Lexmoto venom alarm disabled bike

[ah67k]

My Lexmoto Venom has a factory fitted alarm system with an immobiliser. I accidentally put the key in the ignition without disarming the alarm and now I can't switch the bike on.
Any advice?

I would like to replace the fuse to see if that solves the problem but I can't find it. I've looked in the side where the battery is and there was no fuse box so if anyone knows where the fuse is on a Lexmoto venom please let me know.

[Rogerborg]

[WD Forte]

Many alarms have an inline fuse near the main control box
Find the box, find the fuse.
Whether changing it or removing it for a while to try resetting it
does any good depends on how it's configured of course.
I put the control box under the rear passenger seat on the lads Arrow
and it was a simple fit for a simple bike.
Is the Venom EFI and stuff or just a tarted up Arrow?
You can always RTFM of course
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bikers smell of wee

[Rogerborg]

It's EFI and fairly modern. Nice looking bikes, although they don't do well in Scotch winters. They come with an MP3 player, but this is the first I've heard of a factory fitted alarm and immobiliser. Lexmoto UK don't mention it, and I'd assume until shown otherwise that it's either a dealer or owner fitted Cyclone or similar budget ride-wrecker that should be bypassed or binned.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[Teflon-Mike]

Try taking the battery off, and giving it a good charge on a bench charger, and or, depending how old the battery is, buying a new one, giving that a thoroughly good trickle charge before fitting.

Little learner-Bikes are notoriouse for deading batteries. Bikes only have little ones to start with; then the evolution of the modern Learner-Legal has seen them aquire electric-eating e-starts AND electric eating electric carburettors (Fuel-Injection), as well as 'gadgets'.. like MP3 sockets!!!!! On what was a pretty marginal charging system to start with, which they loaded up with basic equipment like indicators!

THEN... your CBT instructor likely told you to ALWAYS riude with the head-lamp ALWAYS on... if the lamp isn't hard-wired so you cant even turn it 'off'... so you have that sucking perhaps 3Amps or so, of the possible 10 the generator 'might' make, before you start....

THEN!!! You likely stick the key in, letting electric escape the battery through whatever's turned on with the ignition, then grab the throttle and wamp it over on the e-start for ages until it starts... and it takes longer and longer each day.... because the battery is forever providing more electric to all the equipment than it ever gets from the generator.... especially if you do lots of short 'hops' with lots of stop-starts between them....

Genny maybe puts out 10A max... in fact, it wont put out more, 'cos that's what its fused at.. so at 'best' you might get 7-8A out the engine heading towards the battery, before any other electric equipment nicks any.

Battery... probably has a capacity of about 8Ah.. that means it can take, or provide, 8A for up to an hour... in theory... SO! Stick it on a good home battery charger, that mioght deliver 'up to' 4A... it will take at least 2h to fully charge, probably more like 8, as the delivered ampage will drop as the battery terminal voltage creeps up with the amount of charge taken.

Oh-Kay.... you have a bench charger rated at 4A, and THAT will take a working day to fully charge a flattery.... you have a generator on the engine... which MAY, if nothing else robs amps before it gets to the battery, supply 8A ish, IF the engine is reving its nuts off.....

Think about this.... Your headlamp; 35w or more, is taking 3A of whatever the genny may make, straight off the top. 15W tail lamp that comes on with it another Amp. Half your electric is being used BEFORE you pull in the brake lever, which you likely do when starting or stopped, turning on the brake lamp, to use abother couple of amps of whatever the gfenny makes..... Indies? Dash-Lamps, like the Neutral warning? ALL take thier share of the juice banged out by the genny... and dash-lamps, curiousely can take a heck of a lot of it!

You get maybe 8A out the genny, when the engine is spinning at over 3ooo revs... at tick-over, you would be lucky to get 4.... REMEMBER, a 4A battery charger would take all night to charge a flattery to full.... you only get that when the engine is running AND at running engine speed....

SO.. you are likely onto a looser before you start, with a little generator that will struggle to provide enough electric to supply enough electric to work just the basic equipment, let alone much surplus to charge the battery.

Lets say you commuted 10minutes accross town every day; that's maybe 12min run-time... but, of that run time; well, the three miles from my houise to local tech, is about 3miles, 10min. BUT gawd knows how many juncttions and traffic lights and all 20-30mph speed limits.

For a large portion of that run, the bike would be sat, at traffic lights, the lamps on, the brakes covered lighting the stop lamps, and the battery DISCHARGING not charging. Sort runs in between, would barely see the engine get up to decent charging revs, AND... in all liklihood, again something you probably were taught or have aquired is the tendency to 'short shift' and use higher gears rather than higher revs... makes it sound less strained, and gives you something to 'do'... BUT keeps the revs down, limits the change generator has in that brief above idle run time to wallop any charge back in the battery.....

Then you stop... turn off, and leave it. Come back however later... A-N-D a wonderful 'imobiliser' that doesn't actually imobilise the bike... just the engine... it can still be wheeled/lifted away.... just slightly harder to get running! Usually to you! But still.... while parked that wonder-widget is sucking preciouse amps from the battery NOT put back by the generator!

