What did you do to your bike today?

[Pie man]

Fitted the Cobrra Nemo 2 Oiler, ready for the Whitson Week Tour. Not long now 

[Fiddlesticks]

MOT on the Thunderbird. No advisories.

 

Need to get out on it a bit more, only done 341 miles since picking it up last July.

 

[geofferz]

No garage life so I risked the hand car wash. I oversaw the job, was good! Then a little blast around Kent. Some lovely b roads here, plenty of potholes though. i... Don't know why it's sideways 

[Fiddlesticks]

7 hours ago, geofferz said:

Don't know why it's sideways

Try editing/resizing to be slightly smaller. Works for me usually.

[RideWithStyles]

would you really trust them, unqualified and untested job hand? Do you trust a hand job when they have no reprocussion of their actions....a thread of talk no doubt.

[fastbob]

New battery in the Harley . Yuasa YTX20 , £100  , ouch ! 

The old one wasn't holding a charge despite what the Optimate was saying . 

Does anyone else suspect that Optimates are grossly over hyped pieces of junk ?  

[Simon Davey]

10 minutes ago, fastbob said:

New battery in the Harley . Yuasa YTX20 , £100  , ouch ! 

The old one wasn't holding a charge despite what the Optimate was saying . 

Does anyone else suspect that Optimates are grossly over hyped pieces of junk ?  

 

Yup, bought the same spec Halfords version for 1/2 the price. 

 

[Nick the wanderer]

1 hour ago, fastbob said:

New battery in the Harley . Yuasa YTX20 , £100  , ouch ! 

The old one wasn't holding a charge despite what the Optimate was saying . 

Does anyone else suspect that Optimates are grossly over hyped pieces of junk ?  

Never had one so have no real idea, but I'm glad you asked that.

[geofferz]

18 hours ago, RideWithStyles said:

would you really trust them, unqualified and untested job hand? Do you trust a hand job when they have no reprocussion of their actions....a thread of talk no doubt.

Me? They're car washers, there aren't any qualifications. They do a good job on my car where the ramifications of a scratch are higher. 

Edited April 19, 2024 by geofferz

[Tinkicker]

9 hours ago, fastbob said:

New battery in the Harley . Yuasa YTX20 , £100  , ouch ! 

The old one wasn't holding a charge despite what the Optimate was saying . 

Does anyone else suspect that Optimates are grossly over hyped pieces of junk ?  

 

 

Yup, once had one connected up all winter to a CB1300.  Green light saying all OK.  Came to start the bike.  Click whiir whir wh.  It went in the bin.  I have a pro grade charger now that gets connected to the VFR once a month and then disconnected again once it displays FUL.

[Simon Davey]

We should recognise though, that these battery optimisers cycle the batteries. 

Unlucky If you disconnect when it's just discharged the battery,ready for a recharge. 

[Gerontious]

51 minutes ago, Simon Davey said:

We should recognise though, that these battery optimisers cycle the batteries. 

Unlucky If you disconnect when it's just discharged the battery,ready for a recharge. 

 

Ive never come across a battery optimiser that discharges the battery as a part of its normal operation. what they do is charge the battery and then periodically check the battery as it normally discharges over time and add a bit of juice as and when necessary. They keep it fully charged over the months of winter.

 

What they do not do is load test. which in simple terms is measure the actual power of the battery. so a dying battery might show 12 volts or whatever it is but the amps. the oomph to drive the starter motor isn't there. Most bikes nowadays have ABS and that does measure the Amps as part of its initialisation test. so if you start getting ABS errors at start up even if the bike starts fairly normally its often a sign that the battery is on its way out. Normally all it takes is a short ride and then the ABS will set. This state of affairs slowly gets worse and eventually the bike will struggle to start. When I had the GS - ABS start up faults were always an early sign that the battery was beginning to die.

 

Optimisers are good at what they do - but they don't do everything.

Edited April 19, 2024 by Gerontious

[Pie man]

2 hours ago, geofferz said:

Me? They're car washers, there aren't any qualifications. They do a good job on my car where the ramifications of a scratch are higher. 

