Some amusing things. New Millennium, Same mistakes. Early in this new millennium we had two bikes of the same model in our workshop for repair, Dave was working on one machine and Ian the other. Now it all started to go pear shaped when it was discovered that one of the machines had a dangerously worn chain and sprockets. On phoning the owner we were given permission to replace them. All very normal you may say but in this day and age we did not think much to the fact that the bike had been booked in under one name and his mum or dad had a different name. Unfortunately we found out when he came to collect his machine that we had been talking to the Mum of the owner of the other machine who also had a different name. We explained to the owner who called in his step farther to assist with the payment, that it was a fact that his machine did need the chain and sprockets even if we had been talking to the wrong owner. A short while afterwards we had a his Mum on the phone to which we had to explain again what had happened, she was not happy. The next call was from her ex-husband about his son's bike and we had to explain all over again. In the end we got so confused by all the phone calls by people with different names, and having to work out exactly which bike we were talking about and who they were in relation to the owner. In the end were we pleased to refund the cost of the chain and sprockets just to stop all the waist of our time and not having to explain it all over again to someone with yet another name. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Whoop's Going back a good few year's Fred had a call to collect a Honda CB125 Benley from the Albert Pier. The key would be in the machine and the crank was gone. He collected the machine and duly fitted a new crank, bearings, pistons, valves etc. After about two weeks he had a call from the owner. When are you going to collect my machine from the Albert pier? It turned out that there had been two machine and Fred had collected the wrong one. He duly collected the other machine and spent all day taking out the worn out parts from the second machine and putting them into the first one. He then delivered the worn out machine back to the Albert pier, worn out but with a very clean motor and new oil. Then back at the workshop he spent the next day putting all the new parts he had taken out of the first machine into the second one. No one ever reported the first machine, which was in our workshop for two weeks as missing to the police. And it was still on the Albert pier for weeks afterwards. We never heard any more about it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A spot of overtime Back in the sixties and the age of the mini skirt. We used to take customers down to the Foullon road of an evening to teach them to ride the machine they had purchased. Fred had the job of teaching two young ladies one evening. Both had the very shortest of mini skirts. One had bought a Triumph T10 scooter the other a Vespa 90. The one with the T10 found great difficulty in taking off, as in order to do so on this machine the rider had to sit well back on the seat in order for their weight to depress a safety switch that stopped the machine from accelerating. He skirt was very short but also very tight and she could not open her legs wide enough to sit far enough back. She had to pull the skirt even higher to do so. Her short-skirted friend found this very funny, but when it was her turn to be taught she had great difficulty mastering the clutch. She did many enormous wheelies and ended up with her and the machine diving into the hedge with a long drop down into the field. Fred already tired by all the running up and down the road was relived to find that she was still stuck in the hedge and had not gone right over into the field below. The trouble was that just her two legs were sticking out wiggling in the air, and he did not know just were to grab her to get here out. It was not just all the running up and down the Foullon road that made Fred very hot and red faced that night. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Funny I wonder where that came from One Saturday night about 30 years ago Fred & John were working very late putting up new display racks made of Dexion. It had just turned midnight and they were just clearing up ready to go home when a knock came on the front door. This was not very surprising as it was the custom in those days a patrolling policeman seeing us in the building that late often knocked to see if every thing was OK. But this time it was a man who was very obviously on his way home from the pub. "I want to by a bike" he said. On enquiring how he would pay for it he produced a wad of cash from a trouser pocket and said " I want one with carrier & hub dynamo". So in the early hours of a Sunday morning there we were changing wheels to hub dynamo, wiring up lights & fitting a carrier. When we were all finished off he went up Victoria road on his way. We wonder to this day whether he woke up the next morning wondering where his wages went and puzzling over why someone would leave a new bike in his garden. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Snuffed it Back in the 80s one of our customers came into the workshop with his dads motorcycle for repair. I asked why he was riding his Dads bike (I knew his dad had not been very well of late). I understood him to say It's my bike now my dad has snuffed it. I reported this to Lesna Millard who was not too surprised as he had been very ill. Imagine Lesnas surprise a few weeks later when he walked into the office. It turns out that what his son had actually told me was that is dad had swapped it. They had changed bikes as his dad was now not strong enough to manage his bigger machine. |