So odds are you are, before you begin, running in electric over-draft the whole time, 'borrowing' electric from the battery to work all the gubbins, and never putting it all back in running... A-N-D when you hit that start button? By-Passing the fuse, that starter sucks perhaps 30-40A or more straight through the relay.... may only do it for a few moments at a time... but 8Ah battery!!! Do the maths! Draw 10x the current, you'll only manage it for 1/10th the time, at best, and you have a flattery!

NOW lets look at your imobiliser/alarm....

As said, there's a not insignificant constant current draw from that, to keep the radio that listens for the 'disarm' signal from the key-fob, working. It will also drain more if triggered, and it turns on the lights and indies or sounds claxons.....

It 'imobilises' your bikes ignition with a pretty simple electric-operated switch; a solenoid... these draw current. Usually they are normally 'off' so they dont draw any when the alarm's activated, but they DO draw current, when the ignition is switched 'on'...

Then you hit the starter-button..... Now, the battery is connected direct to that high-load starter, which puts an anormouse electric 'load' on the battery.... and robs whatever amps and volts the solenoid wants to keep the imobiliser solenoid latched!

Quite common, when a battery is starting to drop-out, for the starter to drop the terminal volts on the battery enough for the imobiliser relay to unlatch and kill the ignition, BUT still have enough amps in it to turn the starter over.... so starter whirs, engine dont start... and since starter is obviousely getting electric... you wonder what's wrong....

CHARGE THE BATTERY!

Now battery volts still drop when you press the starter button... but there's enough amps in the battery that the terminal volts dont drop 'so' low... relays stay latched, ignition stays 'on'.... bike starts!

A-N-D if as is likely, that's the problem.... you give the thing a brand bew battery... cos you have probably killed the one you have excessively cranking the engine with an imobilised ignition! THEN, you 1/ stop short shifting! Use revs not gears, give the genny a chance to charge battery! 2/ Give it some good longer runs between shorter 'stop-start' hops... just the long way home each evening will give it a chance to keep battery charged. 3/ you conciousely DONT ride the brakes when stopped! Save some electric being wasted with a stop-lamp when every-one can see your stopped and there's no one to signal to! 4/ You get a bit more savvy about start up, and DONT keep the button thumbed for long periods. If it dont start, stop, try again; dont flood the thing and make matters worse holding the button in. 5/ IF you have turn-off-able headlamps... you get in the habbit of NOT using day-time-running-lights as a matter of course, only when you need to. You can get as much 'conspicuity' if you have the facility just lighting the headlamp bowl with the side or parking lamp, you dont have to have the main headlamp on, unless its dark! 6/ Paying the battery a little more attension, and keeping an eye on electrolyte level, and if needs, which is probably, giving the thing a weekly 'top-up' trickle charge to keep it full if the genny cant... especially this time of year when its dark a lot!

As to the Alarm.... thier merit is marginal at best... and as hinted, in my experience they are more of an incumberance to the owner and rightful user of a bike than any scraot TWOCKER! They dont stop a bike being lifted or wheeled away. They DO falatten batteries, especially if local cats discover that a parked bike is nice and warfm when they are kicked out for the day, and set the ruddy things 'off'.

The 'imobiliser' is pretty pathetic, and wont stop the bike being wheeled away, just started... maybe... the alarm will either just 'make' a circuit to 'earth' the ignition, or 'break' a circuit to stop electric going to the plug. Either way, they are hardly rocket science, and any-one that knows how to hot-wire the ignition will NOT be delayed many more seconds by the thing! But they probably dont know how to hot-wire, or car, they'll just use the expedience of hammering a screwidriver in the ignition barely to get past the steering lock, as well as the ignition circuit and anyt imobiliser!!!

I would NOT rely on one as my sole security, any more than I would the OE ignition switch! And I put more faith in that and the in-built steering ;lock than I do an alarm's imobiliser! CHAINS and PACLOCK top something hard and immoveable, like a lamp-post, THAT I put a bit more faith in!

Imobiliser/alarms, are one of those cases where "Well, it cant hurt to have as 'extra' securtity... can it?".... YES it can! Giving YOU more possible grief than any potential Twocker ever has!

I dont know and dont much care whether your alarm is genuinely factory-fitted, importer fitted, dealer fitted or after-market.... all degrees of black-bananas really.... a better alarm, better fitted 'may' work reasonably reliably... and may be something you have to have to satisfy an insurance company... BUT practically? You are likely better off, simply unplugging the thing, and putting your faith in a propper lock and chain, and NOT having extra hasles from one on top of the more obviouse flattery-causers.

Whether to keep or not is your call.... YES it cant hurt, remember! Pack-lock and chain! No batteries required, WORKS and is reliable, and doesn't tend to give you a head-ache when other things happen.

In the mean-time... charge the battery. PRobably replace the battery... change the things you do that might flatten battery.... work from there.
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

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