For the want of a bolt

A few days ago I took the bike to have the rear wheel replaced.  Some young guys did it and I have had maintenance done by this shop before.  What could go wrong?
Answer:  Something simple, something that could have been overlooked but should not of been.  When riding a motorcycle of any sort a simple mistake can quickly become a disaster.

To make matters worse, when I was riding away from the shop something just didn't fee right.  I gripped the left hand brake lever to give it a squeeze and it just felt off, if felt "soft".  I shook my head, thinking it was just the new tire, a figment of my imagination.  On the way home the ride was beautiful, wonderful, joyful.  The new tire seemed to be working wonders on the twisty roads I followed home, so I put the brake issue behind me.  Thinking it was just me breaking in a new tire.

Then another day goes by, it feels right as I commute on the mostly straight roads home.  Then today I worked early meaning I would have to ride in rush hour traffic.  I didn't bother with the T-clock inspection.  I wish I had.  I may have caught the problem, or it may have been overlooked.  I don't know.   I knew I had good oil and tire pressure.  My light worked, my kickstand was solid.
So I left, feeling good and entered traffic for my thirty plus mile ride to work.  When I had gone about twenty miles I reached for the brake...it was not there.  Nothing.   I had no rear brake at all.

I was within ten miles of work, I could make it with just the front brake.  I rode on running through possible problems in my head.  Did I have enough brake fluid?  Did something happen that caused the brake fluid to leak or bleed?  Were the brake pads that worn?
With five miles I heard the sound of metal rubbing on metal when I applied the rear break for a test.  I made it to work, looked and then looked again.  A bolt was missing on the rear brake caliper.  This in turn lowered the caliper OFF the rotor.  By pushing the brake the piston pushes the brake pads out and since the rotor was not stopping the pad, it pushed the piston all the way out.  Since the pads did not push back the handle did not have pressure.  Since the caliper if off the rotor, it was rubbing on the rotor making the grinding noise I heard.

In other words...for want of a bolt I could have really fucked up my bike and myself.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

What happened next was a series of phone call, to the shop that did the original work.  They told me they couldn't send anyone out to pick it up or even fix it for me as it sat in the parking lot of work.  It was my only ride home at the time, and I was not going to risk riding home without 1/2 of my brakes...plus I feared what would happen if something came loose and got caught up in the back wheel.  A high side fall would not be good.
Towing was covered by my insurance company so I had the bike flat-bedded to the shop.  At this time I don't even know if the shop has a bot to fix the problem although I think they do.

Funny thing is that even though I feel it's the shop's fault, they should have caught something so simple...they should have done the job right the first time.  I'm madder at myself.  I learned a few things.  One thing is that I'm confident enough in my ability as a rider to handle what could have been a very bad situation and that confidence is not always a good thing.  I also learned that T-CLOCK is there for a reason and needs to be done every time.  No exceptions.

The rear tire and a lesson.

It was just a random check on my tire that brought the bald spot to my attention.  That spot effectivally stopped any riding till I got the tire replaced. 

You can see the bald spot clearly.

I had planned on replacing the rear tire about 2 or 3 weeks ago, but life reared it's ugly head and things got complicated quickly.  A combination of rain, odd work schedules (for example at the time of this writing I've managed to work 24 hours in the last 48) and just my own putting off the inevitable resulted in me having to get a new tire rather quickly.  I ended up buying a Pirelli Diablo tire from Bike Bandit.com.  As it so happened this seems to be the preferred tire of Burgman owners anyway.

There is a lesson to be learned in this of course,  any new rider should get in the habit of doing a T-CLOCK inspection.   It's not something I do very often but I need to.   In a nutshell T-CLOCK is Tires and Wheels, Controls, Lights, oil, Chassis and finally Kickstand.  A nice little acronym created and used by the MSF.  For some odd reason, I decided to do one before getting on my bike about a week ago. I'm glad I did.

Close up side view.

I'm sure that I could have driven a bit further without a problem. When my new tire arrives (which it just did a moment ago) I've got to ride the bike to where I'm getting the tire put on and balanced. Of course I could have also been motoring down the road and then woke up in a nice hospital bed going "Ow that hurts" as well. And really what is more important? Taking 5 minutes out of day to at least give a cursory once over to the bike or missing 5 months of work as they stitch me back together?