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Jump it off a car for starters and see if it runs and idles fine while using the turn signal and connected to the car battery. If so, probably just a smoked battery
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Oct 21, 2023 14:55
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Thanks yall, the battery folks called it. After having the 5yo battery on a tender overnight I hooked it up, got a tiny bit of juice at the headlight and indicators briefly before it died off again. Jumpered it to the Triumph (whose battery looks like it'll be a pain in the rear end to remove soon) and it started right up. My relief at not to having to diagnose a short at this point is profound, and equally matched by the discovery that the towing harness conspicuously scratched the VanVan's pristine tank  Duly noted on the need for a digital multimeter. Funny thing is, I read here about the expectation that batteries be resting at ~12.6V vs 12.0 back when I was first setting up my maintenance schedules, but since both bikes read a neat 12 on the cheap analog meter I've been calling that normal/good enough for a couple years and just did my useless voltage check on 9/17.
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Oct 21, 2023 17:17
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A cheap digital multimeter is seriously one of the best and most useful tools you can buy for ~€15-50. I got a tiny one recently just to bring on the next moto camping trip, but their usefulness go way beyond motor vehicle applications. I keep one at my desk at work even though its use isn't part of my job description at all just because I feel completely handicapped without one whenever electricity is involved. It can be something as trivial as answering the question "will changing these alkaline batteries make the label printer work again" or something like that.
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Oct 21, 2023 17:36
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Make sure you get one that has a terminal for "put the probe in here for current measurement" and has like a 400 mA and 20 amp setting for it, if you work on bikes. Parasitic draws are our number one electrical kryptonite and you want to be able to measure them. Also get a set of leads with alligator clips or clamps of some sort for such operations; you don't want to be trying to hold two probes on things while trying to operate controls to watch amp draw.
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Oct 21, 2023 21:40
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With regards to alligator clip leads - don't get the separate clip leads, get measurement leads with alligator clips. And don't buy the meters that are below 15 euro. 9 times out of 10 a set of alligator clip leads comes with copper clad steel conductors and badly crimped on clips, which will make everything you do with them work in very unpredictable ways. I've seen the guys at my moto shop gently caress around and be misled by them. Also, do not try to measure the current draw of your motorcycle while starting (it's something between 50 and 200 amps and it'll very quickly roast your meter or your test leads, whatever is thinnest). Or how much your battery can deliver - it's a couple hundred amps and will do the same.
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Oct 21, 2023 21:52
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Yeah I'll second getting one with leads that have clip-on alligator clamp adaptors, makes things super easy
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Oct 21, 2023 21:59
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If you are in the US, you can get a manual range Klein for 40 bux at the Home Depot, and a set of probes with alligator clips for 20 bux. I'm sure you can order gator clips off of Amazon for like 5 bux, but I haven't actually checked.
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Oct 23, 2023 02:20
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Thanks gunesJonny 290 posted:Make sure you get one that has a terminal for "put the probe in here for current measurement" and has like a 400 mA and 20 amp setting for it, Is that only on higher-end multimeters or something? So far everything I'm looking at seems to be 200 mA and 10 amp max.
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Oct 24, 2023 05:31
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10A is fine for anything you might use it for
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Oct 24, 2023 06:11
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Yeah 10 is fine for sure for bikes. I have a .01 ohm resistor that i can use as a bridge for like, my fuckin truck or w/e, but as long as you don't try to measure amp draw while cranking your bike 10's cool
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Oct 24, 2023 06:17
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There are a few bolts with allen heads on my bike that are hard to reach (foot controls behind the exhaust, rocker covers under the frame backbone). Anyone know if there exists a torque adapter but instead of a set of 12pt sae sockets it's just a single tool with female 3/8" drive on one side, male 3/8" drive on the other, so I can use it with basically any socket/bit? I'm not sure what to search for, or if it even exists. Edit: Hm looks like it does exist: https://www.amazon.com/OEMTOOLS-24208-Torque-Adaptor-Engines/dp/B01MQYL3N0/ except that's 3/4" female to 1/2" male (too big for my application). epswing fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Oct 31, 2023 |
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Oct 31, 2023 19:02
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I would simply not bother torquing foot rest bolts
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Oct 31, 2023 19:33
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Slavvy posted:I would simply not bother torquing foot rest bolts I don't actually care that I can't precisely torque foot rest bolts to 50 ft/lb  but in the case of the rocker box cover bolts, I actually kinda do want to torque those, and there's one in particular that's literally under the frame.It's more about gaining access to things I can't normally reach, and I'm just using the word "torque" because it's in the product name.
