Some years ago I bought from a friend a Honda Melody which came disassembled in boxes. My youngest daughter had an idea of getting a scooter once she was 17 so being a biker myself I thought a project might be a good idea to teach her about bikes and let her learn to ride in our yard.
So between us we put the bike together and I just had to set the carb etc so it ran well. My wife was in hospital at the time, and with an hour or so before needing to leave the house for afternoon visiting, I chose to spend some time in the garage.
With the wee bike engine warming up prior to me setting the carb, the bike was sideways facing at the top of garage filling the garage with exhaust fumes. So I walked over to it, pushed it off the centre stand and turned the handle bars to the left intending to push it out of the garage into fresh air.
However I must have routed the throttle cable incorrectly and moving the handlebars to the left opened the throttle full and being an automatic it took off down the garage heading towards my 944 and my Sylva Striker parked on the other side of the building and driveway. Things happened very quickly and I was dragged down the garage but managed to miss the cars and hit the garage wall. Picking myself up off the ground I was pleased to note that the wee bike had stopped and had received no damage at all. So I picked it up and pushed it outside and put it on its stand, started it and went to ride it around the yard.
But, bloody hell, what's wrong with my right arm. It's hanging limp and I can't lift it up onto the handlebars. Quite quickly I worked out that I had done myself some damage and needed to go to A&E. No problem, I'll just drive myself but with only one arm working that turned out to be a no no. Try turning the ignition key on the right of the steering column with your left hand? I could only do it from outside the car so got my middle daughter to drive me to A&E.
One broken shoulder was the result of 49cc of raw power. Still haven't lived that one down.
So between us we put the bike together and I just had to set the carb etc so it ran well. My wife was in hospital at the time, and with an hour or so before needing to leave the house for afternoon visiting, I chose to spend some time in the garage.
With the wee bike engine warming up prior to me setting the carb, the bike was sideways facing at the top of garage filling the garage with exhaust fumes. So I walked over to it, pushed it off the centre stand and turned the handle bars to the left intending to push it out of the garage into fresh air.
However I must have routed the throttle cable incorrectly and moving the handlebars to the left opened the throttle full and being an automatic it took off down the garage heading towards my 944 and my Sylva Striker parked on the other side of the building and driveway. Things happened very quickly and I was dragged down the garage but managed to miss the cars and hit the garage wall. Picking myself up off the ground I was pleased to note that the wee bike had stopped and had received no damage at all. So I picked it up and pushed it outside and put it on its stand, started it and went to ride it around the yard.
But, bloody hell, what's wrong with my right arm. It's hanging limp and I can't lift it up onto the handlebars. Quite quickly I worked out that I had done myself some damage and needed to go to A&E. No problem, I'll just drive myself but with only one arm working that turned out to be a no no. Try turning the ignition key on the right of the steering column with your left hand? I could only do it from outside the car so got my middle daughter to drive me to A&E.
One broken shoulder was the result of 49cc of raw power. Still haven't lived that one down.
