Free Throttle Retainer setup!

[Kerry]

Here's what you do:

1) Park in the lot at work and wait.

2) Sooner or later someone in a tall pickup will back into your bike and knock it over.

3) If you're lucky, the bike will fall over on the right side and the bar end will take most of the impact.  With a bit more luck, the bar end mounting screw will deform the end of the handlebar before it snaps.  If you're

insanely lucky, the plastic throttle grip won't even be damaged too badly.

4) Voila!  Instant Throttle Retainer!  [/list:u]

[fettcols]

I love it when the dumb ass gods do something good...

[nisus1]

did they stop/leave note or did they just take off?  Sorry that had to happen to you... i'm always waiting to find mine laying on it's side.

[Eklipse]

I hate parking mine in the parking lot. I always try to find MC parking (yeah right) or park in the stripes or on some concrete somewhere. Of course I can't always do that so I just worry all day that someone is going to sweep into my space at 40 miles an hour and smash my bike.

On a happier note, nisus1 I like your icon, I want to ride that

[Kerry]

Actually, it was a friend/coworker of mine.  ("I didn't even see it!")  He came looking for me, with the bar end and throttle lock hardware in his hand.

The only other damage was a scrape on the right-side engine cover (and the Suzuki sticker).  He has asked to me let him know about any costs I incur, so I'm sure it will all work out.

[Jake D]

No more sandwich eating on the go!  

[davipu]

ok, so just for the noobs, when you park in a car spot park so the cars can see you and dont pull in, unless your parking like 3 bikes in one spot then be the first guy and pull all the way in. so you bike dosn't get hit.   but otherwise park straight inso the tail of the bike is about a foot in from the car tail line.  so the cars can see you BEFORE they pull into the spot.

[Kerry]

Actually, now I can eat a sandwich anytime - without even having to tighten down my Throttle Retainer wingnut!  :x

The throttle no longer snaps back on its own, because the deformed handlebar end pushes outward on the white plastic throttle grip.  (See the odd gap and the "tight spot" between the two in the second picture.)

[dgyver]

Accidents can happen. At least he is honest and told you.

[treybrad]

ok, so just for the noobs, when you park in a car spot park so the cars can see you and dont pull in, unless your parking like 3 bikes in one spot then be the first guy and pull all the way in. so you bike dosn't get hit.   but otherwise park straight inso the tail of the bike is about a foot in from the car tail line.  so the cars can see you BEFORE they pull into the spot.

Yep. I've almost knocked over my buddies bike probably 3 times b/c he insists on pulling all the way up to the curb. I keep telling him someone is just going to come flying in and he's going to be the proud owner of a ball of metal... I always park mine kind of diagonal in the spot w/ the rear end sticking out even w/ the cars. No excuse not to see it...

trey

[milo]

This exact thing happened to me a week ago. I was parallel parked behind a truck. I came out annd found that the right mirror was broke (the SV650 mirror I just got of ebay... :x ) and the bar-end was bent 90 degrees down, but still in the bar. Clearly it had been knocked over and whoever did it just picked it up and scrammed. I took the bar end out, replaced the mirror, and started the bike to make sure everything's okay. It's warming up, it's warming up... give it some throttle... hmm, it's just sitting at 5000 rpm. Do I have too much choke? Actually, zero choke. I looked again and my bar looked exactly like the picture above.

Grrr...

I don't know what to do. Get the bike near an outlet, take the throttle body off and grind it down with my dremel? That would make sense, but sounds like a lot of effort. Instead I take a flat-head screwdriver and start jamming it at the bar. Cause, I figure I can just use elbow grease to wear down the steel. Yeah, that makes sense...

Naturally, I didn't wear down the bar. But as usually happens when using a screwdriver in such a crude fashion, I slipped and heard a loud crack. The screwdriver had gone between the bar and the throttle grip and cracked the plastic. Crap. I hope that's not bad... I try turning it and... it's not stuck anymore!  Turn it all the way and it got a little stuck therre, so I (on purpose this time) stuck the screwdriver in and cracked the plastic over there too.

Now, because the outer edge of the plastic throttle grip is no longer a rigid circle, and the deformation of the bar is a smoothish bump (like the one above appears to be), everything works fine.

Not sure if you wanna go this route (repair things by breaking things?), but it's the cheapest and easiest way to fix it.

[cheesy]

use a dremel and shape it down.

[Kerry]

My "real" throttle retainer relies heavily on the rigid plastic ridge at the end of the throttle grip.  A little of it was broken off before, but this fall broke a pretty big chunk of it off.  There's only a small tab left now.

I plan to replace the plastic throttle grip and have my friend pay for it.

And yes, I'll use my Dremel or a sledge (J/K) to take the dimple off the handlebar.