Broke the key!

ASPC

ASPC

Joined
Jul 3, 2021
Messages
716
Location
Louisiana
Bike
07 ST1300 ABS
This is not a support request, it’s just a post about what happened the other night at the gas station. I have new keys coming in the mail. Check your keys folks! :)IMG_7625.jpeg
 
I always carry a spare key in my riding pants...
Not cause the 1100 ones break easily, but they could fall through the slots of a manhole/sewer cover... and then? :cautious:
I would have no clue how to alarm the sewer brigade somewhere abroad like France, Italy, etc...
 
ASPC said:
Two small sharp objects on either side of the key levered against the lock on both sides. Worked very well, nice and easy, gentle. Took about 10 seconds. I was relieved. It was also lubricated.
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I would have suggested dental picks. My dentist keeps his broken dental tools for his patients, some of whom are potters. They prize these to make fine lines in thrown pots and other pottery. I use them to dig dirt and grease out of MC parts and machine tools. If one end of the tool breaks, the whole thing is junked.

My second suggestion would have been to hold the bike upside down and thump on the bottom (oil pan). :biggrin:
 
SMSW said:
My second suggestion would have been to hold the bike upside down and thump on the bottom (oil pan). :biggrin:
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Which is a good reason to have keys with knobs made for the left pocket and saddlebags. Those will open the gas cap, but not start the ignition.
 
SMSW said:
I would have suggested dental picks. My dentist keeps his broken dental tools for his patients, some of whom are potters. They prize these to make fine lines in thrown pots and other pottery. I use them to dig dirt and grease out of MC parts and machine tools. If one end of the tool breaks, the whole thing is junked.

My second suggestion would have been to hold the bike upside down and thump on the bottom (oil pan). :biggrin:
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Yes, those would work well. :thumbsup-2x:
 
Funny story, i had some maintenance done on my ST by a trusted mechanic, someone that knew the ST well, he told me when i picked it up, "you should get you some spares made, those keys break easy". Keep in mind, i had this bike for 3-5 years by this time and never had an issue. I listened, bought some spare blanks online soon after he told me but hadn't had them cut yet. I put them in one of the forward storage compartments and it was always in the back of my mind but i never thought about actually calling a locksmith to cut the keys.

Time went by, like a couple of years when one Saturday I decided to ride up to the Ouachita mountains in eastern Oklahoma with my girlfriend on the back, very remote area at the time, didn't even have a cell signal and the key snapped as I was locking or unlocking a luggage lid. It was the only working key I had on me but I remembered I had those blanks. Luckily we were stopped at a place to eat lunch, they allowed me to use their personal cells to find a locksmith, there were only two in the area, first one i called was too busy to come so i called the other, he was in Arkansas but could be there within 45-60 minutes and asked if i had all the broken pieces of the key, "yes, i do". He gets there and he's driving a POS white van, looked like it had been to the 9 gates of hell and he must have saved every receipt he was ever given through the 68 years of life and stowed them on the dash. I'm not complaining, not trying to talk about the guy, just giving you a description so maybe you can smell the scene. This guy was just typical back country kind of stuff i was used to cause i was from Northeast Texas and could swear this guys twin brother lived down there near me.

Any who, the guy gets his contraption out, its mounted to a piece of plywood and looks like two hamsters are needed to run it and the ones he had died on the previous job, we couldn't find any hamsters to run his machine nearby, looks like he's been using it since the end of WWII, but behold! In an emergency, it can be connected to the vehicle battery for back up power!! Guy sets it down on the ground and pulls two jumper cables up and connects it to the vehicle battery. Viola! He delicately places the broken key pieces together and grabs the blank and makes quick work, he's the Albert Einstein of locksmithin' in these mountains I tell you.

Without my hillbilly locksmith friend, it was going to be a verrrrrrrrrrrry looooooooong evening/night getting home, so God bless him, he could have betrothed me to his sister at this point, i was so thankful.

If you're ever in the Ouachita mountains and need a locksmith, i'm sure he's still there, if you see a guy in a van that looks like my description, tell him i said hi. May everyone have no worse luck than i when stranded by broken key....... and for the love of God, please at least go get you some blanks.
 
Another tragedy narrowly averted, as well as a reminder of the ages-old cliche "don't judge a book by its cover."

Who knows, you could have had an encounter with an alien. Like an angel.

I'm imagining an older looking guy?
 
Gus1300 said:
Why not? They're not HISS (or whatever it is), as far as I know. Due to length maybe? But if it's long enough to reach, it should work.
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This farkle uses keys that have been cut and are to short to penetrate the ignition barrel deeply enough to allow it to rotate. The gas cap and pannier lock cylinders do not use the full length of the key.
 
My bike came with one OEM key. I noticed, the first time I opened the fuel cap, how flimsy it was. (Correction: I do not know if the key was flimsy by design or had seen it's fair share of twisting events.) I ordered new Honda blanks and had two more made. One I put in my riding jacket and one I use in the bike. I hung up the old key for safe keeping. I noticed that you are risking your key if you are not VERY careful with the fuel lock or the bag locks. It's a great design but that key is not up to the challenge.
 
This bike has a terrible key design with built in weak points. I have broken 2 keys, one in the gas tank and one in the pannier. Got the broken piece out of the gas tank with a dental pick with some trouble but no damage. Got the broken piece out of the pannier lock with some cosmetic damage to the lock ring.

I thought I was being careful, but when the aluminum key decides its time to pack it in, it gives no notice.
 
That's why I decided to get key copies as soon as possible. I was being very careful with the fuel cap, pressing down to take the strain off the key and still I noticed the key shaft flex as it was twisted. I thought about how many times that key has been stressed since 2006 and decided to retire it.
 
But with the broken key in the ignition, any old screwdriver will do to get you home - the barrel will turn with the broken bit in place.

Maybe.
 
I did think about fishing the broken piece out and dropping it in the ignition lock. But I did't have the tools with me and I didn't know how safe it would be to do that. Also, I wondered how difficult it would be to get the broken part out of the ignition afterwards. But If I had been a long way from home I would have done that because I carry a basic travel tool kit when I'm away. Thankfully I was just a few miles from home and I knew I could call my buddy and he would come and pick me up with his truck and trailer. I joked with him at the time and said I could have been hundreds of miles away say in west Texas and he just said that would have been inconvenient for him but he would have come just the same. And he would too. Good friends are gold.

Standing by the gas pump in a small town using my phone, and everyone is driving around looking at what I'm doing and why, even the cops pulled up and watched me because gas pumps have a detection alarm and I was there to long, so the gas pump starts flashing and beeping at me. And I was a cop in this town. I felt kinda stupid and annoyed with myself, still do. You see, I have blanks sitting here in a packet and hadn't got around to getting them cut. I have some other bike related keys in that packet also but nothing that would start the bike.

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ST1100Y said:
I always carry a spare key in my riding pants...
Not cause the 1100 ones break easily, but they could fall through the slots of a manhole/sewer cover... and then? :cautious:
I would have no clue how to alarm the sewer brigade somewhere abroad like France, Italy, etc...
Click to expand...
I bought my used 06 ST with one original key. The first thing I did was to get two copies made & the original stays at home.
I'm suspicious of old keys doing exactly what happened to ASPC.
 
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