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Oct 31, 2023 20:02
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Oh those rocker bolts are a pain. I usually use a cut down allen key I made for that purpose alone. As long as you cut it square and dress the end it works well. You could also use a hex bit with a tiny spanner but that's more difficult.
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Oct 31, 2023 20:11
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Should I change my fork oil soon? My VanVan 200 is 4 years old, brutalized by 8 mile round trip commutes most days in stop-and-go traffic that warrant two tiny oil changes a year to keep it shifting nice, but it's also pampered by being mostly a street bike, 1800mi/year, ridden in fog but avoiding rain, covered in a carport overnight. My spreadsheet tells me to change it but my loved ones already look at me like I do obsessive levels of maintenance. I've completely lost the gauge of whether nobody takes care of their poo poo or I have OCD.
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Nov 12, 2023 04:44
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You could do it, and you might even notice a difference! Maybe On shitbikes - I say that with the utmost respect for the t-dub - it's cheaper and easier to just wait till a seal explodes. There's no fancy parts inside that fork, it's just a plunger with some holes in it, so the oil has to degrade massively to have any kind of impact on how it rides and you won't be there yet. The bike can't go fast enough for minor differences in damping quality to have any effect on anything.
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Nov 12, 2023 04:50
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Okay that makes sense and jibes with what I'm feeling, it really is a gross input device and unless it's unnecessarily bottoming out or something when leaving a curb I'm not sure I care about subtle, if "detectable", improvements. Handling aside then, I'm not wearing out other internals prematurely by leaving the current sludge in place? I guess the "cheaper and easier" question covers that, ty!
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Nov 12, 2023 05:08
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I mean if you really really care you can just replace the graphite coated slider bushes when you do the oil but the wear rate on those is also really slow unless you're dropping heavy wheelies everywhere
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Nov 12, 2023 05:12
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TBH It kinda sounds like I should just beat the gently caress out of it and worry about it when oil starts leaking.
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Nov 12, 2023 05:15
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Remy Marathe posted:TBH It kinda sounds like I should just beat the gently caress out of it and worry about it when oil starts leaking. That's how shitbikes are designed to be used
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Nov 12, 2023 05:45
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Remy Marathe posted:TBH It kinda sounds like I should just beat the gently caress out of it and worry about it when oil starts leaking. The vanvan is made by Suzuki which means it will handle this type of treatment for years and then still drive all the way around the planet just fine.
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Nov 12, 2023 15:35
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Okay, brake questions: One of the 'anti-rattle' spring clips snapped and is no longer usable. Do these things really need replaced? Bike is 20 years old and has 25k miles; is it worth replacing those clips that the pads slide on? Brake lever still feels spongey. Last year I rebuilt the calipers (twin piston sliders) since I must have had one sticking as I had wildly uneven pad wear. Pad wear is normal now. In August I replaced the rubber hoses with steel lines and added speed bleeders. If I bleed again to see if there are any bubbles, is it fine to use what was left of the fluid from August?
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Nov 13, 2023 02:31
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If you run without those clips you will chew up the caliper body in short order and it will also feel like crap. If you're chasing brakes that don't feel like garbage, leaving parts out is not the way to do that. Your fluid is probably fine, I'd be more concerned about bubbles. They don't come about by abiogenesis, either they were never bled right or you have a leaky seal. If the MC is original it could probably do with a rebuild, but also some bikes just have garbage feel because of the combination of hydraulic ratio and caliper design. If you want to get spendy you can probably get a bigger bore MC to make them feel more immediate.
