Topic: Good deed for the day

[Bailgang]

Would you let your kid ride his sportbike home like this? It wasn't my kid in question but I took one look at this mess and I gave the kid co-worker who owns the bike fair warning that he wasn't taking his bike home today until we had something figured out. The whole story as too why is too long and bizarre for any of you to believe but it basically comes down to the kid putting on a new front tire last night, was overanxious to take it for a spin and forgot to tighten all his caliper bolts which ultimately fell out completely on his ride to work this morn, trust me on this I'm not making this up.. Fortunately my fellow co-workers agreed  that this kid wasn't going no where and got the guys in maintenance involved who then got the bolts needed to secure the calipers. I'm not sure if the bolts are the correct grade but they're better than no bolts at all until the kid finds the correct bolts

[Retro Rocket]

WOW   

[Bailgang]

That pretty much sums up our reaction to it when us guys at work saw it. Believe it or not the kid wasn't phased by it too much, this is his very first bike and as much of a rookie as you can get in regards to riding a bike so he has always been using his rear brake to stop because he fears using the fronts would flip him over the bars. It's a YZF6 yamaha and the missing fairing has to do with him dumping the bike in a turn a few weeks ago due to a combination of poor riding skills and tires so bald the cords were showing. He's a good kid and does listen however it's hard to get it into his head that certain things are of the utmost importance to bike maintenance and safety. He got lucky to get nothing more than a couple of bruises when he dumped the bike a few weeks ago so after seeing this today all us guys are now trying to get him to enroll in a local ABATE riding course before he gets himself killed.

[RAFster122s]

The kid is lucky to have coworkers who care and a friend/coworker like you who knows a bit about bikes.

Sooner later luck runs out when doing stupid things...

[Xnavylfr]

Sometimes LUCKY just don't outweigh STUPID!!!!!


Xnavylfr(CHUCK)

[70CB750]

Guardian angel working overtime!

I hope he learns fast.

[Bailgang]

Well the kid bought me and the maintenance guy lunch today for helping him yesterday which was unnecessary but cool none the less and I went 1 step further and told him if he wasn't doing anything this weekend to stop by here and I'd help get him better acquainted with his bike and how to maintain it properly and how to use the internet to get info. He and his wife only have 1 car so when she's working he has to ride regardless of the weather so she can have the car so I feel it's important he knows how properly maintain his bike so it's safe to ride. I'm not trying to be some good Samaritan of the year but this kid has no mechanical background yet he's smart enough to learn but his youthful enthusiasm if that's what you want to call it is going to get him killed if someone like me doesn't at least make an attempt to point his "enthusiasm" in the right direction. If you guys saw what I did I think it's fair to say you guys would step up as well besides I wont be doing anything this weekend except mess with my bikes anyhow so having him here showing him stuff is no problem for me at all.

I can't say that he's a fast learner though, as I was clocking out today I could hear him winding up that yzf spinning the tires halfway across the rain soaked parking lot while me and my supervisor just shook our heads. I can't make any guarantees but I'll give it a shot.

[70CB750]

Thanks for helping him, hopefully he will grow some common sense.

[Retro Rocket]

Thanks for helping him, hopefully he will grow some common sense.

Doesn't seem to be that common any more....

[Xnavylfr]

A person is NOT born with common sense!!! It has to grow on them.

I can still remember my 20s (BARELY) you felt like you were 10 foot tall and BULLETPROOF.. Some people learn from others experiences and others learn from the SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS=== THE HARD WAY!!!

You can give them books to read but you CAN'T MAKE them learn!!!!!


Xnavylfr(CHUCK)

[Retro Rocket]

A person is NOT born with common sense!!! It has to grow on them.
Xnavylfr(CHUCK)

I think you need some fertiliser there Chuck, that may help it "grow", some do need some help..    Ok , I have to disagree though, we have all seen all different types of people throughout our lives and i know a few at my age {Almost 50} that don't fit that assumption, i've seen 5 year olds with more common sense. I believe we are all born with differing amounts of intelligence, intelligence is NOT schooled, therefore some just plain miss out....

[FunJimmy]

Good on you for noticing his situation, intervening and temporarily altering the course of evolution by natural selection. Hope he gets into an ABATE course soon. 

[333]

But I remember how stoopid I was in the beginning.  I had nobody telling me the correct way to ride, and coming from cars, it was a foot brake I was used to.  I never used the front brake until I was told, years later.  So in addition to helping him as you have, you might want to instruct him on the finer points of using the front brake.

[Bailgang]

It's the kids wide eyed youthful enthusiasm more than anything that's scary, combine that with the addictive power a sportbike has and you some serious potential for something very bad to happen. I know how these sportbikes are, my youngest sons cbr just wants to go and even at age 50 I can't help twisting that throttle too but common sense tells me "OK that's enough, slow this sucker down". He's got a good support group behind him because I'm not the only one at work that see's the importance of all this, whether or not he'll put into practice what we're telling him remains to be seen but we're going to try.

[Retro Rocket]

It's the kids wide eyed youthful enthusiasm more than anything that's scary, combine that with the addictive power a sportbike has and you some serious potential for something very bad to happen. I know how these sportbikes are, my youngest sons cbr just wants to go and even at age 50 I can't help twisting that throttle too but common sense tells me "OK that's enough, slow this sucker down". He's got a good support group behind him because I'm not the only one at work that see's the importance of all this, whether or not he'll put into practice what we're telling him remains to be seen but we're going to try.

Someone needs to sit next to him while watching Motogp or Superbikes and explain exactly what they are doing with the brakes, could you imagine a round of the Superbikes where they weren't allowed to use the front brakes... , that would be chaotic.....and probably good viewing...

