Broken Throttle Cable

This is the sort of creative bodge that Dublin couriers used to regularly commit in the name of commerce. Back in the day, the courier in question would probably drive around like this for weeks until...

1. He had enough spare cash to buy another throttle cable
2. Could borrow a Vice Grips
3. Had some time over his busy weekend schedule to fit the cable
4. Got stopped by a copper and was given a producer

In most cases, all four conditions would have to apply before the repair would be carried out.

Another slightly easier, but no less dodgy solution to a broken throttle cable, is to adjust the engine idle as high as it will go and just sort of cruise around with your motor at a constant 2500/3000 rpm.

If you're the more future oriented type, you might consider taping spare throttle and clutch cables alongside the existing cables. So if a cable breaks, it's a relatively simple 5 or 10 minute, permanent repair.

Other courier breakdown essentials were...

• A spare sparkplug (2-Strokes only) but not necessarily the plug spanner required to remove a spark plug.
• An aerosol tyre repairer (This is a bit like the Lourdes medal your mother made you put on your keyring, it makes you feel invincible but doesn't actually have a practical application)
• Truncated clutch and brake levers (So they don't break when the bike falls over. Sometimes this was done with foresight, but in most cases the bike just fell over and the tops of the levers broke off and were never repaired)
• A rusty, off-brand Vice Grips and a bent screwdriver (because proper tools are effete)
• A spare chain link (Another article of faith. This is essentially a relic of the Patron Saint of Motorcycle Chains. If your chain actually does break, in most cases a spare link is fuck-all use)
• WD40 (More religious ephemera - Use it like holy water to bless electrical problems in the hope of some divine intervention)
• John Player Blue (To give you something to do while you wait the five minutes for another courier to come and take all your work. Unfortunately, your JP Blue will have run out long before a van shows up to bring you and your bike home)

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