What's the stupidest thing you've ever done...

[Bike Effects]

Mid 80's, I started up my Honda CB900F and let it idle in the driveway to warm up. Bike was on the kickstand, aiming toward the street, and the driveway sloped down toward the street.Sure enough, it vibrated itself forward, the kickstand did in fact auto-retract, and down she goes.

Damn, that was dumb!

Did a similar thing with my CB1100F. While framing a picture in my camera viewfinder, I watched her start to go down. That wasn't enough though, while leaping to save the bike, I threw the camera in the driveway.

 

[FlyingLow]

BWAAA :lol: .

Good. It didn't take long for someone to top me!

 

[Scab]

I never do stupid ****.

...unless you count my first 2 marriages.

...but that wasn't in the shop.

...and there you have it:

Shoulda never came out of the shop.

 

[Randy]

I'll just say this......if you're standing beside your FJR when you take it off the center stand, make sure your sidestand isn't down or that your toes aren't under the sidestand.

+1

You left out the part where you drop the bike after trying to lean it too far to the right so you can get your toe out from under the kickstand....

Nope - didn't drop it. But, put a scratch on my riding mower that I (fortunately) had parked next to my bike.

 

[BugR]

Cross threaded a sparkplug on an old honda twin I had has kid.

Learned how to strip of the head and all about inserts

Chris

 

[jestal]

I've done so many stupid things in the shop that I've lost count.... I always figure, though, that the only way to avoid stupid mistakes is to just not do anything.

My worst I've admitted on here before. Had the snowmobile jacked way up in the rear working on it. Gas ran out the vent hose due to the angle and onto the deck of the trailer. In the process of setting the sled back down level to stop the gas leak (Safety FIRST!!) I dropped it on the trouble light. Popped the bulb and ignited the pool of gas. I didn't realize that a syphon had started from the vent hose and there was about a gallon of gas in the belly pan of the sled before it started dripping out when I noticed it. All that ran out when the sled was level. Did I mention the trailer was in the basement garage under the house....?? Good thing for fire extinguishers. Lots of fire extinguishers. Always have LOTS of fire extinguishers around.

 

[Moosehead]

Keep in mind this was a few years ago..........It had just snowed a pile of that white crap and I had just 2 small tasks to do. Snowblow the driveway and check the oil in the truck. The snowblower was new and this was the first time I really needed it. I checked the fuel level and made sure it was on. Then I started pulling...... and pulling.......and pulling some more. I'm getting madder and madder with each pull. Beads of sweat are pouring down my face. Finally I'm really pissed and I haul off to kick the damn thing as hard as I can......but I miss and my boot flies onto the backyard. In a fit of rage I stomp with my sock foot to the truck, yank open the hood and fiercely pull the dipstick out. It promply hits the battery which arcs a big spark causing my enraged head to jerk up into the pointy hood latch. By now I'm so mad I just throw myself into the snowbank. My wife watching from the window is howling with laughter. Later, when I have recovered, I realize that the snowblower didnt start because I forgot to insert the silly plastic key that I had taken out the last time I used it.

 

[Timbo2015]

Needed to drain a fuel tank. Didn't have a pump, so I would have to siphon it out with a length of vacuum hose. Decided I could suck on the end really quickly and then pull the hose away before the gasoline got to the end of the hose. Gasoline travels real fast, and tastes awful. Have a pump now.

 

[Barabus]

I guess this counts since it started in the garage. Wife just passed MSF with the highest score in her class, so I gave her my brand new, no plates on it yet, FZ6. She took it out of the garage across the street into a parking lot and crashed it. I blame myself, of course.

 

[airboss]

Early 70s just got a brand new honda CB 100 to commute on, Standing beside the bike, I pushed it off the kickstand to move it, a friend came by and as I turned to talk to him I let go the handlebar. :dribble:

 

[dbvolfan]

Changing the oil for my wifes Mazda shortly after we bought it....pulled the drain plug and the most beautiful red 'oil' came out that I have ever seen. To make matters worse, my wife had to be somewhere that night, my car was at the shop and it was ~7pm on a Sunday.

Turns out it wasnt the beer I drank before working on the car that caused be to screw up....Mazda mislabeled the bolt in the diagram (on the CD version of the manual)...both drain plugs for the oil and ATF use the same size bolt and are almost exactly opposite one another near the drain pan.

 

[Scab]

I should just do a link to scar photos. I am the poster child of safety violations.

 

[FJRottie]

a friend came by and as I turned to talk to him I let go the handlebar.

:rofl: :rofl:

Reminds me of the joke;

How do you get a one-armed Newfie (east coast Cdn) out of a tree............

..........wave to him!

 

[dhalen32]

As a teen I worked for a landscape company and was servicing a powered hedge trimmer at the end of the day. I gues I was a little tired because I picked it up to move it with my left hand holding the business end while my right hand managed to "pull the trigger" to operate the blades. The tip of my left index finger was not completely severed and the doctor was able to sew it back on. However it now gets cold really quickly and hurts like a son of a ***** if I hit it juuuuust right.

Dave

 

[Checkswrecks]

We have a really large heavy steel set of industrial shelves in the garage and I was in a rush while looking for something in the plastic tubs. Didn't push them all back in and as I turned away the whole thing tipped over, crashing down on the wife's bicycle, instantly bending the frame and both wheels into potato chips. Yes, she got a new bike.

You said in the garage. In a hangar, I stuck the tail of a new Mooney up through the ceiling once when setting it on jacks to do a landing gear check. Does that count?

Bob

 

[Randy]

'nother one...In my early years of doing maintenance myself, I replaced the front brake pads on my '87 Hurricane. Put it all back together, squeezed the lever a few times to get the pads back against the rotor surface and took 'er for a test ride. Heard a funky noise and the brakes weren't working very well. Got home to see what was going on. Apparently, as I was having trouble with coordination when trying to keep the spacers in place while installing the front wheel, one of the pads shifted over against the other and I ended up with 2 pads with their braking surface against each other and the rotor between the back of one of the pads and the pucks in the caliper.

that's a mistake you certainly don't make twice.

 

[kaitsdad]

OK - I'm in.

Many moons ago, (friggin LOTS !) I put my then girl friends 66 Mustang up on stands.

Jacked up the right rear - slipped in the jackstand.

Jacked up the left rear- slipped in the jackstand.

Removed the RR wheel, then the LR wheel.

Removed the floor jack.

That was when I learned that you should NEVER jack up one end of a car when it's sideways on a sloping driveway.

That Gravity stuff works. :blink:

 

[automag928]

Removing one of the rear tires on my vette to clean it, I had the rear jacked up, and the wheel was kind of hanging on one stud towards the top. The wheel was at a funky angle "dangling" on the stud and instead of me just pulling it straight off like normal, it slipped off the stud. With my hand underneath the wheel/tire absorbing the weight of the fall, it bent my wedding ring into more of a trapezoid shape and I think I went through every cuss word and a qt of synthetic oil trying to get it off my finger! I look at my ring almost every day, and even after being "re-rounded" still shows a few angularites :lol:

 

[S76]

A good friend of mine had to replace the U joints on his pickup. He slid under the truck and unbolted the driveshaft. Unfortunately, the "Park" function seems ineffective without a driveshaft installed and the truck rolled and ran over his arm.

 

[E1Allen]

Insert one small piece of wood into one large high speed table saw = one hole in the wall.