Ghetto Fab

[foundationapps]

Proposing a thread, to be fed by all readers. It'd be self creations of fabrications (shelf mounts, GPS holders etc.) as well as emergency repair techniques used in the middle of the night and nowhere that worked.

 

It'd become something of a BDAR manual like the military uses (or used to), stands for Battle Damage Assessment and Repair. Basically a manual on jury rigging, emergency repairs, etc. to get a vehicle moving until REAL maintenance can be found.

 

Tricks of the trade, stuff like that.

 

Thoughts?

[Guest Kakugo]

I could not contribute anything remotely useful but there are plenty of people here with the skill and ingenuity to do so.

[mbelectric]

Great idea for topic, but suggest a title other than "Ghetto Fab".

 

MB>

[Matts_12GS]

Great idea for topic, but suggest a title other than "Ghetto Fab".

 

MB>

 

+1

[foundationapps]

lol... almost like a govt bureaucracy. Everyone has another idea and no content

 

Fine, someone else pick a name that's shall I say more politically correct?

 

I'll submit the 1st road side thought in the meantime.

 

Old rubber valve stems that are held in my pressure and fit alone. They dry rot and may simply blow out on you because you've stopped to see why you're bike is washing all over the road...

 

Happened to me, I grabbed the rubber dry rotted valve stem to unscrew the cap and it blew out into the desert, air leaks the rest of the way out.

 

1st problem. Who carries a spare metal bolt retained valve stem? Not many.

 

1st repair. Superglued it back into place. Pumped the tire up with a hand bike pump, that sucked entirely in July in the desert. 15 miles down the road, bike is washing all over again.

 

2nd repair. Stopped by a roadside resteraunt. Old fella walks out and asks whats up? I explained the problem. He walks back inside and fetches...

 

SHO-GOO. The better super blue. He explained... "press some into the valve hole and backscrape it out so a rim is formed inside the rim itself. Then coat the rubber valve stemp, Press into place and hold. Then he pulls out an air tank. 10 PSI to retain back pressure. Go inside for one of his micro brews while the SHOE GOO sets up.

 

Air to 42 lbs, pour sour beer on the valve stem to check for leak. Problem solved, finished 200 miles across the desert to home. Another week on that repair until a new rig could be fitted.

 

Title idea, Who Gives A Crap as long as it runs.

 

Respectfully

 

Edit Add On, what's +1 mean?

[Glenn Reed]

Edit Add On, what's +1 mean?

 

It means "I agree with what the last guy (or the one I quoted) said."

 

Glenn

[foundationapps]

Roger that. Thanks for the update.

[FlyingFinn]

Here's my most recent "creative" on-the-road fix.

 

I was riding the local mountain roads here when I came across another rider on the side of the road, looked like he had problems with his bike.

I pulled over, and he told me there's C-clip that holds in place the gear shift lever on the SV650 and his C-clip had somehow gone missing.

No matter how he tried to twist his left ankle, he could not keep the shifter in place and shifter kept falling off.

 

 

I did a mental inventory of what tools & materials I had with me, for a make-shift snap ring.

 

The split key ring of my bike keys looked to be about the right size...

Little twisting and bending later, the key ring snapped in like it belonged there.

 

 

I talked with the fellow many months later and my key ring was still there holding his shifter

 

Mikko

[ltljohn]

How about Roadside Rigging or Roadside Rescue Rigging?

[Drakas]

we call it "Appalachian Engineering". i have tractors held together with zip ties and gorilla tape.

[foundationapps]

FlyingFinn,,

 

That's one of the best rapid fixes I've heard of, especially considering the implications of not being able to fix it. Nice work

[Mister Tee]

I have both the ghetto AND the fab. In my neighborhood, AK rounds work for making holes in wood or metal, when a stolen drill cannot be located.

[foundationapps]

That's excellent. Steel cores are better for the metal doors Hey, that's like poetry.

[Guest Kakugo]

lol... almost like a govt bureaucracy. Everyone has another idea and no content

 

Don't blame me: I was born with no immagination.

 

The only similar repair I can think of happend five or six years ago. At the top of the local twisties some girl had dropped her SV650 and snapped the gear change pedal. As her husband was attempting a jury rig (with no success) I told them to wait about half an hour (there's a bar on top so no problem).

 

I went home, picked up my cordless drill, one nut, one bolt, a matching drill bit, two hex spanners and a roll of tape.

 

I went back, drilled the snapped lever, put the bolt and nut in, torqued it as much as I could and then taped it over.

Brand new ghetto gear change pedal!

[roadscholar]

Not mechanical but we fabbed a splint for a buddy that broke his tibia and fibula last weekend. Used two halves of a stick, someone had a small tow strap and electrical tape held it all together.

 

He almost convinced us he could ride-er-out and here he's trying to get us to put him on the bike, but cooler heads prevailed. Said he liked it better than the hospital's.

 

 

 

Another time the shifter broke on my KLR when a group of us were riding forest roads east of Clayton, Ga. I stopped for it and my buddies push started me (it was in 3rd) and we rode Warwoman Rd. west and I noticed a guy getting out of his car in a church parking lot. I rode circles around him while I was asking where a motorcycle repair shop was, he said there really weren't any but there was a guy east of Dillard that raced 4-wheelers and maybe he could fix it, a few more circles got the directions. Then headed off trying to time traffic lights and slightly blowing a few stop signs, luckily they were all rights. We got there (he was a 4 time Baja 1000 winner among other championships) but he didn't do heli-arc. Said there was another guy just up the mountain that did but he would only work on KTM's. We sent the one of our guys riding a KTM with the shifter pieces and he came back 30 minutes later with it fixed. Point is, you don't always have to be McGyver, a little luck, good attitude, and friendly help can get you going again.

