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submitted 1 day ago by kivihiili to c/airandoxygen

first of all, let's lay out the problem at hand.

(above photo photo courtesy of nospartsnow.com)

this is what this motorcycle's front brake switch should look like. in short, its the thingy that makes the taillight light up when you squeeze the front brake; when the brake lever is at rest, it is squeezing this switch into the off position (pressed in). and as for the one taken from our motorcycle...

it is notably missing the little plunger piece. but that is not too big an issue provided we can exercise a little creativity :3

first of all, we needed something that would, well, fit. given this was a japanese bike, we grabbed some metric screwdriver bits that were mostly circular to use as guage pins.

and this 2mm one fits perfectly! now, we just needed something of that diameter.

at first we were thinking of using the wire from this clip. but it turns out it was really REALLY hard to cut. so after some more rummaging...

behold, the ballpen! (apologies for the blurry photo)

some pliers made it fairly trivial to extract the nib. and one slight dab of superglue later, we should have something!

unfortunately it turns out the ball in the tip caused the plunger to lean to one side MASSIVELY when pressed on. a pair of wirecutters will solve that in a very literal pinch thankfully ^w^

and with this, the switch functions oncemore, for only the cost of a broken pen!!!

stay comfy y'all <3

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[-] sixtoe 2 points 10 hours ago

i need to ship my 85 Honda nighthawk 650 up here. i rebuilt it under my carport. 3 years.

[-] kivihiili 2 points 9 hours ago

HOLY SHIT THATS SO AWESOME

the love and care you have exercised is super apparent. it's very clear where your kindness for those around you arose from!

[-] sixtoe 2 points 8 hours ago

that's incredibly kind. wow. i really don't think about how I seem too much anymore and feedback is rare. thank you. i started on it when i came out and finished it just before my life exploded. it was a huge part of transitioning to go outside in the shared space of a hostile city's worst neighborhood. sit under the carport. a little more brave every day. fixing my girl while fixing me. hrt, new name, new wardrobe, coming out new carbs, rewoven harness, hand filed fins, restored plastics,Japanese OEM replacement rubber. carefully considering. a mirror, my Nighthawk.

[-] kivihiili 1 points 7 hours ago

having been so frequently "left out" in the past, we feel an imperative to make sure that that doesn't happen to other folk. and, we feel it important to reciprocate the kindness endowed upon us!

let it be known that you are valued and you are interesting <3

this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2026
18 points (100.0% liked)

air&oxygen

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14 users here now

hey, read this!


this is primarily a place for @kivihiili@lemmy.blahaj.zone to post stuff they aren't sure where else to put really. there is no overarching theme to the posts here!

and you dear readers can also post stuff! there isn't anything stopping you. really all we'd wanna remark is:


again, this community doesn't have a theme per se, but we may still remove anything if we "feel" it doesn't fit super well here. we very much view this place as "ours".

if your post gets deleted, there probably isn't any reason to feel bad :)


about the comm. name, banner, etc.

the community names airandoxygen and "air&oxygen" is a reference to the song Look-a-Like from Sonic the Hedgehog OVA.

the banner is a photo we took. assign it your own meaning. maybe post about it.

the community icon is of a radial chart recorder similar to that found on a piece of old, broken equipment placed outside for some reason. we did get a photo of that but it wasn't that good so we found a different one. we chose it because it fits nicely in a circle!

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