Hitchcocks Forum

Since owning my little electra, a club has been formed by my husband and group of bike riding friends (all who ride really awful looking bikes made of plastic). It is called 'the stuff thats fallen off my bike' club. To get into the club you have to either:

1) swerved to avoid hitting a part of my bike in the road that has just fallen off

2) Been kind enough to get off your bike in a very unsafe place to stop to walk against the very fast on comming to collect a part of my bike that has fallen off.

3) Spent over an hour riding back the way we came very slowly and be the first to spot the bit of my bike that has fallen off and no-one noticed because I was at the back/had my tunes on in my helmet too loud.

I am thinking of getting them T-shirts made. On second thoughts high-vis vests may be better. After 4 tail lights and 3 side pannels I do love this club but they are costing me a lot in beer money.

Simple solution to this problem. Every few weeks spend 10 minutes going around your bike checking all the nuts and bolts - 9 times out of 10 you will not turn a spanner but every now and then something will have worked loose. Time well spent. The only one i cannot solve is the damn toolbox flapping open every now and again except for strapping it up with a bungee.

Regularly check all nuts and bolts and tighten. Singles will vibrate them loose. However if you also invest in a tube of good old Loctite.......problem solved. It is cheaper than all of those tee shirts for sure.

Rubber mounted rear indicator, always the left one. It would wiggle about like mad on tick over. I replaced them with solid stem ones and so far OK, although after a longish run they are always at strange angles so I have to manhandle them back in line. I'm sure they will make a bid for freedom one day. The only other thing to be lost completely was the battery cover retaining bolt.

Hi guys------------ at the risk of becoming a kill-joy might I suggest our good old friend "stikky" the stick insect ie LOCTITE 243, medium strength thread locker ?? It does EXACTLY what it says on the er, bottle !!

I find shake washers are much better than spring washers

i saw a crusader sport on sunday with a back rack that had developed metal fatigue and snapped off allowing the givi type top box to knock the rear light lense off i fear shake proof washers and loctite would not have helped on this occasion ,answers on a post card to the usual address?

In my experience, Bullets actually shake far less than some bikes (most notably a BSA Thunderbolt I once had). However Bullets have their moments and my score so far includes one handlebar end mirror (on the A0 Westway flyover at the start of a long journey in heavy traffic - oo-er), two horns and, the most persistent offender, the nearside rear indicator. As for nuts and bolts, pace the advice from m'learned friends here, I find that the best threadlock is rust...
Cheers
TimG

The main reason a lot of these components fail, in particular racks is because they are made of inferior cheap steel.

My Bullet has lost a rear indicator lens, and had three indicator stalks break, a screw and nut from the rear mudguard, the headlamp globe shattered, and the battery cover screw fell out twice, I`ve now got an extra long screw with a retaining nut on the inside with Loctite. The wind lifted the throw-over saddle bags off the bike once while riding with nothing in them; but that doesn`t count does it?