Author Topic: My bike smells like fish... don't let it happen to yours. (Read 6301 times)

vadim · « **on:** October 06, 2005, 07:00:06 PM »

I had to come to work early today, so I decided take a ride.

With the usual NYC traffic it's less then plesant, but before 7AM the roads are reasonable. Anyway... The motorcycle parking lot is next to the fish market. Unfortunately, I made a wrong turn and ended up going straight through it.

If you have ever been to a large fish market before opening, you know what it looks like. If you haven't, well, the streets are slippery with oily mess, puddls of goo and buzzing with all sorts of machinery.

You are looking at either being smashed, falling or riding through god knows what... I was quite happy making it out of there unscathed and figured that a little smell never killed anyone. Imagine my surprise when I get back and start the bike and it starts to smoke.

Heavy white smoke with a nasty smell of burning rotten fish. Turned out it was all the crap from the street frying on the exhaust pipes. By the time I got home most of it has burned off, but boy, it still stinks almost as bad as that time when a rat decided to take a nap under the hood of my car (don't ask me why) and got dismembered by the starter belt. But that's a story for a different forum... Anyway... Let's make this interactive.

What's the worst thing that ever burned on your exhaust pipes???

PeteSC · « **Reply #1 on:** October 06, 2005, 07:08:59 PM »

Look at the bright side. Just think of all the cats you can attract with your bike. You can either sell them for medical purposes, or demand a finders fee from the owners.

I remember one time walking back to my boat that was anchored off a beach in Florida, and seeing it covered with Pelicans.
I thought it was cool, and would make a neat picture, until I got on the boat...which was covered with pelican crap...which smells like slightly digested fish!

Luckily, the bike surfaces are pretty hard, and I doubt there's much surface the stink can soak into. A bunch of serious washings ought to take care of it. (UNless you get used to the 'cat' income...)

Red01 · « **Reply #2 on:** October 06, 2005, 07:18:18 PM »

On my first bike, a '66 Suzuki K10P (80cc dual sport), my own flesh! Seems the collar that attached the exhaist pipe to the cylinder had come undone while I was on top of a mountain. I managed to get it back on hand tight since I was wearing gloves, but in the process, the back of my arm, just above the wrist made contact with the hot pipe giving me a 1"x2" 2nd degree burn. Even after 32 years, there's still a trace of the scar there.

PeteSC · « **Reply #3 on:** October 06, 2005, 07:36:38 PM »

Somewhere, I have a picture of a certain siblings car with a large croaker wire tied under the car, actually near the exhaust pipe, but out of sight unless you got under the car.
Seems the sibling had just gotten married.............. and the car was parked in the parking garage of the hotel the happy couple was spending the night.

The car had fancy wheels, so there weren't any hubcaps to stash baitfish or shrimp in.
(For those slow to catch on, the idea is to place the sea life somewhere it won't get discovered, until it starts to smell......)

carloseuromotor · « **Reply #4 on:** October 06, 2005, 08:48:35 PM »

This bike smells to "chorizo & jamon"..............

PeteSC · « **Reply #5 on:** October 06, 2005, 10:38:09 PM »

That's the new Suzuki B-B-Q King!

mike · « **Reply #6 on:** October 06, 2005, 10:55:01 PM »

I'm with Paul. My flesh... 1st street bike burn was on a 85 V65 Sabre. Rode the bike to class all the time, because bike parking was less than a 100 yards from the center of campus. The car lots sometimes you'd have to walk a mile and be late.

So shorts in the summer were normal for me since my apartment was down the road from campus (yeah I know squidly).

