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The first and only time I dropped my keys into the "Honda Hole", they came out easily with a strong magnetic pickup tool.

pidjones wrote:The first and only time I dropped my keys into the "Honda Hole", they came out easily with a strong magnetic pickup tool.

I was thinking the same way. Those magnetic tools are worth their weight when it comes to retrieving metal objects.

I feel your pain.
Be glad it happened at home. Some years ago I fumbled the keys to Eccles (CX650E that is gradually becoming a GL500I) when parking at a store and they fell between the tank & steering head. I was very lucky that the key to access the space behind the sidecar seat (where I keep the tools) wasn't with the bike keys and I was able to remove everything necessary to retrieve them. I was also lucky that it wasn't cold of snowy (we're talking about the winter bike) or dark out...
If I had been on Mr.H one key fits everything so the tools would have been locked in the saddlebag and I would have had to go tool shopping...

I have a lighted gooseneck magnet retriever... no joy.
But I got the shelter open thanks to the boss.
Still no how. Am gonna pull the airbox and if no how I'll find them when I replace the WP.
Can't start till i have all the parts.
Once i extract them I'm going to renew the waterpump.

Just turned the lights out in my garage and used my lighted magnetized goose neck. I found em between some wires on the right side. Did not have to take the airbox off. Now this magazine mechanic is going to order two more sets. Squid indeed. I'm learning boys I'm learning.
Thanks again for all the good comments.
Maybe instead of all those red helmets on my link I should have a few numb skulls showing.
So two new sets and ignition key will be separate from the shelter key.
Plus a giant FOB too big for the lost hole.

I think if the fob was too big for the hole it would beat against you when it flaps in the wind....

Maybe clipping the keys to a tether attached to the bars would be better. At least that way we'd be able to pull them back out

Maybe moving the keyswitch to the side of the speaker/wiring box like I did on Mr.H is a good idea after all. At least if I fumble it there it will just fall on the ground...

SC Bob,
I like the idea of a tether. I'll get some leather strap material.

Great idea.
Already ordered my keys.

I was thinking more like a piece of cord attached to the handlebar with a clip to attach the key ring. The only problem is that it would be just as easy to fumble the keys clipping them to the tether as when pulling them out of the keyswitch...

on my 78 the key switch is re-located to the lower rear of the right hand shelter. If they fall, they only wind up on the ground

I know! I'll fill the gap with some of that yellow expanding foam in a spray can.
Then nothing can fall in.

Shere Genius!

No I think a leather strap looped on one side of the bars.
It will have a ring on it and I'll just attached the keys to the ring before I move over the gap.

Still the foam is intrigueing... not!

Once you've done it, I doubt you'll ever do it again. I did it on my '77 with Pacifico fairing in '04. ~150k miles since, I still keep a firm grip!

Foam in a can fixes more things than duct tape but when you use them together.......

The wife was too impatient with me.
She wanted me to tuck point quite a few mortar seams had cracks. She thought she would show her lazy husband a lesson. Show she "tuck pointed" all my bad motor seems with it. When I got home I laughed. It looked like Red Greens work.
Her punishment we lived with it like that for five years.
She didn't know I had planned to have a local pro do it at a great price.
The neighbors had a good laugh too.

Speaking of bricks and spray foam, a few years ago we had the oil furnace replaced with a propane one. The oil tank was in the attached garage so when we took it out there was a big hole in the wall where the filler pipe & vent had been. I needed to fill the hole quickly so I could use the space where the tank had been so I got a can of foam and filled the opening in the brickwork, building it up in layers so it wouldn't spill out too badly. Once the opening was full I left the foam to expand for a week or so and used a knife to slice it off flush with the bricks and cut grooves to match the mortar lines, then mixed up some paint that was pretty close to the colour of the bricks (the mortar is coloured to match) and applied a couple of coats to the foam.
This is on the side of the house so you can only see it if you walk between our house and the neighbours or look at our house from their yard but I'd bet you wouldn't notice unless someone pointed it out to you.

BTW: The next year I re-levelled the back deck by cutting the buried ends off of the posts, digging them out, filling the holes with gravel and setting the cut posts on deck blocks. When I dug out the ends I found that each one was sitting on 2 or 3 bricks below ground (every post at a different depth). Now that I have enough bricks I'm planning to repair the hole in the wall properly one of these days but the foam still looks OK so there's no urgency.

I knew that foam has its uses.