Oops I did it again.......

[yambabe]

I think my bike hates me.

*sigh*

Had a few days off work this week, so as the weather's been mostly nice we've been getting out and about a bit on the bikes (well, 4 days, 4 rides, about 800 miles, not bad for a fair-weather biker like me huh.....)

So, beginning of the week the bike was being an arse again, didn't want to idle in traffic without spitting water out at me feet etc etc etc. Himself fixed the leak in the other rad on Wed/Thur while it was raining, and swapped 'em over. Yay! Took it out Thurs to our "test track" (1.5 mile straight between 2 roundabouts) up and down at varying speed and revs, all is looking good.....

Today we've been to Hawes and the general vicinity playing on the twisties. Stopped at the viaduct for ice-cream on the way up, great! Bike is running brilliant, not spilt a drop of water, all seems good. About 15 miles on we get to Hawes, Himself wants to go to the Green Dragon pub and see the falls but we don't know where it is, so as I need juice anyway we stop at the petrol station. As we pull in, my bike cuts out. Great I think, just in time as it's going on reserve. Fill up and go to start - nothing. Bog all. Not a click, tick or rustle. The battery (which is almost brand new, only had it since the Bulldog) is dead. Bugger Himself has a go at bumping it, it's not playing. We have no idea what has caused it to go flat, I ride with my lights on and the fan's been on and off but that is all normal.

We swap batteries, he bumps the VT and I push the button - starts instantly. And continues to run perfectly OK for the next 100 or so miles (without the lights on now just in case ) until home, with a couple more stop starts involved en route.

It's doing my bloody head in. We can only assume that either the reg/rec is bolloxed (although it was fine before and fine all the way home) or somehow it has managed to short out the entire charge in the battery.

So yet again, the confidence I was finally building up (cos when it's good it's getting REAL good) is in bits. Bloody bike.
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Sod falling in love, I wanna fall in chocolate.

[EuropeanNC30R...]

I had this for a while when a cpu fan/heatsink I'd attached to my reg/rec was randomnly shorting out the ignition fuse. You knew when to look for a good place to pull over if the indicators stopped working or the bike refused to accelerate

Relax, you get this sort of crap with most older bikes, it's character building

[phk6]

im having the same problem with the battery on my cb, its brand new been in 3 months and it keeps losing charge while im riding, but yet it held a charge for 5 days while i was off the road, i have no fucking idea what it is.
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Current .. 2008 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure ..
Before .. 2003 Yamaha Fazer 1000 .. 2004 Kawazaki Z1000 .. 2003 Suzuki Sv1000s .. 1999 zx6r Track Bike .. 1999 CB 500 Cup ..
/Phil

[finpos]

Stick at it - you're hitting these problems one at a time, before you know it the bike will be running fine.

From what you are saying (first, new battery could not maintain charge on the bike, second battery could), you can only assume that there is a bad connection on the single wire from the regulator to the battery that was disturbed (i.e. fixed) by the whole swapping process. I'm sure him can get on top of that.

finpos.

[Pete.]

Put a test meter across the battery and measure the voltage when the engine is running. It should measure around 13.8-14V. If it isn't, then it's not charging properly.

[phk6]

[sagalout]

I had a similar problem a month ago on my CBR600. Bike would be fine for days at a time, then randomly a relatively short run would leave the battery totally flat - and at the same time one of the indicators wouldnt work. Checked and tightened all wires but same problem. In the end bought a new regulator and its been perfect ever since.

Only cost about £15 so iprobably worth a try if its not too pricey on your bike.

[yambabe]

The battery wasn't charging when we tested it with the voltmeter.

Fairly obvious why when we went to change the reg/rec (lucky I already had a spare one) as the connectors were all green, sticky and corroded. as were the connectors to the starter relay which probably didn't help.

So all cleaned and replaced now and I'm about to go out on it for a bit of a test.

Thinking of taking bets on what will fail next, we've had tank, radiator, battery, brakes, starter, fuel lines, carbs, choke, cooling system, starter again and reg/rec (charging system) so far in the 3 months it's been on the road......... Oh and wheel bearings (front), leaky fork seals (next job on the list), speedo drive and headlight (which has all the main electircs running through it and a heads-up dosplay built into it, and basically will fall apart irreparably if we need to open it up again), forgot about those!

Riding with a piece of wood tied to the bars so I can keep touching it........
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Sod falling in love, I wanna fall in chocolate.

[phk6]

wil you let me know how it goes with the new reg/rec in so it give me a better idea of what to do.

cheers
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Current .. 2008 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure ..
Before .. 2003 Yamaha Fazer 1000 .. 2004 Kawazaki Z1000 .. 2003 Suzuki Sv1000s .. 1999 zx6r Track Bike .. 1999 CB 500 Cup ..
/Phil

[yambabe]

LOL cookie to anyone who was thinking "indicators" ...... stopped flashing, although the hazards were still OK. Cleaned those connectors too, seem OK again now.

phk changing the reg/rec seems to have cured it, according to the voltmeter it's charging fine again now.
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Sod falling in love, I wanna fall in chocolate.

[phk6]

[Kara]

This may not help but I had a similar problem with me bandit. It kept cutting out and then with a bit of fiddling it would go again. Couldn't figure it out at all, it seemed very random, it would run fine for 6 months then just die.

In the end I discovered the battery connectors on the bike had corroded, swapped them over and never had another bit of trouble in 2 years.
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NC30 + Bandit 6
www.eabikers.co.uk

[stinkwheel]

Next one to go will be the big fat white wire that attaches to the main fuse on the starter solenoid. Had this wire let go on all three of my kawasaki twins. Maybe worth having a look at it when you are next fiddling in there.