Ballache of a day yesterday - battery & bars!!

[FirebladeRuss]

Came out yesterday morning, all suited and booted for my daily ride to work.

Hop on the bike to discover the battery is uttler, utterly flat.

A bit strange, as I don't recall having left anything turned on or anything...guess I could have left the key in the parking light position, as I'd not used the bike for about a week.

Tried bump starting it a few times - it almost started, but didn't.

Ended up jumping it off the 330, and obviously it started straight away.

Left the bike ticking over rather lumpy for a bit whilst I put away the jump leads, locked the car, locked the house, put my clobber back on.......and then it dies.

Mofo!!!

Unlock/unpack everything again, jump it again. Starts fine. But it simply wouldn't rev up, and you had to hold the throttle wide open to just keep the thing running.

Connected to the car, it was fine.

So, came to the conclusion the battery must be goosed. It was some Rob Norris brand, which I've been told are pretty crap anyway.

Nice new one, everything's peachy. For some reason I guess I'd thought it'd be like a car, where you jump it and then the alternator's providing enough oomph to keep the thing running - but apparently not.

Second little treat for the day was the bar end. It's been bent by a previous owner, so you can't tighten it up without it interfering with the throttle movement (in fact it never reaslly seemed to tighten properly either), so I thought I'd straighten the bold out.

Long story short, ended up spending 1.5 faffing about trying to get part of the bar end out of the handlebars, as it seemed the securing nut had come off the end (and hence was always coming loose!). Ended up removing the handlebars, taking the other side bar end out so I could get the nut out, and then poking a stiff bit of mains cable through to jab the stuck rubber bung out to a point at which I could get tools and things to it to ease it out.

Not amused....

All happy and good today though It feel slike it runs better with the new battery, although can't figure out why that should be.
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