Stupid Things

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Comment by Rick Salazar on November 6, 2009 at 2:42am

1974, I was racing a night race on my 250 CZ at OCIR (Orange County International Raceway) in So-Cal and I was leading (of course) all of a sudden my bike lost power and went duh, duh, duh, duh like the gas was off. I checked the gas and it was ok, so I started kicking it, and it wouldn't start, not even close. I pushed my bike back to the pits, and as I was looking at things and scratching my head, a guy said let me try kicking it, and he said, that didn't feel right. Long story short we took the the seat off and there was only 1 airfilter nut on holding the filter on. We pulled the bbl off high enough to look at the piston, and saw a nice clean full length grove on the intake side of the piston... Turns out the top airfilter backup nut came off, and worked it's way under the filter, and thru the carb where got caught between the piston skirt and intake port. It cut a perfect grove in the piston. Pete Maly split the cases for me, but never found the missing nut, so it must have gone thru the intake, did it's damage and went out the exhaust. That was the last time I forgot to use loctite and securely tighten the locking nut on the airfilter bolt on my CZ's. Rick

Comment by Dee Harper Crump on March 28, 2009 at 11:27pm

I have to blame Carole Benson for making race Brian Stacey's street bike at Segoville. My Bul 100 needed a spark plug and she assured me that she knew how to put one in. But instead she tried screwing it in the motor with the opposite end of the spark plug. Guess Bultaco Sales saw us Monday morning...dee

Comment by lindsay harper on March 27, 2009 at 12:30pm

During the qualifiers for the Texas Stadium high school races it had snowed so the track at Oak Hill was a mess.I decided to tape up my air box to keep the water out,so needless to say my 250 was not running very well.Took it over to Arlie and borrowed Gus Reynolds 360.That is how I ended up riding an open bike in Texas Stadium.Can you say Duh!!

Comment by Clay Coburn on January 29, 2009 at 11:36pm

I tore my bike half way apart one time trying to figure out why it would not run and the gas was turned off.

Comment by Craig Knight on January 7, 2009 at 11:26am

Dang, John. I've forgotten my helmet before. one time (last year!) even left my whole equipment bag at home, but never forgot the scooter! you must have really wanted to get to sign in that day!

Comment by Joe Joiner on January 7, 2009 at 12:40am

Yeah John, just hope you hadn't driven too far to the races! Lucky that your bike was still there !! In 1980, someone stole my KDX175 out of the back of my pickup, while it was sitting in my driveway of my house, while I was at home,,,,in the middle of the day !!! I guess that you could've gone back to the races with your bike and told all your racin buddies that your factory mechanic finally got your bike ready for you to ride !!!

Comment by John Fricke on January 7, 2009 at 12:03am

I showed up at Mosier one Sunday as usual, I was walking over to sign up and talking to everyone. The other guy's that were in my class kept asking me "aren't you racing today", I would say yes but it didn't dawn on me until I got back to the truck that I had no bike. I drove back home and there was my bike, sitting on the stand in the driveway. I was to embarrassed to go back to the track, what a knucklehead..!!

Comment by Joe Joiner on October 15, 2008 at 8:04pm

1971 Barstow to Vegas 170 mile desert race. Me and Mike Kidd leave the pits on the way to the starting line(2 miles long that year,,,,3200+ riders) and I notice that the wind had gotten up a bit. and was blowing from left to right of the starting line. I tell Mike,"Hey let's get to the far left,so when the race starts, we won't be in all the dust." So off we go to the FAR left end. The banned drops and 1800 am&ex riders charge off the line and off into the desert, on the way to the smoke bomb,about 4-5 miles away. Man we're doing great, NO dust! We go over several small hills, and about 2 miles out, we come over this little rise, and man we're suddenly in rocks from basketball size to Volkswagen size! Instantly,we are from 4th & 5th gear to 1st & 2nd gear going around all these boulders. No wonder no one was on the far left side of the line! I thought we were so smart!!!

Comment by Jack Jeter on October 6, 2008 at 3:51pm

TM 400 Suzuki,an old race track called The Big Muddy, over off Bruton Road,I think. First heat of the day,I'm battling it out with some guy on an old 440 Victor. Every time I'd try to get around this guy he would cut me off,so I decided I was gonna get him on the jump over by a corn field. Me,the bike,and everything that was attached to it made this big jump,and I thought I had him. Only problem was,I had forgot to put the nut on a stud that held the left rear shock on. When I landed,the shock came off, I made an unexpected left hand turn and took out about 25 yards of corn stalks. Can you say Duh?

Comment by Joe Joiner on September 20, 2008 at 5:08am

1969 Green Valley Motocross: Between practice and the races my buddy looks over at my 360CZ and says "hey your forks are leaking" I says "Yeah I outta fix em next week" He says "here, I got some fork oil right here,lemme fix ya up" I says "OK" so we take the fork cap off and he pours some fork oil in and says "There, that outta do er" My heat race is coming up so I suit up,fire it up, go up to the line,they drop the flag and we're off! I get a pretty good start, round the first corner, leap of down into the first gully, and WHAM!!!,,no fork travel! I land so hard I nearly knock both arms out of socket! Man it beat me to death the whole 8-10 laps! I somehow managed to win the heat but the last couple laps I was just hanging on.Talk about stupid! JJ

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