Brake disc lock - I'm an idiot

[furious_blue]

Some riders tie a brightly-colored string to the lock then loop the other end around the handgrip as a reminder. Many riders have made the same mistake so don't beat yourself up too badly.

Where this technique has failed (note: plural) for me is when it is dark outside and it is hard to notice the brightly colored string/wire...
One time it was dark outside AND I was going to impress my female manager by galant-ly riding off into the horizon.. she was impressed alright, sigh...

 

[walawn]

At some point you just have to laugh at yourself. I had the same disc lock on my Yamaha Blaster 200 when I was younger which was really pointless since it was so light. I was always in the habit of stabbing the throttle and dumping the clutch. The one time I forgot the lock didn't really matter since it broke the lock into two pieces when I took off, with no damage to the brake assembly. A testament to Yamaha's eighties engineering!

 

[ColoradoRod]

Not yet. I was going to work on it this weekend but as a result of dropping the bike and lifting incorrectly, I threw out my back. I know, from bad to worse. It's an old injury and stupid stuff like that aggravates it. Hopefully this coming weekend I'll be up to it and post results too.

Note to self: Don't loan WJS my bike!

I kid, I kid...

I have a long and distinguished history of damaging things while stationary. Dropped my K1100LT not once, but twice. Trapped my foot in my VStrom centerstand and still can't feel my left foot almost 4 months later. Pulled my back pretty bad saving my Goldwing while backing it out of my garage. Some days I think I'd be better off not getting out of bed!

 

[furious_blue]

What I do is attach the disk lock key to the bike key when I've locked the disk. I normally never have any keys attached to the bike key, so if I see this key attached with a ring, it's quite obvious and I can't forget to unlock the disk.

This is the best idea I've heard for this dilemma. Thanks for mentioning it, my days of kissing the ground on take off are over !

Though it's only happened to me about 5 times in about 40 or so years I'm happy not to ever go through that again

 

[WJS]

I finally had some time to inspect the damage. I can't see any bend to the brake pad pin but I'm only eyeing it. It looks fine though.

I took the caliper off and it appears fine but I have no experience with this. In the photos, you can see the red hit-marks from the brake lock. So, what can I check next?

 

[showkey]

Caliper off........ Spin the wheel and watch the rotor for wobble. The runout spec (wobble) is very small and measured with a dial indicator so if your eye detects wobble that would be bad.

 

[lootzyan]

Sharpen a pencil or small thin screwdriver, hold it on top of swingarm, perpendicular to brake rotor and slightly touching close to the edge, rotate a wheel. If there's any significant deviation you should feel it.

 

[WJS]

Sharpen a pencil or small thin screwdriver, hold it on top of swingarm, perpendicular to brake rotor and slightly touching close to the edge, rotate a wheel. If there's any significant deviation you should feel it.

Found no problems. It was consistent all around. I guess I'll put it back together and go for a ride.

 

[Beemerphile]

Found no problems. It was consistent all around. I guess I'll put it back together and go for a ride.

Maybe it was just as I suggested earlier that the pad had been knocked out of square. Careful reassembly might be all that is needed.

 

[WJS]

After weeks of traveling I finally had a day to reasemble and test the bike; All Good. I didnt notice any noise from the front brake. Stopping power felt the same but i didnt try an emergency stop. So all seems good.

 

[maxou723]

I've had this happen to me twice with 2 different bikes. Once it was a U-Lock on my Ninja 600 and more recently with my NC with my disc lock. On the Ninja I was gonna go for a quick start and fell right on my side after giving it gas. The U-lock bent but no damage to the bike (but a hell of damage to my pride!). On the NC it was right in front of the house, I forgot to remove the disc lock but didn't fall that time. I finally decided to use the orange cord that came with the disc lock to attach it to the handle bar so I don't forget to remove the lock!

 

[StratTuner]

This post has got me to stretch a red bungie cord between the mirror mounts whenever I have the brake lock on.
Thank you gentlemen.
I think of you when I remove the lock each day.