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Nov 13, 2023 03:30
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I'm doubtful that there is air in the system; after the new lines were put in while it took forever to get the fluid to finally get through, with the speed bleeders it was really quick to stop seeing bubbles after the MC got back to normal pressure. But if I see any significant air I'll check out a rebuild. I'm sure it's probably just the age of the bike and being old sliding axial mount calipers bolted to a bracket that's then also bolted to the fork. They do slow me down well enough, but I just wish I didn't have to squeeze quite as hard and that they had more initial bite, even with EBC rotors and HH pads after the OEM stuff was ruined with the wildly uneven wear and one of the four pads going to the backing plate and scorching the one rotor. Or just my expectations are higher after riding a Striple and a z900 RS within the past year
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Nov 13, 2023 04:03
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Modern bikes have three principal advantages that can't be overcome with pads and braided lines: Bigger disc diameter Stiffer caliper and suspension construction Hydraulic ratio advantage You can improve the latter pretty easily with a bigger diameter MC. It won't make your calipers have bigger pistons or less flex but you'll get more pad movement for a given lever stroke which is where most of the poo poo feeling comes from.
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Nov 13, 2023 04:43
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Is there an e-bike thread somewhere? Either in this subforum or elsewhere? e: found it https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3933074
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Nov 17, 2023 23:02
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Anyone de-rusted a tank before? Is this beyond saving? https://imgur.com/a/bJ4jBbR
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Dec 2, 2023 16:30
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I think if it doesn’t have holes it’s salvageable. Similar question , what is the current best method for de-rusting a tank? I know it used to be electrolysis but has something better come around?
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Dec 3, 2023 02:04
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I've done electrolysis, works great. I used rebar for a sacrificial electrode, a battery charger for a power source, baking soda as electrolyte, and let it go overnight. Trickiest parts are getting the electrode positioned without shorting it and getting the tank positioned and plugged so the water goes all the way to the top with no leaks or big air bubbles.
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Dec 3, 2023 03:42
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I've cleaned rust out of tanks with a kit like this https://www.kbs-coatings.com/cycle-tank-sealer-kit.html and it was an unfun, lovely, long process. Now I buy a used one from Ebay if at all possible. Either that or pay someone else to clean the rust out.
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Dec 7, 2023 06:23
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Why aren’t gas tanks a decorative metal shell over a plastic container?
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Dec 7, 2023 13:35
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Because you can just make the plastic container decorative instead like a lot of modern bikes do
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Dec 7, 2023 16:27
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I think I'm gonna buy a shitload of evaporust, an inline fuel filter and hope for the best. I just dont have the patience for making a hydrogen bomb with electrolysis these days
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Dec 8, 2023 17:07
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 Nobody wants to electrolyze anymore!
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Dec 8, 2023 17:39
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epswing posted:Why aren’t gas tanks a decorative metal shell over a plastic container?
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Dec 8, 2023 17:39
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Many, many bikes have plastic tanks
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Dec 8, 2023 17:41
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Why not all tho
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Dec 8, 2023 17:58
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Same reason body panels on your car aren't made of ABS plastic, even tho it would be a superior material for many of them. It doesn't have that nice feel to it. It also has some less desirable characteristics compared to metal, like thermal expansion and brittleness as it ages. Ducati had (has?) a problem with swollen/expanded/rippled plastic gas tanks.
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Dec 8, 2023 18:43
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Nidhg00670000 posted:Ducati had (has?) a problem with swollen/expanded/rippled plastic gas tanks. it's not just Ducati, it's anyone using plastic tanks OEM'd by Acerbis (IIRC) in the US market where they see ethanol blends most of the time. In other words, most if not all Euro brands. My GS tank swells, the Multistrada's was worse. Not sure what Honda does differently, but the plastic tank in the Goldwing hasn't had any issues
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Dec 8, 2023 22:00
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| # ? May 16, 2024 22:55 |
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Jazzzzz posted:it's not just Ducati, it's anyone using plastic tanks OEM'd by Acerbis (IIRC) in the US market where they see ethanol blends most of the time. In other words, most if not all Euro brands. My GS tank swells, the Multistrada's was worse. Not sure what Honda does differently, but the plastic tank in the Goldwing hasn't had any issues What year goldwing? I thought they were all metal?
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Dec 8, 2023 22:49
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