So, I decide last night to check the oil on my 89. It was a little low but nothing too serious. I put a little in and went to check the level again and got distracted. I couldn't remember what I was doing (that happens when you get old) and shut off the lights in the garage and closed the door.

I am riding on the freeway to work the next morning and after about 20 minutes take the off ramp. I notice that the rear tire feels a little squirrely (okay a lot) and figure I better check that when I get to work (only another 5 miles or so to go). I come up to the red light at the intersection after the offramp and put my right foot down...holy sheeit! My foot slides and I almost tip over.

I figure WTF? I look down expecting to see a little water/oil/antifreeze or something on the road and to my surprise my whole foot is dripping with oil, along with everything on the right side of the bike behind my foot... swingarm, tire, rim, everything.

I then notice that my oil filler cap is gone. Luckily I am right beside an auto parts place and can pull in. I wipe all the oil off with a handkerchief I have handy and poke my finger into the filler hole. I pull it out and it is dry.

Long story short, I put in a quart of oil and jam my trusty handkerchief in the hole and finish my ride. I plugged the hole for the ride back home with some pipe insulation (the foam wrap around stuff).

Pissed that I have to track down a new filler cap but glad that I didn't go down on the offramp or at the light.

Talk about a dumb mistake. I will be including the oil filler cap in my quick pre-ride inspection. That would also be the moral of the story.

KongBastard

 

glad you didn't bust your *** at the red light and offramp but did you not feel the warm oil on your leg ?

 

aww man sorry to hear that, i recently fixed a leak on my bike, when i got home i realized i had some oil on my foot and it was leaking on the ground, but nothing as bad as your slight mistake. hopefully nothing got messed up.

 

Your lucky you didn't have a get off with that lubed rear tire. A new oil cap is cheap compared to the what ifs. Thanks for the reminder to be vigilant with the pre-ride check.

 

Good reminder, man. And yeah.... real lucky. I got lucky once, too.
I checked my oil at a stop, got distracted by something, and forgot to tighten up the cap.
Luckily I realized what I did about 2 miles down the road and pulled over before I spilled any. The cap was just barely in there. Don't know how I didn't lose the cap or blow oil out.

 

reminds me of when i was riding with somebody on the back and pretty much redlined it in first, then when i shifted to second, it revved with almost no resistance, so i thought i missed second and hit neutral, but then i noticed my right leg was unusually warm, turned out one of the oil cooler lines that had the braiding worn away in my wreck blew most of the oil out on the right side of my bike and me, the back tire was just spinning free from all the oil, and somehow i didn't put it down with her on it, there just might be a God

 

It was so hot out that I didn't really notice. I thought my foot felt a little warm but not that bad.

That's okay though...the story gets worse (or dumber?). I will have to order a new cap as I couldn't find the old one in my garage (so I guess I actually did put it in the hole) and I still want to ride so I decided I would make a temp one.

While I was figuring out the size the plug needed to be I dropped a piece of epoxy putty into the hole. I ended up having to drain the oil and take off the right side engine cover to fish it out.

I will have to use some form-a-gasket tomorrow so I can button things up while I wait for a new gasket and an oil filler plug.

I think stuff like this happens every once in a while just to humble us...or just to make us look really stupid.

Now that I have had my turn hopefully it will be a while before the wheel comes around my way again.

KongBastard

 

I once helped a kid change the oil in his new GSXR 750 (by helping him I mean letting him use my tools and my shop while I talked him through the process). After replacing the fairings he fired it up and rode home. He called me about 15 miles out and he had forgotten to tighten the drain plug and dumped about 3.5 quarts of Maxima onto interstate 40. I picked him up with the trailer and explained about attention to detail. Got a new drain pug and refilled her with no obvious damage. Haven't seen him since then and don't know whatever happened to the bike, just glad I wasn't the one wrenching on it...but I'm sure he had some hard feelings, thinking it was somehow my fault.