

Dude that just sucks lol

 

[Smokinapankake]

Supremely funny!!

 

[davewallen]

Parked my GS 550 (or perhaps Honda 750, Yamaha 650 or one of the others, it doesn't really matter) in the Carolina sun, on the sidestand. Went to look for a pop can to flatten to keep the stand from sinking into the asphalt too far. Found it, flattened it, under the stand, all is good. Went about my business, came back in a while to find the tires had sunken in so far that the bike had fallen over the other way.
Doh!

I've got competition! :?

 

[MissFabulous]

So far... my biggest duh moment came after doing a compression check. Done, but WHOOPS switch two of the plug wires. Realized it right away, kill switch hit, fix the problem, off to meet my buddy Charlie for a ride. GS is backfiring the whole way over there and had never done that before. I'm getting nervous but I was meeting him nearby thinking I really screwed something up for those couple seconds I ran it with the wires switched. He starts looking things over (he's good at this stuff) and spots right away that I'd misthreaded the spark plug in cyl #3 and so it wasn't really "in" there. We get it unjammed and voila...

 

[marvinsc]

So far... my biggest duh moment came after doing a compression check. Done, but WHOOPS switch two of the plug wires. Realized it right away, kill switch hit, fix the problem, off to meet my buddy Charlie for a ride. GS is backfiring the whole way over there and had never done that before. I'm getting nervous but I was meeting him nearby thinking I really screwed something up for those couple seconds I ran it with the wires switched. He starts looking things over (he's good at this stuff) and spots right away that I'd misthreaded the spark plug in cyl #3 and so it wasn't really "in" there. We get it unjammed and voila...

Lucky You didn't Blow it out! That would make it Miss Big Time!:shock:

 

[Flying Merkel]

Took a ride one January up to the local mountains. The air temps were in the 40s. There was patches of snow and ice in the parking lot. I parked my GS1000G in a patch of ice for a photo op.

The warm tires melted the ice. The bike was on the center stand. I could not get the bike off the center. I was falling all over the due to the ice melting. It took me 1/2 hour to get the bike out. Onlookers thought it was an attempted seduction of an innocent GS.

 

[Eli69]

my favorite is pulling up to the burnout box with my kickstand down. luckily the guys there usually notice it and let me know. i've done it more than once.

 

[davewallen]

Miss Fabulous,

I would say your biggest "stupid moment" came when you let someone get hold of your pic to elf you! 8-[