Super Slab Shenanigans!

[BrotherJim]

Experienced a little mishap last evening on I-69 in Indianapolis on the CalStone.  Just about to cross under the 465 loop, when an erratic box-jockey makes its move.  Downshifting to match speeds, and all of the sudden... no forward motion... coasting... crap.  Shifter seems to be gone!  I'm in the left lane slowing down, heading onto the shoulder with cars zooming past inches away.  The shoulder is littered with all kinds of garbage and bits of unfortunate vehicles and I'm thinking, "Please don't get a flat right now!"  I come to a stop and I'm nervous as heck on the left shoulder.  I get off the bike and notice that I had lost a nut on the shift linkage and the shift lever had flopped forward.  When I had gone to downshift earlier, the linkage had held together just enough to get me between 5th and 4th with a false neutral.  I'm a bit frazzled by the traffic zooming by, and I figured that there had to be some useful junk laying around here.  A pop top?  No dice.  All kinds of wrong sized rusty hardware!  I happened to look over the concrete Jersey barrier to the northbound traffic and there it was... a zip tie!  Was it intact?  I hopped over the barrier and YES!!!  It was good!  Hopped back over and went to work.  Wrapped it around the heim joint and the inner linkage where the nut had been.  Seems legit, but would it hold?  I found a break in the traffic and made my move.  Success!  I made another pit stop to a buddy's place that I knew had an impressive collection of hardware, pulled out my tool kit, complete with zip ties  , checked the other fasteners in the linkages, and I was back on the road... only twenty minutes late to the evening's gathering.  This kind of thing happens to all of us every now and then with varied results.  I just thought I would share this one with you all for the sake of entertainment!  Cheers! 

[Sheepdog]

Well done! The same happened to me with my Vintage. I put a stainless Nylock nut on to prevent reoccurrence and stashed a couple of spares in my toolkit (with the tie wire, zip ties, tape, and thread lock). Larger Nylocks hold my saddlebags on the mounts, also...

[Chuck in Indiana]

Zip ties.. don't leave home without em.. 
I was coming home from the Ohio rally on the AeroLario when the speedo drive fell apart outside of Piqua.  Pulled into a strip mall, looked for shade, (none) opened the saddle bag to get my stash of zip ties.. and I'd put them in another tool kit getting ready for the Southern Spine Raid. Bought some at a Home Depot, zip tied it together and motored on home. It's kind of nice to know just how fast you are going in Ohio.. don't ask me how I know. 

[JJ]

Well done! The same happened to me with my Vintage. I put a stainless Nylock nut on to prevent reoccurrence and stashed a couple of spares in my toolkit (with the tie wire, zip ties, tape, and thread lock). Larger Nylocks hold my saddlebags on the mounts, also...

    Zip-ties, bailing wire, and duct tape has saved the day on more than one occasion!!

[Chuck in Indiana]

Let add Fusion tape (no adhesive), damnest stuff I've seen .

:-)

I've never seen it. You learn something new every day.. 

[oldbike54]

Let add Fusion tape (no adhesive), damnest stuff I've seen .

:-)

 So we have achieved fusion ?

 Dusty

[Unkept]

I used that Fuzion Tape stuff to fix a leaking EGR cooler connection on my TDI Jetta. :) I was impressed.

[Vagrant]

spring of either 72 or 73. new wife and I are about 24 and heading from Illinois to bike week on my new 1972 Eldorado. going across the LONG bridge over the ocean south of Jacksonville I go to downshift and nothing's there. the shifter took a vacation somewhere back on the bridge and I'm in fourth or fifth. I come off the bridge and into a gas station. standing there scratching my head and two guys pull in to see if I had trouble. Ya think! 1200 miles from home, pretty broke and loaded to camp and long before credit cards. One guy gets to looking at it and says if we pull the linkage arm off the transmission and then run it straight out it might be a bit stubby and awkward but I think it will work to get you home. It did.
Wish I could buy him a beer! yes I remember the brand of bike he was riding so don't try to claim the beer unless it's you for sure.

[chuck peterson]

A roadside cork fit the bottom of my r60/2 carb, and copper wire from the ground held it in. Kept it that way for five years to piss off the purists!

Three cheers for roadside repairs!