Believe in Friday the 13th?

[jthursby]

Today I was finishing up the rebuild on my buddy's freshly wrecked Rocket 3 (high-side in the grass in his own yard) and was going to take it around the block to warm it up to allow a coolant top off. At the first stop the engine feels hot so I pull out and as it's fun to do on this thing, I crack it wide open spinning the rear end. The marvelous design friction fit oil cap apparently no longer had enough friction to do the job and came out. :cuss: Picture two quarts of 10/40w Mobil synthetic under about 1.5 G's now turned loose. I don't think I've ever had so much oil on me. Hot oil mind you. Of course it also gets on the rear tire which makes the burnout and subsequent stop VERY interesting. Needless to say I almost repeated the high-side maneuver to the left this time. It's all over the left side of the nicely rebuilt, a moment ago clean bike.
OK, I go back and walk the road, and find the oil cap. I go to the corner store and buy a quart to top it off not really knowing how low it is and I AM NOT pushing this behemoth a mile or so back to my house. I get back and thinking I got to clean this mess up, quickly change into shorts so I can wash the bike. I empty my pants thinking I'll soak them in the car wash bucket while I'm cleaning the bike. Needless to say I missed my was new, now garbage, cellphone in a lower pocket and it was slam-dunked with the pants for a half-hour.
I'm pretty sure it's not happy. :cuss:

Score;
1. oil covered bike that took an hour to clean
2. ruined pair of draggin jeans.
3. trashed Motorola Razr.

I'm not so sure about this Friday the 13th business anymore. :-g

Jim T.

[omaz]

Not one of your better days was it Jim? My oldest son was born on Friday the 13th so I always have a soft spot for the day in my heart.

[jrbarney]

Arg, what a day! Try letting the cellphone dry out in the sun. My palmpilot got totally drenched on a wet ride home and eventually dried out and started working. I'm still using it a year later.

[kludge]

Friday 13th September 1985 I had another bike t-bone me as I making a turn. He was drag racing through an intersection on the wrong side of the road to make a few car lengths. Open fracture of tibia with all sorts of gunk jammed into the bone end. 1st surgeon wanted to get the saw out. So did the second. I held out for a 3rd opinion. Long story short, a year later I was climbing in the Himalaya in the first year of what turns out to be a 25 year adventure in asia...
Silver linings r us. Still don't believe in this superstitious nonsense though.

[NinjaRAT]

October, Friday the 13th, 2006, I was let go from my place of employment after 10 years, and within one week of closing on our new house in GA. We were planning on relocating sans job, if need be, but the timing took my wife and I off-guard a bit.

Fortunately, screw them, we are doing much better, and I still get a chuckle when I see the weather forecast is 9 degrees in Feb. Fuggers!

[Sparty]

Originally Posted by kludge

...Still don't believe in this superstitious nonsense though.

I just don't go for it. Regardless of the date, a Friday always beats a Monday! That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

--Sparty

[monkinwitz]

hope your Streets not called Elm Street

[kc5deb]

I have always dismissed Friday the 13th as a myth, and have never given it any thought, other than "it's just another day".

But, this last friday was a kick in the head.

I have been working on an old bike to get it running the way it did last summer. The carbs decided to plug up about a month ago, and dump half a tank of gas into my oil.

After changing the oil, cleaning out the carbs, and putting the pod filters on, it was back to running until last monday.

Friday was the first day I had a chance to work on it again.

I started by cleaning the carbs again, in the process, destroying one of the pod filters while taking the carbs off...

I cleaned out some plugged air ports, and spent probably 3 hours trying to get the factory airbox back on the bike. The person who engineered the airbox on a 1978 KZ650 needs a good talking to....

I tried to start it up, and the battery was dead...

After charging the battery, it started up, and died. I noticed that the inline fuel filter hose was getting kinked, so, I put a smaller filter and longer hose. It started up again.

I ran it for about a mile, and on the way back, it died again... My keen sense of the obvious showed me I ran it out of gas...

So, I put about 1/4 gas in it, primed the bowls, and she started again. I ran it up and down the road for a good 45 minutes, and it showed that the problem was fixed. I decided to ride it to the gas station and fill up the tank, and have it ready to ride for the next day.

About 1/4 further down the road, I reached for the clutch while slowing down to turn, and heard a loud "SNAP!" as the clutch cable broke...

I limped back to the shop, threw a fit that I'm sure I'll have to explain to the big man upstairs someday, and then realized that it was Friday the 13th... I laughed, closed up the shop, went home, and went to bed early...

I don't believe in bad luck on Friday the 13th, but, I'm sure not going to count it out next time it rolls around.

[MVP44]

I am with Kludge on this one - Perhaps the oil blowout prevented your romping on down the road where a much more nasty predicament awaited. I don't believe in coincidences.

That said - I am sure my rose colored glasses would have been awful hard to see through covered with oil

+1 on the not pushing the rocket - those things are beasts

May your Razor RIP

[jthursby]

Well after the phone sat out on my porch in the sun for two days it now works fine. The color screens are a little off but thats ok as I use it as a phone, not a camera/ipod/gps/sextoy anyway. The ringer is off key as the "Good Bad & the Ugly" theme now sounds like a bad japanese remake.

To tempt the gods of traction I went back this morning and left a hundred foot or so long signature on the road to remind it who's boss. The bike seemed happy this time around.

The pants still stink of oil and are stained.

Jim T.