 

 

 

 

[foundationapps]

Additions used this weekend.

 

Small cracks appeared in the saddle right under left and right butt cheek. Stopped by a leather shop, using SHOO GOO, I cut two patches approx. 2 x 3" in an oval shape. Shoe goed them in place, and dyed them black after I got home. Rubbed in some conditioner and the two patches actually look they belong there.

 

Looks good. Also Shoo Gooed parts of the saddle that are cracking along the edge next to the gas tank plastic. Out of view and holding well.

[foundationapps]

Shelf / glare shield. In the never ending battle against dry rot and rust, I fashioned a flare shield to prevent that annonying glare of the over bright instruments on the windshield at night. Also to function as a GPS mount / air flow interrupter beneath the windshield.

 

Original item. Heavy black shop dust pan. This pan has 3 different bevels to the pan. Made a tracing of the shape of the fairing cutout that I wanted to block out. Essentially, I cut the sides and back of the pan and trimmed it to fit. The edge that you sweep the dirt onto faces the rider. It also extends about 3.5 inches into the rider cockpit area.

 

3 x 3" patch of sticky Velcro in the middle for attachments and multiple patches on the bottom side for cable management. Attached with sticky Velcro and sealed with duct tape (OD green of course).

 

Function was excellent. The Iphone 6 functioning as GPS was very stable on the triangle shaped sticky Velcro mount I fashioned. Glare block was excellent. Rain and wind that usually sneaks under the main windshield was rerouted around my head also. No rain touched the phone. Rainfall is described as intermittent light to heavy with a 20 mph headwind.

[szurszewski]

Pics?

 

If you don't want to put them in a hosting site to post here, send them to me and I'll post em up for you.

josh

 

 

[foundationapps]

Hey, I can do that. Doing some cable maintenance tonight since we're in the 2nd week of thunderstorms. I'll take pics and send them on. Thank you sir.

[szurszewski]

Here they are - (which is to say, not my bike - posting these for foundationapps - though I must say I'm glad to see some pics of an RT that's almost as in need of a bath as mine) -

 

 

 

 

 

[foundationapps]

Hey, thanks for putting those up. Tweaking the design today. Going to cut some 90 deg angle brackets from a kydex magazine carrier and screw them to the inner fairing plastic. Use some thin rubber to line the gap and capture escaping light and air. Clean up the sharp 90 degree angles and take it to china to have make for .20, then charge 45.00 for the thing. (only kidding

[AnotherLee]

Looks like he has his blood type on his keychain. Ready for anything.

[foundationapps]

It's my son's blood type. Sergeant in the Infantry with 2 combat tours. Has nothing to do with being ready for anything. Sarcasm intended.

[DavidMantle]

With 45 years of riding experience I find that whenever you break down , and you don`t have the appropriate spares/bodge material with you , then you are proverbially stuffed. Most breakdowns are the result of flat tyres. I keep a tubeless tyre repair kit with me plus some spare small gas canisters for inflation. I also have an adapter that screws into a spark plug hole thus allowing the engine to act as an inflater ( useful more on 4 cyclinder motors but does work on a twin )

[foundationapps]

Emergency tire repair.

 

Not sure when on a bike this situation might warrant a speed repair of this nature. Here's one I picked up along the way. Saw it first on Discovery Channel used by some 4 wheel types trying to drive to the North Pole. They kept rolling their big tires off the rims when traversing ice shelves and the like.

 

Fix, and yes this works on car tires and bike tires, tested.

 

1. Repair hole.

 

2. On a bike tire, you have to put a couple of pieces of "something" about 1/2 to 3/4 inch in diameter between the rim and the tire to create a gap. On a car/truck, the weight of the tire keeps the rubber sagging inside the rim providing the needed gap.

 

3. Tricky party, use safety goggles, leave your helmet on to protect from flying debris. Spray starter fluid into the rim through the gap between the rim and the tire. Be ready with a match. A 2 second burst on a bike tire, 4 seconds on a care tire burst of starter fluid.

 

4. Strike the match and toss into the gap.

 

5. Resulting detonation will reseal the tire onto the rim.

 

6. Add air as needed to bring up to pressure.

 

Yep, it sounds crazy, but when the zombies are coming at ya, you gotta move fast. And run flat tires, don't.

 

 

 

3.

[foundationapps]

Benefits of using a 3 angle dust pan as the basis for a home made shelf

 

The upper lip closer to the rider absolutely directs the under wind shield airflow to the top of the helmet, by adjusting this angle, you can eliminate any air disturbances over the helmet.

 

Benefit: On my bike anyways, that airflow goes down the back, which can be cold, and when it's hot out, it's NOT a cooling factor. Eliminating that airflow is better.

 

This version is Generation 1: Ghetto Fab GPS mount/cellphone mount/speaker mount/wiring control mount/picture shelf/ etc.

 

Generation 2: Will be adjustable for viewing and air deflection properties.

 

A squeeze ball, a little smaller than a tennis ball, commonly used in labs for a patient to squeeze on to inflate their veins, has the perfect squishiness to place between the glass and the shelf. The windshield squishes the ball, the further directs airflow around the shoulder mounted head.

 

Improvements will be posted.