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Another excellent way I learned this summer to clean your chain is to ride through heavy rain for several hours. It comes with its own unique set of inconveniences though.
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Aug 9, 2023 09:19
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 10:27 |
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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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Slide Hammer posted:You don't have to worry about winterizing fuel injected bikes. Current bike is sitting with a nearly full tank of E5 fancy fuel with a splash of stabilizer and I have every confidence it will run like a champ come spring.
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Dec 27, 2023 15:11
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You do have a multimeter, right? Everyone household should have one, preferably digital and in the 20-40€ price range, they're excellent value for money, safe and very easy to use compared to the old school analog ones. This is one of those many, many situations where diagnosing an electrical fault would be easy with such a device and difficult (and more risky) without one. Like yeah, doing a resistance check by probing the connector to the faulty grip and compare with the resistance in the good one would be an excellent start. If they are similar your grip is good and you can look elsewhere for the fault. If you manage to read a reasonable resistance (Ohms, not kiloOhms or megaOhms) on the good grip but get no connectivity at all through the bad one, you know that either the connection to it or the nichrome heater wire itself is broken.
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Feb 1, 2024 15:12
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The practical approach has some risks associated with it that probing around with the multimeter does not. IIRC the last and only time I checked resistance in a pair of heated grips it was about 40 ohm, or maybe it was 7, I forget, the exact number is not important. Either value would be at least in the realm of making sense since a grip would need a meaningful amount of current flowing through it to make it warm, but not so much current that things start melting or burning. I would just start messing with the known good grip to see what you can learn about its properties, and also get familiar with the resistance mode(s) on your multimeter - unlike the practical approach you can't possibly destroy anything, blow any fuses or start any fires by doing this so it's perfectly safe, especially so if you remove a battery terminal on the bike first. If you see thousands or millions of ohms, or less than one, you're doing something wrong. Anyways, once you feel confident that you are successfully measuring the resistance of the heater wire in the good grip, do the same thing on the faulty one and see if you learn anything about it. Edit : My two cheap multimeters  The big blue one has a few different settings for resistance measuring. You need to be in the right range to get a number. The little one (that comes along on moto road trips) only has one mode on the twist knob for resistance, diode mode or continuity with beep (sub-mode chosen with the yellow SELECT button) that does the ranges automagically, but lights up a subtle M or K in the display for Mega or Kilo if the resistance is high enough to warrant it. Odds are you have a HOLD button too on your gadget. It just keeps a value on the display after you remove the probes, should probably light up an H or something on the display too. Invalido fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Feb 1, 2024 |
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Feb 1, 2024 16:45
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I'm pretty sure my Honda NCS 50 scooter's battery is proper dead and that I need to replace my first moto battery. I've read somewhere (probably here) that Yuasa is the goto brand. Vendor information differs, but some state these batteries need to be filled with fluid before use. Some state "dry charged", some "acid included" with a picture of a sixpack of small bottles. Some say "already filled with water", some that I should "go to a mechanic and ask them to add battery acid" (which my nanny state won't let me buy). What's the actual deal with Yuasa batteries? Or should I just get whatever brand is available wet and ready over the counter at a local getting place?
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Mar 31, 2024 11:59
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Right-o. It seems there are shipping restrictions for wet lead acid batteries, so if I want a wet and ready Yuasa I'll need to find a local supplier. I'm sure they are around somewhere at a reasonable price but the only one I could find semi-locally with a cursory googling was  . A local big box chain store has a maintenance free gel battery that fits and has the right specs, so that's what's happening. If it was the motorcycle which I road trip I would probably go for quality but this is a rough and ready runabout that never goes far from home. Also I verified that it's just the battery that's messed up by starting the scoot via jumper cables hooked up to an electric wheelbarrow (runs on a small lead acid battery and is highly mobile) which I thought was a little bit funny.
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Mar 31, 2024 15:27
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Gotta love/hate Biltema. I just wish they weren't such chickenshits and allowed people to review their products on the website like Jula does. One whole year of warranty on that 399kr battery! Is it any good? Probably not very, but it works right now and the scooter is up and running again, long may it last. I took it on a nice long test ride yesterday. It reached 60km/h on flat ground with a strong tailwind.
