Parking lot Fender Breaker

Alright, here's my "Old Folks Driving" story:

My ex-wife's grandparents had a great big white Caprice. Neither of them were very good drivers, but the car didn't look too bad. One day one of the grandkids was looking for brownie points and washed their car- turns out it was covered with little dings and scrapes, and they had been slathering it with white shoe polish to hide the damage...
They're not driving anymore, thankfully!

My grandfather had standards his whole life His last truck went through clutches about 1 a month. He had bad legs and could not get his foot to come off the clutch so he would wind the bezerker out of the engine and ride the clutch. I bought the truck off him. Couldn't get that burnt clutch smell out of her. My mother is 86 now and gets mysterious flats all the time which calls for a whole new set of tires. She's a Q-tip but I wouldn't want to try and get her liscence off her without backup!




Shhhhhhh I'm hunting Q-tips!

My grandfather had standards too, but he didn't acquire them until later in life when he sorta got religion. His standards were a little lax when he was a youngin'.



Ohhhh, you're talkin tranny again ain'tcha?

neilage66 wrote:

My grandfather had standards too, but he didn't acquire them until later in life when he sorta got religion. His standards were a little lax when he was a youngin'.



Ohhhh, you're talkin tranny again ain'tcha?

:woohoo: i was thinking that too,but ya beat me to it!:woohoo:

Hi captain, sorry I missed all the action, been laying low. My wife's KZ650 just got hit last week while parked outside the house, against the curb. The fat lady across the street backed her dented up Mercedes into the bike. I should have seen it coming since I've observed her driving 'skills' numerous times, wondering why good people die in traffic and she is still alive.
Anyway, she backed into it on the side of the alternator cover hard enough to dig the kickstand into the asphalt and bend it to about a 45 degree angle. The bike, amazingly, did not fall over but remained parked chopper style, kickstand burrowed into the hot pavement and all.
I was worried about the frame and checked it pretty thoroughly, and all appears to be good. The frame tubes on are not straight where the kickstand is mounted, as your picture shows, which is normal as far as I can see. The frame has a similar curve on the other side. I replaced the kickstand next day and rode it around the block, everything seemed fine.
Unimpressed by my efforts, my wife felt it was weaving somewhat on the freeway and was worried. I then took it out for a 1/2 hr drive and could not establish any type of weave, either on fast sweepers or flat out on the freeway.... Wife's happy now!
Hope this helps. Good luck fixing up the bike...

neilage66 wrote:

My grandfather had standards too, but he didn't acquire them until later in life when he sorta got religion. His standards were a little lax when he was a youngin'.



Ohhhh, you're talkin tranny again ain'tcha?

I have always felt we should have standards if we are young or old.


But I always hated automatics.

dutchz wrote:

Hi captain, sorry I missed all the action, been laying low. My wife's KZ650 just got hit last week while parked outside the house, against the curb. The fat lady across the street backed her dented up Mercedes into the bike. I should have seen it coming since I've observed her driving 'skills' numerous times, wondering why good people die in traffic and she is still alive.
Anyway, she backed into it on the side of the alternator cover hard enough to dig the kickstand into the asphalt and bend it to about a 45 degree angle. The bike, amazingly, did not fall over but remained parked chopper style, kickstand burrowed into the hot pavement and all.
I was worried about the frame and checked it pretty thoroughly, and all appears to be good. The frame tubes on are not straight where the kickstand is mounted, as your picture shows, which is normal as far as I can see. The frame has a similar curve on the other side. I replaced the kickstand next day and rode it around the block, everything seemed fine.
Unimpressed by my efforts, my wife felt it was weaving somewhat on the freeway and was worried. I then took it out for a 1/2 hr drive and could not establish any type of weave, either on fast sweepers or flat out on the freeway.... Wife's happy now!
Hope this helps. Good luck fixing up the bike...

Thanks for the heads up on the curve in the frame. I feel pretty confident that it's just cosmetic damage at this point to the cover and pedal. My short ride yesterday didn't reveal any obvious handling problems. We're scheduled for about a week of rain on the east coast so it looks like I may not be able to give her a serious ride until next weekend.