Went for a ride yesterday

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James Burleigh

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A few weeks ago at a work-related off-site training I met a female work colleague (we'll call her "Lara") who told me she had just bought a motorcycle--a Yamaha SR 400. She had been looking at a larger bike, she told me, but the fellow she works with who is my friend, colleague, and riding companion (we'll call him "Jor-El"), talked her into the smaller starter bike. I suggested we all go riding some day; she agreed. It happened yesterday.

In our final email exchange Friday to finalize meet time and location for our Saturday ride, Lara said she'd be there if she could get her bike started. Apparently it has (only) a kick-starter (how last century--how early last century, actually; I have never kick-started a bike myself, and I told her so).

Our meet location was a coffee shop in Berkeley next to campus--10AM (plenty of time to sleep in before dragging my kiester outta bed and interrupting dreams of Scarlett Johansson rubbing my...neck, and whispering "Poor baby. Poor, poor baby...." ).

I got there first, ordered a coffee, put my $30 rubber fake combat boots up, and waited for the other two.

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Jor-El showed up moments later on his Aprilia Tuono. He marched past me to order a coffee. I said after him: "No sign of Lara yet! But she emailed me yesterday that she'd be here if she can get her bike started."

He stopped in his tracks and pulled out his phone, then read aloud, "Can't get bike started. Come by if you want to help get it started." He texted her back saying we'd be there after we had our coffee.

Great. Little did she know that her chances of getting it started with our help would increase by maybe .01 percent. This would be the blind leading the blind: "Okay. This looks like where you put the key. What do you think? Should we give it a try?"

We finished our coffee, over which we described all the ways and times we'd dropped our bikes (at least three for me in the last 8 months
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), and headed on over to Lara's house. She was standing in the driveway as we pulled up. No sign of the bike.

"Where's the patient?" I asked. She pointed to a small, shiny black object next to us in the driveway. Good thing it warn't a rattler or we woulda got bit.--"Okey-dokey. Let's get started." Jar-El and I put on our serious Motorcycle God visages.
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Jor-El straddled the thing, fooled with all the switches, buttons, and assorted gizmos, and kicked it over a few times: no dice. A couple indicator lights came on on the dash, but the horn didn't work. "Must be the battery."

No problemo. I pulled out my jumper cables. Jor-El picked up the bike and set it down next to mine. We'd have this baby running faster than my bike hits the ground when I forget to remove the disk lock.

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"Where's the battery?" We all looked at each other and scratched our heads. "Probably under the seat!" someone volunteered. Right! Of course. They're always under the seat.

What followed this was much bending and craning and figuring out how to lift the seat (we did find the "cute" tool compartment), a problem that was only resolved upon retrieval of the user manual. Astonishingly, we had to remove two 3-inch bolts to remove the seat. But the battery wasn't there.

"Wait a minute! What's this? You don't suppose that's the battery?"

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It was. And it looked like it belonged in a laptop computer. We pulled it up and disconnected it. It was about the size of a paperback novel. And I'm not talking War and Peace here; no, nor even The Brothers Karamosov. More like On the Road, which of course was ironic....

There was no way to attach jumper cables. Well, you could, but only with the "battery" separated from the bike, and then you'd have to disconnect the cables to re-install the battery on the bike. We were disgusted with Yamaha's design decisions. What with those 3-inch bolts and so-called battery, it was starting to look like Jap Crap to us master mechanics.....
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"Went for a ride" sounds promising.

I had a Yamaha SX 400 an eon ago. Carbs, point ignition and a kick starter. Get it right and you ride away on one kick. Get it wrong and you will kick that bustard for a half hour. This bike with fuel injection and electronic ignition should be much easier. (Plus, it is small and light enough that bump starting should be simple.)

I see the opportunity for things to go wrong though.

  • Flip the key 'on'
  • engine kill 'on' (or is that 'off'? I'm so confused
    wink.png
    )
  • fuel tank switch to ‘on’
  • pull out the kickstarter.
  • while holding the handlebar-mounted decompression lever with your left finger slowly boot the starter until you see silver inside the indicator window on the right-hand side of the cylinder
    wacko.png
  • release the decompression device
  • return the kickstarter to the top of the stroke
  • give the lever a firm and complete kick
  • make sure you don’t give it any gas or it will inhibit starting
Enjoy the ride.
 
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So, did she or you guys ever get a ride in? I'm guessing no!

My first bike was a XS 400. Great little starter bike that never gave me a problem. Hopefully she gets hers running or replaced soon.

 
Oh GAWDAMM! The SR 400 is a brand new "retro" single cylinder. It is a beautiful little piece of '70s nostalgia that is kickstart only. If two grown men and one grown woman cannot get it started... The only thing worse would be tricking your fellow forum members into believing you were going to post a Ride Report and then not doing it.