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Apr 2, 2024 06:40
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This is the carb on the new-to-me DRZ: I don't know much about these bikes but I'm guessing that's not stock, and that it's a Mikuni TM40-6 (which seems like a mod some people do on these bikes, the reasons for which I don't understand since I know next to nothing about carbs). It has started to leak fuel when I pull the choke out. What gives, and what should I do to fix it? Parts seem to be readily available at least so I guess that's good. I think the bike is running too rich as well, but again I know nothing about carbs. E: I know enough to tell that it obviously isn't sealing against the air filter box. That's not great. Invalido fucked around with this message at 12:02 on Apr 19, 2024 |
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Apr 19, 2024 09:02
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The choke leak fixed itself. To clarify, there was a stream of fuel pissing out of the little hose nipple at the bottom of the float bowl (visible directly below the left side of the plastic idle(?) thumb screw in the picture) when the choke was pulled out, but not otherwise. I rode it back to the garage for some wrenching and it no longer did this. Then I had to mess with the carb some and remove some stuff including the fuel tank for access so I could get at or at least see most of the intake boot or whatever you call it, got that sorted with a hose clamp and buttoned everything up again. Still no fuel pissing out. Hopefully this bike hasn't been breathing a bunch of dirt under PO because of this. I'm gonna call this good for now and ride the thing once the weather turns acceptable again. The heated grips don't work on it and there was snow in the air just now. I'm basing my assumption on this bike running rich on a sooty exhaust tip and all the decel popping it does, and the fact that it doesn't really need choke unless very cold. When garage temperature it starts fine with just a bit of throttle, then runs and idles fine right away with no choke. It doesn't smell like unburnt fuel or anything though. Maybe everything is fine. Bro has a friend who's ridden lots of dirt on all sorts of bikes (and also wants to buy the steering damper for his KTM "for riding in sand" ) so we'll let him ride the bike a bit and give his more informed opinion on how it runs. More generally I've been riding a bit on asphalt and it's obvious that this bike isn't built for it, especially not on its current knobby tires, I even had a little buyer's remorse at one point. On what little gravel I have found around the city so far it transforms into a super fun rear wheel spinning beast of a toy and I think I'll really enjoy this bike once I get it into its element for real. The throttle response is something else, not sure if it's this carb or carbs in general or just being a thumper but giving it a little brap and immediately having the rear wheel step out a little is just so much fun  I also did babby's first little wheelie this morning which was fun too.
Invalido fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Apr 19, 2024 |
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Apr 19, 2024 16:10
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Not knowing carbs in general or this one in particular I'm just gonna wildly blame today's pissing on some type of crud fouling the float valve seating right and then getting dislodged or washed away. The fitting at the bottom that was pissing seems to indeed be the float bowl overflow, so I don't see what would cause too much fuel in the bowl other than the float either not floating when it should or its floating failing to prevent more fuel coming into the carb when the bowl was full. Why the choke should have anything to do with it is a mystery to me. To my knowledge a choke is something that restricts airflow, not making fuel flow out of the carb and onto the ground. The choke shaft thing clearly has o-rings in the parts diagram though so maybe there's some intricate fuckery going on here that's beyond my limited understanding. Since the carb wasn't actually sealing against the air filter since whenever and until this afternoon there's potential for all sorts of crud that could have gotten in that way (air filter looks okay by the way). The likeliest destination for such crud must be into the cylinder but it doesn't take much contamination to mess up a carb, at least I know that much. Also when I bought the bike it had brightly colored green/blue fuel in the tank with bits of some sinking jelly-like substance in it. Small bits of that might have made it past the screen google says should be at the petcock. Or something. At some point I'll take it apart and try to understand more and see if it looks OK or at the very least drop the bowl and have a peek, but not today. For all I know this thing could be packed full of dirt or really varnished or whatever. E: there's another possibility I guess. Mikuni says not to mount this carb at an angle of more than 15 degrees. Before I messed with the intake boot it was sitting in the bike kind of crooked. Maybe the parking spot I used at work and my forensic kickstand welding caused the bike to lean over just enough that it compounded with the mounting angle to the point where fuel went a-pissing. Only when the choke was pulled, because...  Double edit: Because I pushed the choke lever in hard enough to make the bike sit ever so slightly more upright off course! I'm feeling like Sherlock Holmes over here! You gotta admit it's a good story regardless of wether it's true or not. Invalido fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Apr 19, 2024 |
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Apr 19, 2024 19:10
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I'm thinking about putting the larger Clarke brand plastic fuel tank that came with the bike on the DRZ. I'm seeing about 45mpg or 5l/100km fuel economy. Maybe I'm running rich and it should be better, maybe it's within normal range, not sure. Regardless there's a few pretty long gravel routes (where gas stations are rare) I'm curious to try and I'd rather not worry about running out of gas, and seeing as I have a larger tank just laying around it seems reasonable to try using it rather than carry extra gas some other way. It doesn't bother me to uglify the bike, it's never gonna be a looker anyway. If I don't like it for some reason I'll just switch back to stock again obviously. Question: The plastic tank has no petcock installed. Should I just move it over from the stock steel tank or should I buy another one?
