In A Pickle

I crashed my dirtbike and snapped shift lever retaining bolt off . It was a 1/4” bolt and a 1/2” shift shaft . I had a buddy with a lathe and had him machine a 2” long section of 1” round stock with a 1/2” hole 1” deep. Then a 1/8” hole through the other 1” . Bought a 1/8” reverse drill bit to drill through the center of the bolt and the remnats backed itself out .
That was a real head scratcher until I came up with the pilot solution !