Head scratcher Post

[Bixxer Bob]

I was thinking recently about odd things that crop up that upset the bike's normal running and you wouldn't normally think of.

I'll kick off with a recent experience but feel free to add your own.....

After chasing a throttle body problem for nearly a year on my Explorer and eventually fixing it and it running smoothly I was happy.  Then a few weeks later I didn't get the loss of power like the first time, but it felt harsh with  enough vibration through the bars to numb my right hand. I thought "here we go again.." but this time after noticing a slight "chirp" at tickover, it was a much easier fix.  The chirp, I found, was coming from a crack in the balance pipe weld on the down pipes. this turned out to be a very common problem after reading up. I removed the pipes, cleaned them up, Bronze welded ALL the joints and refitted them.  So far it s been good.  It took a couple of heat cycles for it to trim itself back to normal but since then it's been fine.  My guess is it was the O2 sensor leaning out the fuelling to compensate for the leak but, whatever, it's ok now.

If there's enough oddballs, I'll make this a sticky and turn it into a list.

Be good!

BB

[Nick Calne]

Glad you got it fixed.

[Bixxer Bob]

Ta Nick!

[Lee337]

I used to own a ZZR600 (Please don't laugh, it was a few years ago) that suffered intermittent electrical problems. Every now & then, after a long ride, the lights would flicker. Not always and to be honest, I only really noticed it at night, as you would.

despite my best efforts to trace it, the problem remained. I would even put the bike in the garage with the lights turned on, rev the bike, jiggle wires around, spent hours with a multi-meter & still couldn't find it.

It wasn't until I was replacing the exhaust, I noticed a small spot of melted plastic on the headers. Turned out that when the exhausts warmed up and I was riding hard, the wind pressure was pushing a wire against the hot exhaust, melting the plastic covering and causing a short. Of course, as soon as I slowed down, the wire would move away from the exhaust, no more short and as the plastic cooled, no amount of wire jiggling could cause it to short. it's also why it never happened on short slow rides.

Took me months to figure that one out and a cable tie fixed the problem quicker than it's taken me to type this post.

[ghulst]

I used to own a ZZR600 (Please don't laugh, it was a few years ago)

'

Sorry, couldn't help myself. A friend of mine owned one. It was a pretty nice bike and more comfortable than you would think.

Took me months to figure that one out and a cable tie fixed the problem quicker than it's taken me to type this post.

Well done though. 

[blacktiger]

My story is that back in May 2017, 20 miles into the ride home after completing the Welsh National (navigation) Rally (WNR), the bike (my current Tiger800XC) cut out approaching a junction. I pushed it to the side of the road and took things apart. I found that it had blown the ignition fuse. Popped a new one in and rode home. I thought it might have been a one off but in September, it did it again whilst turning round in my drive. So I parked it up in the garage for winter.
Now, for various reasons (approaching knee replacement op, Mum dropping dead, Knee op postponed because Mum died 1 month before, 3 months holiday down under, Knee op finally taking place in July 2019, 6 month recovery before wanting to ride just to be sure thing had healed) I didn't touch the bike until Jan2020. So, on finally taking the bike apart, everything looked OK except for the wiring I put on for the Aux flood lights. Although I couldn't actually see anything wrong, it looked ropy. So I ripped all that out and rewired it with an IQ275 system. All is working great. Bike MOT'd and taxed for March 1st 2020 and is riding well. Then after about 3 breakfast runs with the TOMCC we got locked down!
Trouble is, I still don't actually know if I've fixed the ignition fuse problem........  

[Bixxer Bob]

And if you haven't,  it'll be cold, dark and chucking it down before you find out

[blacktiger]

And if you haven't,  it'll be cold, dark and chucking it down before you find out

Yep!