February 2009

Crunch as a Replacement Shift and Clutch Lever

Although I carry a regular set of needle nose vice grips in my tool roll for road trips and other long rides, I always keep my Crunch in the tank bag or glove box of my motorcycle. One time the darn shift lever felt stuck, it would not budge. So I slammed down on it with my foot and snapped it right off. Of course, something like this could only happen at 3:45 am, 100 miles from the nearest human being. I tried for a short while simply easing into the throttle in third gear, but it quickly became apparent that I needed to be able to shift gears. Then it hit me, hey I used the Crunch as a replacement clutch lever once, why not a shift lever? A little bend in what little metal was left of the shift lever in the right place so the Crunch would more or less be easy to tap and I was in business. I was extra, extra careful shifting and after a while I shifted as if it were the original lever, hitting lots of hard bumps and potholes. The Crunch barely budged from the original place I first clamped it onto. It got me home.

Long before that however a small patch of oil caused me to slip and my bike fell over, taking with it the clutch lever. There was just enough metal left for me to grab onto with the Crunch, and so I simply locked it on and used it as an emergency replacement clutch lever, worked so well that it stayed on the bike for 2 weeks before I got around to actually replacing it. It was really aggravating reaching for my Crunch during this time only to remember that it’s attached to the bike! After the third time, I rode over to the nearest dealer and bought a new clutch lever just so I could get my Crunch back.

E.H.
Brooklyn, NY