Date: 29-03-24  Time: 12:47 pm

Author Topic: A mouse ate my bike! (Well sort of...)  (Read 2263 times)

Wharfe

  • DAS Born Again
  • **
  • Posts: 80
    • Main bike:
      FZS600 02-03
    • View Profile
A mouse ate my bike! (Well sort of...)
« on: 05 November 2017, 02:12:25 pm »
So, my other bike is a 16 plate Tracer (and yes, I love it).
On Friday, noticing that the bike was running lumpy at low revs with a very erratic idle, and unable to establish any obvious cause I took it off to my local Yamaha dealer to do the necessary (it's still warrantied so i was hopeful that this would be a nil-cost visit (fat chance as it turned out). The diagnostics computer revealed nowt wrong so, as the guy said, "it's down to spanners and spotting to find whatever's broken, fallen off or whatever". [/size]After considerable spanner action in their workshops the cause turned out to be vermin (mice probably) damage to two of the three vacuum ports (or more specifically the rubber bungs that sit on top of them). The scottoiler vacuum valve atop the third was not to Pixie and Dixie's* taste apparently.... 3.5 hours of labour charges those b%st%rtd mice cost me as obviously this was NOT covered under warranty! "Oooh I hate those meeces to pieces!"*So Foc-er's, take care this time of year, the little blighters are coming into warm places (like the top of your engine in your garage), they're hungry and they'll chew all sorts. You have been warned. Here at Wharfe mansions it's mousetraps all round. Now I'm a buddhist kinda guy, don't eat meat, don't like killing anything if at all possible, but my garage is now a free-fire zone for anything that moves..... *kids, ask your parents about the old HannaBarbera cartoon "Pixie and Dixie and Mr Jinks"....Crap that passed for entertainment in the 70's..[/color]

tommyardin

  • GP Hero
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,836
    • Main bike:
      I don't own a bike
    • View Profile
Re: A mouse ate my bike! (Well sort of...)
« Reply #1 on: 05 November 2017, 02:16:48 pm »
Hey Hey hey! We all hate meeces to pieces  :lol

Hugh Mungus

  • Club Racer
  • ****
  • Posts: 435
    • Main bike:
      Other
    • View Profile
Re: A mouse ate my bike! (Well sort of...)
« Reply #2 on: 05 November 2017, 05:31:46 pm »
A mate of mine couldn't get his bike started after the winter storage. A mouse had nested in the airbox! Air filter was gone and replaced with nice new mouse nest.

darrsi

  • GP Hero
  • ******
  • Posts: 10,648
    • Main bike:
      FZS600 00-01
    • View Profile
Re: A mouse ate my bike! (Well sort of...)
« Reply #3 on: 05 November 2017, 06:53:06 pm »
They are very attracted to peanut butter, makes very good bait.
More people are born because of alcohol than will ever die from it.

Grayo

  • WSB Pack Hound
  • *****
  • Posts: 502
  • Another ex Fazer owner still hanging around.
    • Main bike:
      Other
    • - Triumph Tiger 1050 Sport
    • View Profile
Re: A mouse ate my bike! (Well sort of...)
« Reply #4 on: 05 November 2017, 06:59:52 pm »
They are very attracted to peanut butter, makes very good bait.
Or chocolate. In fact, anything sweet. Just don't use cheese as mice hate it and you will never catch them. It's an urban myth that mice love cheese.
I could change my opinion, but then we'd both be wrong.

YamFazFan

  • GP Hero
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,626
    • Main bike:
      Other
    • View Profile
Re: A mouse ate my bike! (Well sort of...)
« Reply #5 on: 05 November 2017, 11:50:58 pm »
Mice will readily take cheese as bait.

Chocolate and peanut butter may be more attractive to them, but rodents are notoriously unfussy. They can't afford to be in order to survive.

