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I have just posted a reply to someone who very honestly admitted to an embarrassing maintainance mistake and laughed because I have certainly commited my fair share over the years.

This particular one was not on a bike. I had a mobile compressor which needed an oil change. It was a fairly large one, being powered by a large Cummins diesel which was mounted on a wagon frame. I warmed the engine so it was well up to temperature. I had to lie on the ground and reach up to position the funnel under the drain plug, but unfortunately, I could not position the funnel to collect the oil AND undo the sump plug, because it was up in the chassis and out of my reach. I asked a very good friend if he would do the honours with the sump plug. At the appointed command, he undid the sump plug and the oil duly poured into the funnel, but after three seconds,it overflowed the funnel and I was covered with 3 gallons of red hot evil-smelling sump oil......! eeeeek! Unfortunately, I had used a funnel which had a fine filter in the neck and the oil simply could not get through it quickly enough. My 'friend' thought it hilarious, but it took a couple of minutes before I could see the funny side.

That's just one of many I could relate.

Now; what will you admit to.................!

Rog

This is an [edited] post that I made a few years ago...

How Not To Change Your Clutch Fluid...

It has taken a couple weeks to get to the point where I can honestly laugh about this. You are all welcome to laugh at me, also.

A nice day, a couple weeks ago, I decided to to the yearly motorcycle maintenance. I also did my girlfriend's bike on the same day.
Wash,oil changes, tranny oil, FD, ABS brake bleed, clutch, valves, TB's, chain, etc etc.

I worked like a dog, all day. In retrospect, I put a whole lot more on my plate than I could handle.

The sun had been down for a few hours, and last thing for the day was to bleed the clutch.

OK, I was done with that.

Then, I pushed the bike out into the driveway for a final rinsing with the hose. I am spraying off the dribbles, back aching, proud of all my sloppy work that I had accomplished. Then, I sprayed out the inside of the clutch reservoir.

Wait a minute here... that's not right.... I forgot to put the cover back on the clutch reservoir. I hadn't noticed before pushing it out into the dark. darn darn darn darn darn darn, only it wasn't darn.

Don't try this at home kids, I'm a professional horse's rear end.

I remember as a younger, more carefree man, warming up the bike in preparation for an oil change by taking a nice ride, coming back and starting the job, and grabbing the header for balance. Only did that once.

Peter