To recap, here is my first tale......
As a spotty teenage lad, life was all about ‘firsts’.
First pint in a pub, first shag, first job, first rock concert, first bike, first car etc....
My first bike was an old Yamaha RS100 which only cost £150.
It was a far cry from the ‘rich kid’ neighbour’s gorgeous RD125LC, but it was all I could afford whilst on the YTS and it beat cycling to brickwork collage every day.
In an attempt to make the bike go faster. I treated it to Slick 50 and bent the reed valves open to allow more fuel through, but things got more serious when a mate gave me a micron exhaust.
Now that pipe was so loud, I became unpopular with all the neighbours as the high frequency of the zorst distorted their TV signal every time I rode past.
In fact one day, I had a copper jump out from behind a wall when the first speed guns were introduced but he literally ‘jumped the gun’.
He thought I was only a hundred yards away but I was more like three hundred, allowing me plenty of time to slow down and I rode past him with a smirk as he lowered his gun shaking his head.
Silence soon resumed however due to incorrect jetting which resulted in a holed piston.
A week later with new parts in hand, I tore into the top end of the bike with the odd cursory glance at the ‘Haynes Workshop Manual’.
After a few hours of head scratching, the new piston & rings were fitted, so I gingerly kicked the bike over as my mate Dick walked down the drive to see how I was getting on. Compression felt ok, so I kicked harder but it still wouldn’t fire.
After a couple of roll ups and a brew, we concluded it was probably all the oil I’d smeared on the bore and piston that was fouling the plug so we though bumping it off might be the solution.
We pushed the bike along our street to the edge of a very steep hill that was ideal for our intended purpose.
Little did I know at that stage, I was about to embark on a ride that would teach me a valuable lesson in carburettor re-assembly....
On refitting the throttle slide valve back into the carb body, i’d carelessly fitted it 180 deg out of position. The slide had dropped in nicely (but not down to the bottom so it was set at full throttle!) as I screwed the carb lid back on.
On the third attempt at bumping the bike, it fired.....
My face turned from a look of relief to absolute terror as the engine screamed, launching me into a series of manic wheelies as I pulled the clutch in an attempt to control the uncontrollable throttle (no kill switch) then repeatedly let it out abruptly in mechanical sympathy, attempting to lower the revs and save the engine.
The violence of the ride meant I couldn’t let go of the handle bars to turn the ignition off so this scenario played out all the way to the bottom of the hill and straight across a road until I hit a steep banking opposite.
Still grasping the handle bars on impact, I flipped arse over tit and lay winded on my back as my mechanical error dawned on me.
Tilting my head back, I watched the upside down silhouette of my mate Dick staggering around on the horizon like a cowboy that had just been shot in the stomach before he collapsed in a heap of hysterics.
I chuckled to myself as I realised I’d just had another first. My first accident, and I’d got away with it without a scratch.
But as an ‘invincible’ teenager I was naturally more bothered about the state of my still screaming bike....
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Ok, who’s next in the confession booth with a mechanical misadventure?
not my finest hour 