I can just bet that there was one little piece of the puzzle out of place. A kill switch, the key not turned "on", something trivial.

Now, I have wasted a part of my life I will never get back. Useless.

 
Jar-El (Jor-El), Lara (Kara), I'm wondering what superhero will appear next. Perhaps our own James Burliegh aka Kal-El.

Jor-El is kind getting paunchy these days.

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Batteries...we don't need no stinkin' batteries.

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So let's see.... Where was I? Oh yes!

Kara got on the back of my bike, and the three of us rode over to the Yamaha dealer. Kara picked up a battery charger, and we went back to her place.

Jor-El and I said good-bye to Kara, who had a two-hour battery charge ahead of her (word this morning is it started right up). Since we wouldn't be riding with Kara after all, we opted to head east straight up the (scarily steep) hill along Marin Drive to the famous, twisty, congested Grizzly Peak - Skyline Blvd. - Redwood Road route on our way to lunch at (the apparently equally famous) Sparky's, which I had never been to. The route runs along the north-south Berkeley - Oakland hills, and has great views of San Francisco Bay.

Bikes parked...

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at Sparky's:

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The food shot: cheeseburger and sweet tater fries (best burger I've had in decades!):

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Jor-El and I agreed next time we'd take a full day and do a big loop up into the Gold Country.

JB

 
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I am going to be forced to do something I don't normally do. I am going to have to grade your paper.

Your writing skills and prose are excellent. A

A story line with a good beginning that got lost early and and stayed lost, then had no ending to speak of... D-

Pictures... We have both good and bad here. With no pics of "Lara" or "Kara" (since you called her both) you have lost points on your assignment. You did have a pic of the little Yamaha which is worth a few points. Food pics help you here. C

The saving grace is that you had the young lady riding pillion and that bonus is all that kept you from a failing grade. Had you posted pics of that happy event, we might have even been more generous. As it stands you earned a C+

Try to do better next time. Thanks for sharing.
smile.png


 
"Went for a ride" sounds promising.

I had a Yamaha SX 400 an eon ago. Carbs, point ignition and a kick starter. Get it right and you ride away on one kick. Get it wrong and you will kick that bustard for a half hour. This bike with fuel injection and electronic ignition should be much easier. (Plus, it is small and light enough that bump starting should be simple.)

I see the opportunity for things to go wrong though.

  • Flip the key 'on'
  • engine kill 'on' (or is that 'off'? I'm so confused
    wink.png
    )
  • fuel tank switch to ‘on’
  • pull out the kickstarter.
  • while holding the handlebar-mounted decompression lever with your left finger slowly boot the starter until you see silver inside the indicator window on the right-hand side of the cylinder
    wacko.png
  • release the decompression device
  • return the kickstarter to the top of the stroke
  • give the lever a firm and complete kick
  • make sure you don’t give it any gas or it will inhibit starting
Enjoy the ride.
Thanks, IB! Now, is that the sequence for the one you owned or this new one? Because I was thinking of printing it out for her....

JB

 
Excellent grading, Redfish. Hopefully, JB will stop what the "and the rest of the story will happen tomorrow" Maybe! Jeeese! I got to the point where I started liking you, JB. Now?! Not so sure... :)

 
"Went for a ride" sounds promising...

...I see the opportunity for things to go wrong though...Enjoy the ride.
Thanks, IB! Now, is that the sequence for the one you owned or this new one? Because I was thinking of printing it out for her...
When every bike review I read takes the time to write about the kick start process it gets my attention that something is probably funky about the procedure. While I can't remember names, phone numbers or appointments, I tend to remember the useless, pointless and trivial little things I read.

The reviews talking about kick starting a motorcycle brought back memories. I'm old, real old, the first few motorcycles I owned only came with a kick starter. Every bike with a KS had a special and unique procedure ritual you had to go through or it would never start. It also gets you highly skilled at setting the breaker points.

 
I had a Yamaha XS650 once that had both kick and a magic button. I assume the kick was for when the battery was low and the button would not work. The only issue, the kick would not work if the battery was not charged. You just couldn't kick it fast enough to make the electronics work without a good battery, which was silly because if the battery was good the button would work. It sounds like her bike has the same issue.

 
From Yamaha's website, "Kickstarting your SR400" ... the visual equivalent to ionbeam's description above. Please forward to the lovely Lara/Kara.
https://www.yamahamotorsports.com/sport/products/modelvideo/691/1838/0/video.aspx
Holy sh*t! I watched that video and thought, "You gotta be kidding me!" Talk about violating Occam's Razor--multiplying ignition steps beyond necessity. I guess those were the "good ol' days." Why don't we all go back to hauling water up from riverbanks?

But it's a good link if you happen to have bought one of them contraptions, and I will share it with Kara. Thank you, Unkka Hud!

 
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