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May 2, 2024 10:45
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The petcock that sits on the currently mounted steel tank is manual, and the only petcock I havr. I've taken off with it shut and run out of fuel in short order several times already.
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May 2, 2024 11:57
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Thanks for advice. I ordered a cheap one from Amazon, which is absolutely flooded with chinesium petcocks. I'm sure it's a poo poo part but being so simple it might just work well enough and not leak at all, assuming it even fits the tank. At the very least it will help me figure out fuel line geometry and possible choke knob interference and whatever else, should I decide to get the same style of part as OEM. Also they have a generous return policy.
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May 2, 2024 16:38
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LimaBiker posted:Copper gets soft when quenched. Invalido fucked around with this message at 17:00 on May 3, 2024 |
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May 3, 2024 16:53
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You could anneal a small copper washer with just about anything that burns. Soot deposited on the part will probably make it hard to see the heat glow though so a candle flame or cigarette lighter likely isn't optimal, but it would work.
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May 4, 2024 08:24
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Well this sucks. I went out with the plan to ride DRZ on gravel for a couple of hours. I made it a few km until I got an angry red temperature light. So I'm just sitting by the road waiting for the bike to cool down enough to limp back home. Reading the manual on the phone sucks but I think the temp sensor for the fan is at the top of the left radiator and the sensor for the idiot light is on the right. If this is indeed the case, I don't think I'm actually overheating. The radiators feel pretty cool immediately after riding but heat up as the bike sits turned off, almost like they are doing their job in the airstream. The temp light goes out when I turn on the high beam and that idiot light shines, which is weird and a very bad design if my electricals are working correctly. At no point has the cooling fan come on while I've had this bike, so I'm not sure it actually works. Anyways while I've posted this time has passed and nothing in the bike is hot to the touch, temp light still shines. I'm thinking electrical problem. We shall see. Hopefully I don't blow a headgasket in three minutes. E: made it home. I'll let the bike sits until totally cold. That will tell me something at least if the light goes out or not. Invalido fucked around with this message at 16:16 on May 10, 2024 |
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May 10, 2024 16:10
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Definitely an electrical gremlin of some sort. I let the bike cool over dinner, still an idiot light, still went away with the high beam on. Same behaviour with engine off or on and revving, so unlikely to be due to a voltage drop. Anyway bro and I tore into the bike, figuring we'd put the multimeter to the temp switches to see if that was the problem - it wasn't. At some point after messing with the connectors to the instrument cluster, it started behaving like it should again i.e. no temp warning light on a cold bike. No signs of anything awry, no corroded or wet or dirty or loose connectors, temp sensors (both cooling fan and idiot light) reads open like they should. Since these switches close when hot, a possible fault would be a short somewhere but the cabling that I can see look fine. I don't know what to do about this other than ride the bike and just keep riding if I get the same fault again instead of overreacting. The idiot light cluster seems like a super simple design but I can't really access the inside of it since everything is well potted in epoxy or similar, though I guess a fault in there like a cracked solder joint or something is a likely candidate. Anyway apart from the ride that didn't happen it wasn't a total waste of time. I've verified I have enough coolant without signs of engine oil in it, and I've checked that the fan works when I short its temp switch. Other than that, a waste. Intermittent problems suck, trying to fix things and succeeding without knowing what you did is frustrating. Hope it doesn't reoccur.
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May 10, 2024 18:35
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I went out on the DRZ today. I got the temp warning light in pretty much exactly the same place as yesterday. It behaved the same too, went out with the high beam. I fixed it by rapping on the idiot light cluster with my fingers, then I carried on riding and it behaved itself until I got home. I guess I'll start looking for a replacement. I had a different issue though - the engine stalled abruptly for no apparent reason three or four times. All times except one it started again easily enough either by momentum or starter but one time it wouldn't crank. I exercised the kill switch some and flipped the heated grips to low setting (from high) and after that it never reoccurred and the bike ran like normal (i.e. too rich but good enough that I'm not tearing into the carb just yet). I'm pretty sure I know which of these two things might actually be related to the engine not cutting out anymore. Other than that it was great. My current favorite things is a twisty little gravel road in the middle of nowhere that's been recently raked so it's loose and slippery all over. I should probably lube the kill switch some and also delete the side stand switch. I've gotten into the questionable habit of killing the bike with the side stand when I want to park in gear and my hands are too busy to reach for the key but I could do it with the right thumb just as easily.
