What did you do to your FJR today?

[Bugman]

Got in a nice Autumn ride with my brother on his new 2016ES. A fun ride through the hills and curves of SWPA. Really glad he came to visit this weekend and we got the chance to take this ride. He is no longer in touring mode and he has evolved into the best coordinated and skilled riding partner i could hope for. What a treat to ride with my brother again on equal machines. I hope we can do this again soon, and often.

Ah. The joys of a good riding buddy! I'm removing the PAIRS system now.

I miss our riding Jamie! By PAIRS do you mean you're putting blocking plaits on?

Yup Blocking plates.

 

[Niehart]

Put it on the battery tender, damn storm.

 

[hppants]

Well - I've got a dilemma.

Just put new tires on the FJR and I'm heading to SFO in a couple of weeks. That should be on the order of about 2000 miles.

I've completed all of my chores for the week. The wifey has no obligations for me tomorrow until well into the evening. The weather is forecast to be sunny and dry. Should be mid 60s in the morning, warming up to around 90 mid afternoon. Bone dry. Could be worse.

As I see it - I could hold and stay home. I'm sure something needs painting. Something needs cleaning. Something needs fixing. It would be kind of cool to leave home on fresh rubber for SFO.

But on the other hand.....

What would be the harm in a little day trip tomorrow? A few hundred miles of easy riding through the back county. I'd be out of wifey's hair for the day. Leave her to have the house all to her lonesome.

Now then.... what is Pants to do?

I'll let you figure it out......

 

[creg-ny-baa]

Hit

The

Road.

JS.

 

[airboss]

Looked at all the bug guts collected on a 4000 mile + road trip and thought, well............some one has to feed the flies.

Took the Duc for a ride.

 

[rbentnail]

Rode it to work today. Wouldn't idle properly and check engine light came on. Crap! Got to work and it died as soon as I dropped the throttle.
About 10 V on the battery after it sat for an hour or two! Terminals are tight. Seem to be getting voltage when the engine is revved so it is looking like the battery has given up (I hope that's the issue rather than the charging system). I have put the battery on a slow charge for a few hours and I will let it sit overnight to see if the voltage drops again - I'm thinking it will. The 10V was (surprisingly) enough to start the bike. Rather than capacity going off, I suspect there is one cell shorted.

Damn batteries. You would think they would last longer than 9 years and 163,000 miles! Was hoping for 10 years/200,000 miles.

If you haven't cut them out already, take a look at the S4 and S6 spiders. Your symptoms sound just like mine started when I thought my battery was going south.

 

[RossKean]

Rode it to work today. Wouldn't idle properly and check engine light came on. Crap! Got to work and it died as soon as I dropped the throttle.

About 10 V on the battery after it sat for an hour or two! Terminals are tight. Seem to be getting voltage when the engine is revved so it is looking like the battery has given up (I hope that's the issue rather than the charging system). I have put the battery on a slow charge for a few hours and I will let it sit overnight to see if the voltage drops again - I'm thinking it will. The 10V was (surprisingly) enough to start the bike. Rather than capacity going off, I suspect there is one cell shorted.

Damn batteries. You would think they would last longer than 9 years and 163,000 miles! Was hoping for 10 years/200,000 miles.

If you haven't cut them out already, take a look at the S4 and S6 spiders. Your symptoms sound just like mine started when I thought my battery was going south.

I hope that's not the case although it might be possible. I have had the recall done on the S4 and I repaired the S6 myself. Voltage was low on the battery despite the fact that I rode the bike the day before. (Don't think a "spider" would cause that and didn't see other "spidery" symptoms.) I thought it was a bad cell so I charged it at a 1 amp rate for a few hours and left it to sit overnight thinking the voltage would drop again once the surface charge had dissipated. This morning, the voltage was 12.8 - dropped to 12.5 with the ignition key on (pretty normal, I think). Battery connections are confirmed to be tight. Voltage high 12's at idle and maybe 13.6 when revving the engine - doesn't sound like a charging issue but I didn't pay close attention to RPM or exact voltage.

Battery?

Stator (intermittent)?

R/R or connections?

Spider or other incidental electrical gremlin?

Will check things out a bit more closely and post a new thread in Technical Problems if I don't get anywhere.

