Workshop war stories
Honda was a shadow of former self…
Custom bikes are usually gleaming, beautifully polished and cared-for works of art. Not this Honda Shadow 750 that was pushed into Bike Moto’s workshop recently.
Mechanic Tom Johnson told us: “This thing has been coming in here for years. Bikes like this usually only do 200 miles a year, but this one has covered 75,000 miles as the bloke goes to work on it every day, rain or shine. “He never cleans it, and he’s almost run it out of oil three times. The last time we only managed to drain out one litre which had gone back to its original ‘crude’ state. It’s amazing that it still keeps going at all really.”
On this occasion the guy had to push the long-suffering steed in when it had ‘cut out and stopped working’. Fortunately, he was just around the corner from Bike Moto. It didn’t take Tom long to diagnose the fault – a blown fuse, probably caused by age and vibration as nothing else had gone pop or burnt out.
As they hadn’t seen the bike for a while Tom did a quick check of the engine oil, pads and all the controls. It was a good job he did, as the clutch cable was literally hanging by a single steel thread. As the owner’s usual commute takes in the busy M27, that would have made life interesting if it had gone ‘twang’ at an inappropriate moment. Instead he got away lightly with a £40 repair bill.
Tom added: “He must have felt his clutch starting to become more graunchy as the snapped ends fouled the liner, but then he’s ridden in here with his pads on the metal before, so it’s not surprising really.”