When you ride a bike, you encounter all sorts of troubles, don’t you?
Back in the day, cell phones and tow trucks weren’t as freely available as they are now.
I find myself thinking about how convenient modern times really are…
I’ve even heard stories from customers about pushing their bikes all the way home.
The reason is that you can’t leave this bike behind—it’s your beloved ride.
I have quite a few stories about bike troubles.
There’s no end to them if I start listing them, but honestly the GSF1200 had the most problems.
I was treating it pretty rough…
• GSF1200 rode it to the circuit on my own and the cam chain broke. That’s the one.
HY-VO chains started appearing, and I’d heard rumors that some people’s chains were breaking too, but I honestly never thought mine would break…
Back then, I was swapping out the GSF1200 engine almost every year.
GSF1200 engines were traded incredibly cheap, and you could get a pretty good one for just 50,000 yen.
The night before heading to the circuit. I thought I’d swap out the engine tonight and maybe head to Fuji tomorrow—it was pretty late. The swap went smoothly and the engine started right up.
The road right before I got home was incredibly congested, and patrol lights were flashing. I wondered what was happening, so I went up to a vending machine to buy a drink and…
illuminated by the headlights of various cars, there was “a lot of black liquid on the road”…
What could it be? …What’s that? Is it oil? …Hmm??
I think it was around 1 a.m. With few streetlights, the area was dark, and at first I couldn’t tell, but as I stared at it, I noticed something under the car… it was there…
It was a fatal accident, so naturally the road was closed.
I saw something unpleasant right before heading out tomorrow… I felt deflated.
Thinking “tomorrow could be me,” I did a break-in ride and headed home, and the next day after just two laps around the circuit, the cam chain snapped.
By the way, what kind of symptoms?
It’s like flipping the kill switch or running out of gas. You feel it lose power with a “bwaaah” sound.
If the cam chain isn’t caught and nothing falls into the combustion chamber, the starter motor will still turn.
When I tried the starter, it cranked over pretty vigorously, but there was no sign of it firing up.
Nervously lifting the head cover at the scene… what should have been there wasn’t… that’s how it felt.
It’s a pretty unsettling story (*’ω’*)
