MacGyver Award 2012

Yet another interest of mine is motorcycling. I've been riding since 1980. I currently own a Harley Electra Glide. My wife and I do several long touring trips a year, usually with a group of friends and relatives. Our last trip was to the Pacific Coast to see the Redwoods. On the way back, we stopped in Reno/Tahoe. As we exited the freeway, my nephew's clutch cable snapped. So, there we sat on the apron, with a bike stuck in gear and stalled. It was 6:01 PM, which meant that the dealer was closed. No clutch cable for us!

What to do?

As we sat around brainstorming, one of the bunch said that he thought a pair of vise grips could be used as a replacement clutch handle, allowing us to limp to the hotel. Everyone else chuckled, thinking "no way!", but nobody had a better idea. Ten minutes and a trip to Harbor Freight later, we were on our way. The damn thing worked like a champ, and got us all the way to the dealer the next day to get the cable replaced.

All of the doubting Thomases put our heads together and agreed that this type of quick thinking merited an award. As we talked, I could see the award in my head, and I knew I had the parts and the machines to create it. And so, here it is:

Inaugural MacGyver Award

The award is composed of 4 parts:

  A harley transmission gear forms the base
  A harley camshaft serves as the column
  A harley big twin piston as the crown and the engraving surface
  The aforementioned vise grips form the award figurine

And of course, in keeping with the nature of the award, the whole thing dismantles to allow the vise grips to remain functional!

This project took me about a week to fabricate, and another week to have professionally engraved. Thanks to Ron at Hansen Jewelers!