One time, I was riding my Laverda and...

...... the throttle cable broke.Sort of unexpected as no particular strain on the inner,but there you are.
Happened whilst taking part in the National Rally ( Control points all over the country,pick one to start from at 2pm Sat. , and visit as many as possible without exceeding 500 miles,on paper that is,more like 600 taking into account getting lost,wrong turns etc., ride through the night and everyone converges at a final control point no later than 10 am Sun.,then,if it finishes at Doncaster as it did one year,another 250 mile ride home,for me anyway,great fun-or it used to be,now survives in emasculated form with no manned controls and no night riding I believe,all due to you know what).
Anyway,dug out spare cable which didn`t fit,must have been for a twin or something,my own fault for not checking,so threw both cables away and contemplated the 70 mile trip home on the back of a recovery truck.
Then it occured to me you only need revs to get the thing moving again,so I turned the tickover adjuster to 100% ,which gave about 2500 rpm which was enough for about 40,maybe 45 mph on the flat bits ,in fact it worked so well I was half tempted to continue on the rally,but then I thought about all the hills around Derbyshire and decided against it.
Just give the bike a little nudge forward pulling away from the lights and engaging first wasn`t too crunchy.
Yamaha may have thrown away the throttle cable on their `06 R6 but I beat them to it ten years earlier on the Mirage.
 
Bit of fun trying to go slower? Change down to 2nd for 40/50kph towns?
Happened near Newbury at about 8 in the evening,so not too much traffic along the A4 back to Bristol,got up to fourth on the flatter/downhill bits,no real hills to deal with and only Marlborough,Calne and Chippenham to deal with before reaching Bristol.
Was most of the time in second,maybe third when traffic was around,more like 30-35 mph then,tried to keep gearchanges to minimum,changing down wasn`t so nice,and clutch took a bit of stick,so although it went quite well to start with out in the country,my decision to head straight for home was the right one in the end.
Also reminds me of when I got a rear puncture on the Ilminster bypass in Somerset,great big hole,a drill piece caused it,so Finilec wouldn`t work,but in the end managed to ride home 60 miles or so on the flat rear tyre, the FLAM rim keeps the tyre clamped in place,that worked quite well upto 40 mph or so,careful on corners obviously,and once in Bristol with slow traffic speeds was hardly any problem at all,although that was probably relief at having made it that far.
Tyre was shagged of course,didn`t actually look that bad to the eye,but of course wouldn`t trust it again,but as it was just about at the end of it`s life anyway it didn`t worry me too much.
 
Last edited:
But, coming outa town up to 60mph in second, on the downhill straight ............... :rolleyes:
Might have been a temptation !!! , but mostly trundled along between 30-40 , minimum gear changes, just concentrating on getting home , and anyway with just 2500 rpm available max speed ,even in top would only be about 50 mph , could have tried pulling the clutch in though downhill,might have made 60 then , maybe !!!
 
Last edited:
The only time I had to get home with a busted throttle cable, I tied a piece of tie wire (I usually carry a bit in the tool kit) to the throttle linkage that goes across the carbs, and led it by as straight a route as possible to the vicinity of the handlebars. I simply pulled on it when I wanted to go faster. It was difficult to control, so feathering the throttle accurately was out of the question. Most of the time I either had too much throttle or not enough. Anyone following me must have wondered about my incompetent throttle control. But I managed to lurch home through the city and a few miles of country roads. These are the character building experiences that make for an interesting life as a bike owner. :)
 
I was driving a shit-box cab-over truck, the accelerator when flat to the floor would get stuck every now and then, I told the boss it was a death trap and I wouldn't drive it again until fixed.

A few weeks later, there was a job to drive it 3,500klm round trip, I said I would if it had been fixed. Yep.

On the return trip the accelerator cable broke as I was parking up for the night at the Moonbi truck stop. I was told it would take 5 days for a new cable to get to me. I flipped the cab, and devised a plan. Went into the servo, bought a roll of whipper-nipper cord, pulled out a rubber bung out of the footwell and ran the cord through. Tied the end to the injector pump, closed up and tied the in cab throttle cord to the door handle.

New morning and chucked it in gear and gave the cord a tug and away we went. At Ben Lomond range I had the cord pulled all the way on a up hill section and backed off the cord ready for the upcoming left hander. The cord was loose and the fucker was still picking up and gaining speed (stuck again). I rode that fucker around the bend on the wrong side of the road, bashed the cut out and rolled to a stop between bends.

Parked it, and hitched a ride to the nearest town, got a motel room, rang the boss, told him he was a prick, it hadn't been fixed.

They said it would take a few days to get a tow truck to retrieve it. I left the keys at the motel, never to work for them again.
 