[Xnavylfr]

Some people just don't have ANY common sense, here a few TRUE stories!!
I knew a blonde WOMAN ,mid 30s that was once told that the oil level in her car was LOW so buy a couple of qts and put them in the car, two weeks later she calls and says her engine seized up, Where is the oil you were told to put in the car??? ans= It's right here in the back floorboard.. Miss-communication or just dumb ,you choose!!
One of my X son-in-laws  was told by his DAD , you always have to make sure to have a cap on your tire valve stems or a stone could get in there and let the air out, common sense I DON'T THINK SO
Once knew a man that had a nice car but it had a small oil leak and he was told  to check the oil once a week and add a little oil as needed when it was low till he could rebuild his engine,  about 6 weeks later he calls and say engine is locked up!!  When was the last time you checked the oil??? 6 weeks ago !!  A qt of oil=3$ new engine 3000$  NO COMMON SENSE AT ALL>>!!!
 The SAME man rode a CB750 from western NC to the DC area and back and said the bike is making a grinding noise= The CHAIN was so LOOSE  it had almost cut the swingarm off.!!!

I just can't believe people are born with common sense, they have to learn form others!!!!  Most all are born with a degree of reasoning= a way to problem solve.

Xnavylfr(CHUCK)

[dave500]

"Most all are born with a degree of reasoning= a way to problem solve."

ive been training new guys at work for the last couple of weeks,we finally got a guy who could actually drive for a start let alone have any grasp of operating the hydraulic rig(skip bin dumpster trucks)still he calls me over the two way and says he cant get the bin high enough to land it inside another one of the same size,,i ask him how much its missing out by,,he says about four inches,,i reply well shorten your lifting chains by that amount,hes a great guy though,,he just dosent want to damage anything as ive described how self destructive these machines can be if you get it wrong,common sense would tell you what to do though?these rigs come with no operating instructions even from new!!

[Bailgang]

The kid was here yesterday (he's 20 years old) and I got his front calipers sorted out with correct mounting bolts, synced his carbs and showed him other maintenance procedures which he did pick up on but anything regarding riding safety pretty much went in one ear and out the other. I'm afraid that if he doesn't get himself killed first then the only way he'll learn is if he wrecks and ends up 1 step away from pushing daisies and that's only a maybe. Oh well I tried.

As far as common sense goes, some people just don't get it period even when you explain in detail. There's another kid in our shop that we literally booted out of the shop a week ago, there is only so many times you can tolerate lifting your welding helmet and find yourself staring at a 5 ton beam dangling inches away from your head because the idiot running the crane didn't let you know he was coming your way. Countless times we told the kid DON'T DO THAT!! but he'd do it again anyhow. Supervisor wouldn't do a thing about it because he was pleased at how fast the kid was moving steel but after too many close calls we went over the supervisors head and straight to the production manager and pretty much demanded something be done about it. Having a bunch of pissed off steel workers on his hands the PM got the message real quick and got the kid out of the shop.

[70CB750]

We found for my wife's sister's boy job in a blacksmith shop down here in VA - he is from MI.  He did not last a month, because other guys would not work with him.  Just brainless whilw working and too many ways to get hurt in that shop.

Xnavy:  I already posted it here, but a kid in the car shop next to ours was burning oil out of the exhausst pipe.  I asked him what happened and apparently the car owner was filling oil by the oil gauge in the dashboard (that would be the oil presure) and since it was showing 0, he kept adding quart after quart.

It is like RTFM or at least ask a question.

[demon78]

OK the ultimate sense thing, a long time ago in a land far away (Calif) I worked at an A/C overhaul (engines) shop doing the top ends on Merlin's one of our customers used to set up P51 Mustangs as the ultimate personal plane for those who could afford it, Any how they put one together for a doctor who wanted to play Joe fighter pilot on his commute from LA to Vegas any way doc is out one weekend off to Vegas humping it along and like the good little trooper he was checked the instruments PANIC, no RPM  so he calls Mayday, Mayday and bellys it in and is brought in and starts with his lawyer about suing the A/C company for selling him a death trap, the head of the company says what went wrong doc says no rpm, the other guys did you have oil pressure, answer ah yes , did the prop keep turning, ah yes how about coolant temp ah normal the pres said  why don't you bugger off and then the FAA rep started on the doc, for those that don't fly no rpm but the big wheel in front still turning and oil pressure good etc means that you buggered up a perfectly good plane because of panic and a tachometer system that was on the hummer, doc learning sense was costly for him (he was probably one of the ones that was a high priced consultant).
A high priced idiot is still an idiot.
Bill the demon.

[greenjeans]

You're doing a good thing.    IT just so happens that I'm helping a kid a few houses down from me.   I noticed him limping a CB500 that he picked up
at a yard sale a few weeks ago.   I finally waved him down and got to talk with him.

The bike is a mish-mash of parts and not too far away from a death trap.    I've convinced him to get new tires and a chain since his is too short.  So short that it is as far forward as it can go - that's not too bad, but the fact that the wheel is not squared up makes me shudder.  The only way he could get the chain on was to tilt the entire rim/wheel to the right.  there is 1/4" between the tire and the swingarm on the right side and a good 1.5" on the left.   I explained how bad that was for the chain, sprockets, & bearings.   At least he is listening.

On a positive note, he wired the bike himself, and got the thing to run and actually has a pretty decent idle.   He's running pods so I'm helping him
dial in the carbs.

These whippersnappers scare the crap out of me sometimes.