Your favorite Macgyver moments\tricks

[PFFOG]

A real handy one, Seems headlight bulbs go bad at the most inopportune time, a trick I have used dozens of times.

You remove the bulb then turn on the dead beam, then take your finger and flick the bulb, if the element is still attached at one end, it will bounce around and literally weld itself back together. Sometimes lasts weeks, sometimes just until you hit a big bump. But it can buy you time, or save you a ticket.

[Dexter2811]

or you can wrap a replacement one and tape it to the bottom back of your headlight...

[troidus]

Back when I was a broke-assed kid, I once lost low beam in a headlight, didn't have money for a new one, and didn't want to run around with only the high beams on, so I pulled the plug and swapped the low and high beam wires to light the high beam on only one side.

[Zman1]

Nice weather here. Of course my headlight goes out Saturday night, shop doesn't open until Tuesday. No problem, I have a spare 1157 stop/turn signal bulb in the drawer. Break out the solder gun and solder one wire to both prongs on the end of the bulb and wrap another wire around the base for the ground. Plug in to the wiring harness. Bingo, a headlight that is surprisingly very bright and most importantly, legal!!!

[AK Oldman]

[AdvRonski]

About 30 years ago, I took a trip to the Black Hills on my BMW R100RS. I parked at Sylvan Lake, and took what has always been my favorite hike in the hills, the 6-mile round trip up to Harney Peak, the highest point in the hills. When I got back it was twilight, the parking lot was empty, and the store was closed. I tried to unlock the steering on the beemer, but it was jammed. Those old airheads had a big brass deadbolt that was pushed into a slot in the steering stem, and locked in place with a key. If someone had a thought to swipe your bike, and tried to turn the bars straight, it could put burrs on the deadbolt, which then could not be extracted from the stem.
Which apparently happened to me. Just at dark, in the middle of the Black Hills.
I worked at the stubborn bolt for a while, then gave up, stepped back, and considered my options.
I put the bike on it's centerstand, and looked things over. The handlebars were turned almost all the way to the left lock, and there was enough play in the locked steering stem to move the ends of the handlebars about an inch in either direction.
I began kicking the front tire to the right, and after about 15 minutes I had twisted the press-fit triple clamps around to have the front wheel pointing straight. I had been roadracing for a few years by then, and knew that if I kept my speed up, the tiny bit of steering lock I had would be enough.
One little problem, though.
The road out of Sylvan Lake to Rapid City was exceptionally twisty, with several 15-mph turns, and even a couple of
10-mph hairpins, as it plunged down the mountain.
So, all it required was that I go as fast as I could, unless I ran out of steering lock. Then I had better stop as fast as I could, before I went over the edge of the switchbacks.
It sure sounds easy.

It all worked out fine in the end, and that crazy charge down the mountain is one of my fondest riding memories.
I never had to bail out, and I borrowed a 1/2" drill at a gas station and drilled out the steering lock.

[JensEskildsen]

Cool stuff

[LaChupacabra]

So I bought a 1971 CL450 from my best friend who ALWAYS kick started the bike. the starter button was at a crazy angle and while trying to force it true, it broke off in my vise-grips.... I went to Fleabay and found a NOS starting button for $5 when it came in the mail i found that it didn't have the spring which was in the picture. I took the spring from my balpoint pen and stuck it behind the start button.

Mullet pride.

[Parepin]

Originally Posted by LaChupacabra

So I bought a 1971 CL450 from my best friend who ALWAYS kick started the bike. the starter button was at a crazy angle and while trying to force it true, it broke off in my vise-grips.... I went to Fleabay and found a NOS starting button for $5 when it came in the mail i found that it didn't have the spring which was in the picture. I took the spring from my balpoint pen and stuck it behind the start button.

Mullet pride.

I've used a ball point pen spring behind the air mixture screw on a carb as well, that is until the appropriate one was swept up from the shop floor.

[C-Stain]

This is not a mechanical tip, but one that worked in my garage the other day. I was taping drywall joints and realized I was short one hand. I put my fibre tape in a packing tape gun and was able to quickly apply, smooth and cut the fibre tape without dropping stuff.

[troidus]

Originally Posted by C-Stain

This is not a mechanical tip, but one that worked in my garage the other day. I was taping drywall joints and realized I was short one hand. I put my fibre tape in a packing tape gun and was able to quickly apply, smooth and cut the fibre tape without dropping stuff.

Brilliant!

[Poolside]

Great idea C-S!

[C-Stain]

Originally Posted by troidus

Brilliant!

Can you email that to SWMBO? I don't think she realizes it some days...

C.

[Dauntless]

I had a 1985 Ford F-350 dump truck that was used to haul a chipper around for my tree service business. I was at a customer's house getting ready to leave after a long, hot day of climbing trees. The rod that gets pushed when you depress the clutch pedal broke. I took this tube with a seam along the length of it off of the buckle of my climbing saddle. It probably has an internal diameter of a quarter inch. I stuck both ends of the broken clutch rod into the tube which acted like a coupler. Then, I took two small hose clamps off of the fuel line of the chipper and clamped them around the tube. It lasted for the ten mile ride home and probably would have lasted for several months. The next day I went to the hardware store and bought a stronger steel tube and some brazing rods and fused it all together.

[old fart bob]

#1 About 40 years ago a metallurgist told me to heat my bent aluminum brake lever to a dull red, straighten it with a couple pairs of pliers and it would be fine when it cooled. It worked.
#2 I always carry a length of gas line slipped inside my handlebars.
#3 Taped inside my headlight bucket in a sealed plastic bag I used to keep an emergency $5 bill, a spare ignition key. Now it's 2-$20 bills and a spare key.