Playing home mechanic and dinged my tank. I'm so upset!

[squidwood]

thats always good advice about the towel over the tank..............does it work too if you out riding and you crash ?

[teddy037.2]

thats always good advice about the towel over the tank..............does it work too if you out riding and you crash ?

for that, you'll need shag carpet on the tank 

[c_rex]

thats always good advice about the towel over the tank..............does it work too if you out riding and you crash ?

It would give you something to mop up the tears I suppose.  Or maybe use it to 'towel snap' whoever caused the crash (assuming it wasn't yourself).   

[corey]

i found out the hard way too.
threaded backwards... i didn't ding my tank though, just wasted about an hour of my life and got really pissed off.

[dlearl476]

always, always, always throw a towel, old t-shirt or something over the tank when working on yer bike.  make it part of the ritual of assembling parts, tools, beers, etc.  it's a lesson learned one way or another.  I learned mine on a dirt bike years ago but fortunately didn't care too much as the thing got beat to hell anyway.

Being a clutz, I learned a long time ago to through something thickly soft on there.  Somewhere along the path I found a really nice old-fashioned quilted furniture pad.  Also, if it's going to be something involved, I've found it's easier to remove the tank and get it out of harm's way.  Makes access to a lot of things easier as well.

[sbrguy]

home depot or any hardwar store get plastic plug caps in the hardware section they cost about 25 cents each and come in black or white, i suggest going with the black i believe its size 3/16 inch but could be wrong.  they aren't water proof just make things look nice.

[crashmoto]

I always seem to break bolts off or pop a bolt through by over-tightening. 

if you're going to be playing home mechanic- which is not a bad thing at all- you need to get a torque wrench.  Invest in one they are not even that expensive and you need one to do many of the simple maintenance ops you might want to do, as well as keeping things tightened to spec.  Northern tool sells a variety including their own "generic" models which I have two of and they work just dandy 

[DucHead]

...Definitely no more pressure washing this puppy - even gently...

Don't use a pressure washer to clean your bike.

[uclabiker06]

Just an idea but if you want you could put a little Italian flag decal or other decal on the scratched area...pretty cheap fix.  Don't worry you'll get over it.  Getting a scratch on the bike is like getting punched in the face.  I mean I'd rather get punched in the face.

TIP:  If you are unscrewing the upper bolts for the horizontal belt cover your frame up if you are using those L shaped Allen wrenches or just use the ones with the T handle bar...ask me how I know. 

[venomousr1993]

Auto Zone has the little black plastic caps that have the ridges so they don't come back out on you.  They plastic retainers or something.  I just put some high temp grease in the threads in case water got in there....but it is stored inside and never gets wet..unless by accident.

[lauramonster]

Sounds like you need to go to Deal's Gap and get a dragon decal.  Would look cool.

If one decal looks odd, buy 2 and even out the tank. 

Get a custom painter to cover the chip with a tattoo like freehand custom artwork.  Initials?  Flag? heart with someone's name?  tasmanian devil?  What is it that would reflect something in your personality?   

You get the idea....

post pics of what you end up doing to solve the paint chip problem.