Invalido fucked around with this message at 21:00 on May 11, 2024 |
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May 11, 2024 20:57
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I'm starting to think I've been wrong about motorcycles. My previous two (honda CRB300R and current SV650) have been dead nuts reliable. The only issue between the two of them over a combined 20.000 km or so apart from regular maintenance and wear items was the engine kill switch on the honda that needed a squirt of the old WD to function properly. This DRZ seems to be a different beast. Ideally I want to trust it enough that I won't hesitate to take it motocamping overnight as far away from civilisation as I care to go but our relationship is not at that point yet. Anyway the idiot light assembly (part number 36380-29F00) seems to be difficult to source in Europe for a price I'm willing to pay so it's staying intermittently dysfunctional for the time being. Maybe something shows up for lets say sub €100 including shipping and I might buy a replacement.
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May 12, 2024 10:44
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Shelvocke posted:That sounds like a bad earth to me Intermittent electrical problems in a vibrating environment has all the potential for frustration. Invalido fucked around with this message at 13:26 on May 12, 2024 |
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May 12, 2024 13:19
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Beve Stuscemi posted:You definitely have some wiring fuckery going on. A DRZ is definitely a “ride it from NY to LA with no worries” kind of bike. cursedshitbox posted:Two things. I should probably start by replacing the battery since I've been meaning to anyway, I have no idea how old it is and I suspect it's going bad. It cranks a bit weak IMO. Weak like sometimes the starter can't overcome compression (which could absolutely be ground related) and resting voltage is a bit low (which shouldn't be related). Making or buying a test light that actually draws current might be useful I guess, I've always just used a multimeter but some forum post I read just now looking for clues made a pretty good case for using one. But yeah, looking over all the connections thoroughly is probably a really good idea. I'm pretty sure that I noticed the clock was way off when I thought I was overheating the first time, which was before I removed the instrument cluster which would mess the clock up for sure. If I'm not mistaken that would point to a general ground fault too. The main ground cable going from battery negative to the engine case seems like a good a place to start. I won't have any opportunity to work on this until next weekend sadly.
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May 12, 2024 18:13
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Nidhg00670000 posted:old notes Awesome, big thanks! I only have two fill ups to compare with yet but I'm not hitting those numbers, more like 5.45l/100 both times. Apples to oranges and all but all signs point to rich. I don't want to but it's time to accept that I own a carbed bike now, the carb needs to come apart for a clean and a look so I can hopefully see what jets are in the thing and buy smaller ones. There are cheap kits with all the jets from china but I very much think OEM is the way to go here and I'm not buying all of those. Step one in the carb saga is probably to pull the spark plug and see how that looks though. But later, electrical issues first. I ordered a battery, hopefully it arrives before the weekend.
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May 13, 2024 05:33
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So I've been reading the Mikuni manual. Needle jets and jet needles and pilot jets and whatever else. The instructions on how to tune seem straightforward enough, but a thought came to me: To get any meaningful carb access the fuel tank needs to come off. Would it be a bad idea for some reason to run with a different temporary little fuel tank to get easier carb access while experimenting with jettings and settings? I'm thinking of a generic 1 liter small engine tank or similar strapped to somewhere convenient plus a simple fuel valve, or something along those lines. The seat wouldn't be quite as firmly affixed to the bike but with the rear bolts in place it should be solid enough for short test rides I bet. The radiator air scoops wouldn't be able to mount to anything either, but I'm hoping it won't be a problem for short runs in my part of the world where it rarely gets very hot.
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May 15, 2024 19:42
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 10:27 |
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Since I don't have a dyno I'll have to do test runs and do timed consistent pulls over a measured distance to measure acceleration in order to do things by the book (e: and since I don't know anything about carbs doing it by the book seems like the way to go), among other things, so any tuning fuel system needs to be rideable. I'm thinking more along the lines of something like this I guess a PET bottle with a hose barb in the cap or just about anything would work, but it seems I don't have to reinvent the wheel here. Invalido fucked around with this message at 20:17 on May 15, 2024 |
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May 15, 2024 20:13
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