Edit: A little more information... Slow charge for ~5 hours (< 1 amp rate). Just off charger, V=13.8 (surface charge). Bike starts and runs OK. Idle Volts are 13.3; 13.7 @ 2500 rpm. Not good enough but haven't established if it is due to a battery, R/R, stator or wiring between R/R and battery. Will get a new, fully charged battery before jumping to any conclusions. Next week, I hope. Thinking about the wiring harness from roadstercycle.com but will do the battery first.

Edit again: Started a new thread in Technical Problems https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php/topic/170175-charging-system-failure-modes/

 

[thewrenchbender]

Rode it to work and back X2. Before departure #1 this afternoon had fast starter syndrome on a cold start.

Was parking heading out the driveway and wedged fwd into 1st. Couldn't trip it with my toe, turned on the key and pulled the clutch. Farted around a little trying to flip the lever up (failing miserably) and hit the starter.

One half pop then crankity-crankety. Went to WFO and back in about 2 secs. Did it again in about 3 seconds. Was about 1/3rd of the way on throttle #3 and she started right up, running smoothly at an appropriate RPM for the throttle position.

'15A 9200 miles (8600 are mine). That plus the 18k+ I put on my '08 and is my first experience with a failure to start immediately.

 

[thewrenchbender]

^^^and was a full moon on the way home around 0130 and found myself missing the good old days-specifically a headlight switch...

 

[wheatonFJR]

Has it been sitting for a few weeks? Did you previously start it just to move it around but not let the engine get warmed up? These two things will contribute to that issue.

 

[rbentnail]

Such a bee-yoo-tea-ful day, I had to go riding. Besides, I had to work with the air pressure in the car tire I installed last week. 31-32 psi, Michelin Exalto A/S, not bad at all.

A little crowded on the Blue Ridge Parkway but that's to be expected since LeafPeeping Season is in full bloom

The dirt roads of the northwestern Pisgah Nat'l Forest south of Blowing Rock, NC were really deserted however

 

[hppants]

I rode about 150 miles through the back country yesterday. Not much color to see on the gulf coast. I stopped to drink some water and look at some shore birds that were frolicking in the low tide. A nice gentleman pulled up in an old gold wing. I don't know much about the G/W, but I knew it was an old one because it was a 1500 cc motor. Just like me, he was just wandering on his bike, enjoying the cooler morning temperature. We talked a while and he followed me for about 50 miles, before breaking off. I feel like I know him now, yet I didn't even get his name.

 

[kebo123]

Weather is changing - begins to be cold. Did 200 km yesterday and when parked my FJR I changed immediately standard screen to touring one (I am doing that every autumn/spring time) and adjusted side panels to "winter" mode.

 

[El Toro Joe]

Washed the bugs of EOM off of it, and added the new stickers that I picked up at EOM

 

[PhilJet09]

Washed EOM off of it, and added the new stickers that I picked up at EOM

I just rode those roads (and more) this weekend. My trusty '09 performed nearly flawlessly, except it's a bit slower to start. I might have to take a hard look at the starter and battery during this winter's maintenance.

 

[08FJR4ME]

Moved some stuff out of the garage to down cellar to make room for the bike. I wheeled it across the garage. Does that count?

Dave

 

[BkerChuck]

Rode it for the 146th consecutive day, to Clearfield, PA to meet TopSpeed1 and others for lunch at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub

 

[El Toro Joe]

Rode it to work...again

 

[Burnspot]

Rode it in to work today...and expect to for the entire week. There's a fair chance it'll turn 20k this week...not bad for 15 months of (s)miles.

Side note...today's my RDL build day....whee!

 

[Goodman4]

Got her all dressed up to go and she has to stay home from the dance. Put on new Pirelli GTs, plugs, changed final drive fluid and the dealer misheard me and changed the engine oil again. I was hoping to take my 07 FJR on a 5 day trip to West Virginia to do some leaf peeping with the wife. We'll revisit some fun roads we did a few years ago including Frakes to Appalachia VA through Kingdom Come in E KY, 16 from Marion to Tazewell VA, and across 39 from Covington to Summersville including Highland Scenic. But her knee is hurting. We did a test ride on the FJR today and she really wants to take the Goldwing instead, and I've gotta keep momma happy. The two up comfort is the reason to get a Wing, and also the reason NOT to get a Wing or you'll not get to ride the FJR two up any more.

I have only had the FJR out of the state once this year. Fortunately my commute is still a fun ride.