Worst thing that ever went wrong on a long bike trip?

[pearljam724]

Front sprocket came off my RZ 350 due to the previous owner installed a stripped sprocket nut and I didn't find out before it was too late. Left me stranded about 50 miles from home. Paid $250 to have it brought home on a flat bed. Extremely lucky the chain didn't do any engine case damage. Which is usually the case. A second time on the 350, the ignition switch left me stranded far from home. Towed by a buddy. Battery killed on a couple of occasions on the GT's due to faulty new battery and faulty rectifier. I limped home on both occasions. Once not far from home, the other time I had to stop at an auto shop to ask them to put the battery on charge for an hour while I waited. Limped home 35 miles on less than 3 cylinders. Broke the rear plate that holds tension on the rear brake cable. Leaving me with absolutely no brakes and no other choice but to ride the bike down a very steep mountain summit to get it home. I refused to pay for towing again. That was very thrilling, to say the least. I was eager to test ride the 750 nearing the completion of restoring it and hadn't yet sorted out my front brakes and it bit me in the ass. Owned lots of bikes over the years. Never a serious break down until I started getting into old bikes in the past few years. That's what they do. Regardless, of maintenance up keep. Thankfully, I have a passion for working on bikes. You pretty much have to. Especially, if you own more than one. They require a lot of constant tinkering. It's a constant battle just to keep a 2 stroke fairly clean if you ride often enough. I can't even come close to counting down pours I've been caught in. Always, back pack tools and a few spare parts riding an old bike far. Although, I've been stranded a couple times. The tools saved my ass more than a dozen. To me, all of it is worth it.

[jeff kushner]

The only Zuk to ever cause me to "fix" on the road was my Titan in the early 70's. It was my second bike and I had the throttle cable freeze one morning on the way to work on the docks in Baltimore as something called a "long number"(since you were paid using your SS #) while the Longshoreman were on strike. It was dangerous work because they weren't too thrilled that "scabs" were there to take their money so I was quickly warned that you had to stay around other people or be ready to fight if they got you alone. Not nearly as dangerous as having that cable freeze though. It happened as I got off the tunnel thruway on the exit ramp and I had to use the key to shut the power off and on till I got to a place to pull over. Freezing cold temps, black ice and tar snakes...scared the crap out of me when I chopped the throttle and nothing happened! Once stopped, the heat rose off the engine and thawed it out enough to get to the dock. I parked it in the sun and had no more issues that day. I lubed them as soon as I got home...bitter cold and all. Another time I broke the front brake cable so in the morning before heading to the dealer 30 miles away, I adjusted the rear brake. Got side tracked and forgot to tighten the torque arm bolt. Of course it came out and the first time I hit the brake afterward, it broke the rear cable as well! Very touchy situation since I was several miles from home, no brakes and oh by the way, no M class license (didn't get around to getting that until 2007) so the last thing I wanted was "help"or any attention from the local police. I tried fashioning a stretched bungee to operate the front brake but couldn't generate enough strength to make it work. It was a scary ride home but I made it just fine.


Worse bike on the road was a 72 H1 Kaw ....always had issues with the points (3 sets) on that bike. I got so pi**ed at it once that I nearly pushed it down a ravine! I always managed to get back home though, sometimes on a single cylinder. I've had lots of bikes with points and they were never an issue so looking back, something else was causing the points to fail so often. I loved that bike though and have one now to be restored one of these days...of course I snapped up a brand new ignition plate (with all 3 sets of points) a year or two ago so it will wear new components when I get around to bring it back to life.

jeff

[T350guy]

Hmmm I think the worst was back in 81 we were going thru the Grand Teton National Park in August of that year. It had been close to 100 for some days and we were loving it.
As we rode thru it noticeably got colder and colder. just thin riding close and a leather jacket didn't cut it we were fooking freezing as we stopped to warm up we could see in the distance Yellow Stone and it looked nasty, winter clouds kind of. Well when we got to the bottom it had snowed 12 inches.
Now whenever we go out we take extra warm clothing..lol