Laugh like a drain at plumbing fix
Nigel Cartwright was impressed by the inventiveness of one rider’s lever fix
It’s annoying when the slightest, most innocuous spill results in damage to your bike. Just toppling over at low or no speed can easily result in costly damage and, more annoyingly, prevent you from using your bike. But that doesn’t stop the most inventive of home bodgers, as
Alf England Motorcycles’ Nigel Cartwright found out.
“We had a 2010 Triumph Speed Triple come into the workshop a few weeks ago for a replacement rear brake lever,” begins Nigel. “It’s a very common job because bikes are always toppling over and either bending or breaking levers, so we do see all manner of get-you-home fixes. But none quite like this.” Rather than doing without his rear brake, this creative owner quite literally chose a DIY fix. “This guy had used some plumbing supplies in place of his broken rear brake. The original lever had snapped halfway down the shaft so, instead of doing the usual fix of drilling a hole in what’s left of the lever and then screwing in a bolt to act as the pedal, this guy slipped a bit of copper pipe and a brass T-piece over the remnants of the old lever to act as a shaft and pedal. It was definitely something we’d not seen before.”
Despite how the lever looked, Nigel was mildly impressed with its function: “It worked pretty well, actually, in that it was quite secure and didn’t seem in any danger of dropping off. I guess having something is much better than going without a brake.” With the rest of the bike in good condition, the owner eventually got round to putting things right again, by booking his machine into Alf England’s workshops to get straightened out.
“Levers aren’t cheap to replace, and after labour charges you probably won’t see much change out of £100. I don’t know how much plumbing parts are but I’m guessing they’re only a few quid from B&Q and if you’re a plumber they’re going to be as good as free.”
‘This guy had used home plumbing supplies to fix it’