 I hope the detergent they use doesn't react with the Ali  

[Simon Davey]

25 minutes ago, Gerontious said:

 

Ive never come across a battery optimiser that discharges the battery as a part of its normal operation. what they do is charge the battery and then periodically check the battery as it normally discharges over time and add a bit of juice as and when necessary. They keep it fully charged over the months of winter.

 

What they do not do is load test. which in simple terms is measure the actual power of the battery. so a dying battery might show 12 volts or whatever it is but the amps. the oomph to drive the starter motor isn't there. Most bikes nowadays have ABS and that does measure the Amps as part of its initialisation test. so if you start getting ABS errors at start up even if the bike starts fairly normally its often a sign that the battery is on its way out. Normally all it takes is a short ride and then the ABS will set. This state of affairs slowly gets worse and eventually the bike will struggle to start. When I had the GS - ABS start up faults were always an early sign that the battery was beginning to die.

 

Optimisers are good at what they do - but they don't do everything.

 

I shall tuck that under my arm as new knowledge, cheers.

[geofferz]

1 hour ago, Pie man said:

 I hope the detergent they use doesn't react with the Ali  

Is my bike made of ali? Are there detergents that do such things? 

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

On 19/04/2024 at 07:51, fastbob said:

New battery in the Harley . Yuasa YTX20 , £100  , ouch ! 

The old one wasn't holding a charge despite what the Optimate was saying . 

Does anyone else suspect that Optimates are grossly over hyped pieces of junk ?  

Yuasa seem to do at least two ranges of batteries. The batteries on my CBF and Bobber are similar in size physically so I can swap them between bikes. The CBF battery is £130 the Bobber one is £36. 

 

There isn't much difference in capacity between them. But I'm expecting the one in the CBF to last longer. The Bobber one is 6 years old and seems OK so far. 

 

I use CTEK chargers and so far had no problems with them. 

[smallfrowne]

On the topic of battery chargers, I use a one that was meant for RC stuff. It can do umpteen different battery types, lead and various forms of lithium stuff, 6v, 12v, any volt really. I can't remember what I paid for it, probably too much, and I don't have any RC stuff no more, but at least I can use it on all the different batteries the bikes have, I've even got lithium in the fleet now! It's been very handy. Just have to clip it on whenever I remember over winter, and even summer these days.

 

On the topic of sunshine, I have finally checked the valve clearances on the SV and since they were all good, meaning I don't have to order anything for it and wait, I have booked a track day for a week a Tuesday. Just have to put it all back together, change the fluids, clean up the previous owners higgly piggly wiring and assorted bodge jobs and off to Cadwell we go. 

[rob m]

Finished the service, final drive oil replaced today, 180 ml as per spec. Bled the ABS system with the Motoscan app and OBD connector. Reset the service reminder with Motoscan. Was much easier than I anticipated. Tyre change booked in for a new set of PR6s.

 

Then this in 4 weeks...

 

 

 

[geofferz]

5 minutes ago, rob m said:

Finished the service, final drive oil replaced today, 180 ml as per spec. Bled the ABS system with the Motoscan app and OBD connector. Reset the service reminder with Motoscan. Was much easier than I anticipated. Tyre change booked in for a new set of PR6s.

 

Then this in 4 weeks...

 

 

 

Aw hell yeah. Jealous! 

[Simon Davey]

Me too 

[bonio]

Have a great time Rob! I've always fancied a trip to Spain on the bike? You riding across France or taking the ferry to Spain?

[S-Westerly]

Jealous as.....Enjoy.

[rob m]

1 hour ago, bonio said:

Have a great time Rob! I've always fancied a trip to Spain on the bike? You riding across France or taking the ferry to Spain?

Thanks mate, I have a ferry booked from Plymouth and also have a eurotunnel crossing in hand. Gonna keep an eye on the weather from the week before onwards and decide then. I’ll just move the ferry crossing to another time if I don’t use it. Either way, I want to be in Barcelona by the 25th May for the MotoGP. Should be fun 

[S-Westerly]

Haven't fitted it yet but I have bought a Mistral Tria polished stainless end can and a cat cover. Supposedly good for an additional 3 hp which means absolutely jack. Got it more for the simple fact it looks so much better.

[RideWithStyles]

che

Edited May 15, 2024 by RideWithStyles