BBROWN1664

  • Administrator
  • GP Hero
  • ******
  • Posts: 13,065
  • Should get out more!
    • Main bike:
      FZS600 00-01
    • - Tracer 900
    • View Profile
    • My website
Re: A mouse ate my bike! (Well sort of...)
« Reply #6 on: 06 November 2017, 11:14:28 am »
damage to two of the three vacuum ports (or more specifically the rubber bungs that sit on top of them).

I have a house in France that doesn't get used much but last year we had a few mice that decided the rubber cap on the sink u-bend that capped off where most normal people fit a washing machine or dishwasher waste pipe would make a good snack.

We didn't notice it until after the first load of washing up water ended up on the kitchen floor.

New cap, wrapped in tin foil and the little feccers haven't gone near it again. They don't like tin foil on their teeth.
Another ex-Fazer rider that is a foccer again

YamFazFan

  • GP Hero
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,626
    • Main bike:
      Other
    • View Profile
Re: A mouse ate my bike! (Well sort of...)
« Reply #7 on: 06 November 2017, 11:29:37 am »
If they're hungry enough, they will even have a go at a bar of soap. Seen that before.

I've heard stories of them nesting in air boxes previously.

Apparently the urine is quite corrisive and can end up down in the carb/bore.

I bought a second hand spark arrestor   silencer for my KL250 that came with a complimentary mouse nest inside.

fazersharp

  • GP Hero
  • ******
  • Posts: 6,915
  • 10 stone Racing Snake
    • Main bike:
      FZS600 98-99
    • View Profile
Re: A mouse ate my bike! (Well sort of...)
« Reply #8 on: 06 November 2017, 01:57:38 pm »
Is it that they dont actually eat it but just like to chew on it - like when I eat cashew nuts I like the crunch - and yet softness about them and I cant stop eating them
I don't do rain or threat there of. dry rider only with no shame.

YamFazFan

  • GP Hero
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,626
    • Main bike:
      Other
    • View Profile
Re: A mouse ate my bike! (Well sort of...)
« Reply #9 on: 06 November 2017, 04:43:47 pm »
I think they have the permanently growing front teeth don't they?. A lot of rodents do.

They have to gnaw at stuff to keep them in check.

fazersharp

  • GP Hero
  • ******
  • Posts: 6,915
  • 10 stone Racing Snake
    • Main bike:
      FZS600 98-99
    • View Profile
Re: A mouse ate my bike! (Well sort of...)
« Reply #10 on: 06 November 2017, 05:11:23 pm »
What is needed is a kind of a sacrificial gnaw block, something that is very satisfyingly gnawable so they go for that and not important rubber stuff   
I don't do rain or threat there of. dry rider only with no shame.

YamFazFan

  • GP Hero
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,626
    • Main bike:
      Other
    • View Profile
Re: A mouse ate my bike! (Well sort of...)
« Reply #11 on: 06 November 2017, 07:06:43 pm »
Yep and you just know what would happen to the gnawing block.....it would remain untouched whilst they carried on chomping away at everything else! :lol

fazersharp

  • GP Hero
  • ******
  • Posts: 6,915
  • 10 stone Racing Snake
    • Main bike:
      FZS600 98-99
    • View Profile
Re: A mouse ate my bike! (Well sort of...)
« Reply #12 on: 06 November 2017, 08:14:19 pm »
Yep and you just know what would happen to the gnawing block.....it would remain untouched whilst they carried on chomping away at everything else! :lol
Shotgun then  :2guns
I don't do rain or threat there of. dry rider only with no shame.

steve 10562cc

  • WSB Pack Hound
  • *****
  • Posts: 542
    • Main bike:
      Other
    • - KAWASAKI Z1000
    • View Profile
Re: A mouse ate my bike! (Well sort of...)
« Reply #13 on: 06 November 2017, 08:46:09 pm »
Those little b*stards ate through one of my fishing holdalls and chewed there way through £50 worth of boilies but guess that was cheaper than eating the bike. I really have no excuse I used to be a pest control officer. Just to give you all an idea of what your up against a fully grown mouse will get through a hole the size of a 5p piece, but on the bright side if there's mice you haven't got rats and visa versa.