Anyway, I pulled into the ATM machine on the way to school and was turning into an incline next to the ATM machine. Dumb ass me, had the bike turned while in motion, but when I came to a stop gravity took over on the sideways incline. The 600lb monster started going down, and I planted my right foot to catch it, and the pipe ground into my bare calf. That was 20 years ago, and I still have the scar, it was a nasty burn.

doublenaughtspy · « **Reply #7 on:** October 06, 2005, 11:09:39 PM »

I was riding thru the Mohican State Park area of eastern Ohio a couple of years ago before attending the MidOhio round of the AMA races. Some of you OH boys know...there are alot of Amish thru there and where there are Amish, there are road-apples (horsecrap). I hit a few going thru the apex of one of the few corners out there and nearly crashed when the front wheel slipped. I thought how lucky I was to have survived the incident, but that's when the smell hit me. YUK! I stopped off at one of the peanut brittle/furniture stands and washed off as much as I could, but the boogies in the oil cooler were there for the whole trip.

DragonRider · « **Reply #8 on:** October 07, 2005, 12:38:58 AM »

About a year ago I had to go back on to campus the morning after "The Worlds Largest Pep Rally" and as I was making the hard turn into the parking lot my front wheel ran (slid) through someones "discarded" breakfast. The bike smelled like stale beer and fried eggs and sausage for days.

Every day when I arrive at home and pull into the garage I smell the scorching plant matter from the streets of my subdivision. some times it smells like sandalwood incense other days it smells like what you traditionally use sandalwood incense to mask (if you know what I mean).

This brings up a safety issue; (paranoia) I've noticed that some times small glowing embers will fall off the bottom of the bike after riding on a damp road. It could start a fire if they were to fall into dry grass. when I go to the track, I frequently have to park in the grass I always check that the grass is not touching the bottom of the bike.

Speaking of the track, the first time that I ever rode at the track I became very concerned about the health of my tires because of the constant smell of burning rubber. I kept checking the tires and feeling them to see if they were over heating. Always relatively cool to the touch.

Then it hit me that the smell was the rubber dust from everyones tires that had been deposited on the track and thrown on to my pipes and burned.

Swamp Rat · « **Reply #9 on:** October 12, 2005, 11:25:35 AM »

So far only one burn to speak of. I hung my favorite wind breaker from my handle bars and the sleeve dangled down to the header and melted in place. The jacket has been tossed but the little burnt plastic reminder is still on the header pipe

chupacabra · « **Reply #10 on:** October 13, 2005, 07:51:21 AM »

I work late and one night when I got off work I saw my bike was wet, thinking some one from my work poured water on it as a joke. I started it up before I toweled it off, and the smell hit me.

It was piss,

some jerk pissed on my bike from top to bottom,

front to back.

I was pissed. Lucky for me there was a hose right there. I hosed it off and rode to the all night do-it-yourself car wash.

Swamp Rat · « **Reply #11 on:** October 13, 2005, 09:07:30 PM »

Dave wins this topic

rider123 · « **Reply #12 on:** October 24, 2005, 03:07:50 PM »

Does it taste like chicken?? Ok I think I need to take a nap...

Desolation Angel · « **Reply #13 on:** October 24, 2005, 04:35:56 PM »

Quote from: "chupacabra"

I work late and one night when I got off work I saw my bike was wet, thinking some one from my work poured water on it as a joke. I started it up before I toweled it off, and the smell hit me. It was piss, some jerk pissed on my bike from top to bottom, front to back. I was pissed. Lucky for me there was a hose right there. I hosed it off and rode to the all night do-it-yourself car wash.

Gross! I must admit that very thing crossed the minds of me and 3 of my friends one night when I was 16 or 17 years old (48 now). We were cruising around in Duncanville, Texas and as we passed the police station we noticed the police motorcycle out front along with a couple of squad cars. It was late, no one around, and dark. Needless to say we decorated that bike in a most similar fashion to yours and hauled @ss away from there. I'm ashamed of it now. But we were rolling on the floor of my friend's '62 Buick Special afterwards!

If any of you are '70's era Duncanville bike cops with an unpleasant memory in your head...sorry, man!

Cargo7 · « **Reply #14 on:** October 24, 2005, 11:57:35 PM »

Similar to Swamp Rat on this one... Some years back I ran into a small piece of plastic sheet blowing along some highway in Alberta. Melted onto 3 of the header pipes on my GS1000 before I could stop to remove it. A lot of plastic caked to the pipes and eventually burned off but I could never really get rid of it completely.