The only time I had to get home with a busted throttle cable, I tied a piece of tie wire (I usually carry a bit in the tool kit) to the throttle linkage that goes across the carbs, and led it by as straight a route as possible to the vicinity of the handlebars. I simply pulled on it when I wanted to go faster. It was difficult to control, so feathering the throttle accurately was out of the question. Most of the time I either had too much throttle or not enough. Anyone following me must have wondered about my incompetent throttle control. But I managed to lurch home through the city and a few miles of country roads. These are the character building experiences that make for an interesting life as a bike owner. :)
Yes the piece of wire is a good idea.
That reminds me of a Ogri cartoon in Bike magazine where Malcolm his hapless mate was giving Ogri a lift on his Triumph with Ogri thinking "Jesus I`ve never known anyone ride a bike so slow" when they come to a halt.
Malcolm says the throttle cables broken,can`t go any further.
Ogri says "ferchrist`s sake Malcolm" , grabs the end of the cable and yanks it open as far as it will go,still on the pillion with Malcolm steering....
They arrive at the pub,Ogri marching into the bar to order the drinks,leaving a traumatised Malcolm outside staring at his steaming,smoking Triumph....
 
Last edited:
Malcolm says the throttle cables broken,can`t go any further.
Ogri says "ferchrist`s sake Malcolm" , grabs the end of the cable and yanks it open as far as it will go,still on the pillion with Malcolm steering....
They arrive at the pub,Ogri marching into the bar to order the drinks,leaving a traumatised Malcolm outside staring at his steaming,smoking Triumph....
Ha ha. That's pretty much how my throttle worked. Basically on or off. By the time you've yanked on it hard enough to overcome the slide return springs, it's difficult to stop it opening up most of the way.

There's better ways to deal with a busted throttle cable. Many years ago (in the early 70's) while touring Mainland Australia on my Honda 750-4, I saw a bike stopped on the side of the Hume Highway just north of Violet Town on the way to Sydney. I pulled over to see if I could offer any assistance. It was a young woman with a Honda CB350 who's throttle cable had busted. The nipple had pulled off the twist grip end of the cable. I had a bit of a rummage amongst my stuff and found a screw-on cable nipple, but it was too big to fit in her twistgrip. I told her that I could remove her front brake cable from the lever, and re-purpose the brake lever to operate the throttle. I thought that squeezing the brake lever to go faster might do her head in so I was expecting a cool reaction to the plan, but she was enthusiastic about it. We set it up that way and it worked a treat. Full lever travel was about 3/4 throttle. It was 50km to the next major town (Wangaratta) where there was likely to be a motorcycle shop that sold cables. It was pretty much open highway cruising all the way so hopefully she wouldn't need to brake hard. I followed her into town and she was happily cruising along at about 100kph. We found a Honda dealer so I left her there to get it sorted and continued on my way to Sydney.
 
Ha ha. That's pretty much how my throttle worked. Basically on or off. By the time you've yanked on it hard enough to overcome the slide return springs, it's difficult to stop it opening up most of the way.

There's better ways to deal with a busted throttle cable. Many years ago (in the early 70's) while touring Mainland Australia on my Honda 750-4, I saw a bike stopped on the side of the Hume Highway just north of Violet Town on the way to Sydney. I pulled over to see if I could offer any assistance. It was a young woman with a Honda CB350 who's throttle cable had busted. The nipple had pulled off the twist grip end of the cable. I had a bit of a rummage amongst my stuff and found a screw-on cable nipple, but it was too big to fit in her twistgrip. I told her that I could remove her front brake cable from the lever, and re-purpose the brake lever to operate the throttle. I thought that squeezing the brake lever to go faster might do her head in so I was expecting a cool reaction to the plan, but she was enthusiastic about it. We set it up that way and it worked a treat. Full lever travel was about 3/4 throttle. It was 50km to the next major town (Wangaratta) where there was likely to be a motorcycle shop that sold cables. It was pretty much open highway cruising all the way so hopefully she wouldn't need to brake hard. I followed her into town and she was happily cruising along at about 100kph. We found a Honda dealer so I left her there to get it sorted and continued on my way to Sydney.
Wasted opportunity Cam, a word to the bike shop guy, next day delivery and a stay in a free motel room for her troubles….. and hubba bubba. In like Flynn.
 
Trust you to look for the seedy side of that story Chris. :rolleyes:

Although to be honest, lustful thoughts did cross my mind at the time because she seemed nice and was not unattractive. What can I say? I was young and unattached. But I'm not the kind of predatory bastard to take advantage of a woman in need of assistance. Besides, she made it pretty clear that she wasn't interested in a scruffy biker like me. She told me quite early in our brief encounter that she was going to visit her boyfriend in Sydney, presumably to forestall any kind of carnal advance from me. In the end we didn't even exchange contact details. I just wished her a safe trip and buggered off.
 
I’m sure most of us have rigged up a method of working the accelerator when the cable has bust on our bikes but when someone tried it with their car, the other day in the IOM, they got nicked by the police for driving a vehicle in a dangerous condition. Party poopers or what? 😕
 
Back
Top