LilBeaver
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Everything posted by LilBeaver
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Nice work!!
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A few shots of a few of my bikes...
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From the album: My Bikes, Past and Present
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So how well do cowboy boots work with 2nd Gen Controls?
LilBeaver replied to GG54172's topic in Riding Gear
I've worn both the cowboy boots and the law enforcement boots (not at the same time of course) :-P My opinion of each. Law Enforcement Boots: I've worn Bates and Rockies with and without the zip up access but all with Gor-Tex (and 6" ankles -- whatever that measurement is called). Pros: Reasonable protection, excellent traction, good breathability, feet stay bone dry when walking through water that do not go above the top of the boot (and they stay just as dry when on the bike in heavy rain) Cons: In my size 14 the boots were quite wide at the toes that I found a little difficult to use on certain bikes (not so much the 2nd gen, but a big problem on my wing); Laces -- any one that has gotten a lace stuck on a shifter or brake lever knows why this is a bad thing (easy solution is to keep those things tied and tucked out of the way) Cowboy Boots: I am on my second pair of Double H 3283 Western Work Boots (my 1st pair lasted me just over 4 years of DAILY wear). After I bought these boots (I had intentions of wearing them just for riding, but they were comfortable enough these are the only shoes I will wear unless I am working out or something). These have a thick rubber sole (but does not look obnoxiously thick when you are standing in them) and a pointed toe. My feet stretch the leather out quite a bit around the toes, but that is no big deal to me. Pros: Comfort, slimmer toe than the Bates boots -- allows for much easier manipulation of the controls on different bikes; Protection -- 10" boots cover ankle very well and up the leg a bit, my jeans never even get close to exposing the tops of the boots so there is plenty of bug/rock/weather protection thanks to those. Great traction, etc. And of course, with a good looking pair of boots you never need to slide on a pair of 'dress shoes' again! :-P Cons: Do not breathe quite as well as the Law enforcement boots; weather protection is not quite as good as the gor-tex boots that I wore BUT my feet still stay quite dry; It was very difficult for me to find a boot that fit my foot well and had the rubber sole - in my opinoin this is a big downside. After wearing both types I will be continuing to stick with the cowboy boots and have no plans to switch that up. To answer the other question you had, with my cowboy boots the heel-toe shifter is LESS in the way, but it still bothers me and my big feet a little. Hope that is helpful. Rick -
SteveB: I was thinking about stopping in/near KC for breakfast. If we go on my schedule I will be there by 6 or 630am... BUT, since I have a traveling companion she will ultimately decide the schedule so we'd probably really be looking at 730 or 8ish. I'll give you a ring tomorrow when I make it to Emporia and have a better idea of what kind of travel time she lets me have.
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I am headed up to Michigan (to see some family) with a stop in Iowa and Illinois (for more family visiting). http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?threadid=38055
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Sounds like a plan guys! I should be arriving in Michigan Tuesday late morning/early afternoon (maybe a little bit later depending on when the g/f ends up getting ready and whatnot). I have stuff planned already for Saturday (late morning through the evening) and Sunday (pretty much all day). There was talk with my parents about taking a ride up to traverse city (actually Kingsley) along the western side of Michigan and staying with some family then coming back the next day. I think that will be a Thursday/Friday adventure, but I do not know for sure yet, that one is up in the air still. Anyhoo, we can figure something out in the next couple of days. I am not sure if I will be bringing a computer or not so I may not be back on to check things out until sunday (When I get to my sister's) or Tuesday when I get to my parents. But I'll keep an eye on this when I can so we can firm something up. Maybe Wednesday the 29th?
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BUMP! Alright, since my bike is behaving again and the weather is looking quite beautiful I will be hitting the road before the first sparrow fart tomorrow morning! Keep your eyes peeled for two dorks on a silver/green RSV!! Rick M.
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Picked up the regulator/rectifier this morning and installed it. I also pulled the grounding bolt out cleaned it really well and reinstalled it; it had some corrosion and dirt on it but it was not all that bad. Checked the voltage delivered through the battery leads as well as a few other places and it was around 13.6-13.9V as expected (NOTE: The voltage was rock steady after I cleaned the grounding bolt). Rode highway speeds for just about 3 hours, circling Lubbock (it is about 32 miles, I wrote down incorrect information earlier). After about 200 miles I pulled into the garage and everything seemed to be fine. Ran some other errands, filled up and am all set to take off before the first sparrow fart tomorrow morning for my trip. I realize this wasn't a complicated issue but hopefully the information that has been discussed here may be helpful to someone else along the way. Thank you again for those of you that contributed, it is greatly appreciated. Rick M. (well, I suppose is more accurate)
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Well shucks... I just checked and the rectifier/regulator is a different part number. Oh well.
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There is also a plug under the passenger seat that leads to the radio, this would be something else to check. Well, there are actually 2; one is for passenger communications the other (13ish-pin connector) is for the radio. Good luck.
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HELP!! Missing Child (my step son was abducted)!!!
LilBeaver replied to ArticusMedicus's topic in Watering Hole
My prayers are with you and your family as well. Gdspeed -
Thanks for the suggestions Brian. I did some checking around (yesterday and today) and it turns out that the cheapest place I found (that would get me the unit within a few days) is actually the stealership. So, 9:01 this morning I walked in the door there and ordered one guaranteed to be delivered by 11 tomorrow. This will give me time to get everything back together and take a reasonable length test ride (convenient that Lubbock has a 17.5 mile expressway that traverses the circumference of the city). When I get some time I will crack open the case of my failed one to identify what went wrong with it and satisfy my curiocity of its construction. Normally I would not have questioned the meter but two weeks ago when I was at TRIUMF running my experiment I had some problems with an RF generator unit that took some time troubleshooting. During this process we found that one of the meters that we were using was giving us a bad reading when used with the RF unit but seemed to work fine when used on regular power supplies. By the way, this was an Agilent bench meter. So if I had problems with that one, I figured that it is possible that my own personal one (that is many years old) could possibly have issues as well. I guess a 'flaw' I have as an experimental Physicist is being complete and systematic with my observations and examination throughout any type of testing process; I had also figured that some of the details of my observations may benefit someone else down the road. If not, all that is lost is the few minutes it took me to write up the post and whatever time was spent reading it 'unnecessarily'. For those of you that have taken the time to follow along, offer suggestions/contribute, it is greatly appreciated. Hopefully some day I can return the favor. Now to finish putting the bike back together and try to figure out what is going on with the CB... Rick M.
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Brian: Thanks for the follow up. I was being facetious with the 'little'. I was using a basic craftsman digital meter. I am not 100% convinced that it was an accurate reading. I was only probing the power leads that attach to the battery. For some of the testing I had the meter sitting on the right passenger floorboard. For the second round of testing I had picked it up and held it (maybe 1 ft from the bike). I have a few really nice meters at the office, tomorrow morning I'll pick a couple up so I can verify what I found tonight. On one hand I was sortof hoping that after cleaning all of the electrical components and installing the new battery I would get appropriate readings. On the other hand, if I can verify this 17 volt business then, despite the , I will be relieved as the source of the problem has likely been isolated to the regulator/rectifier unit. I will definitely go back and check to make sure that the main ground is secured properly (and not corroded), but I took everything apart that I could see, cleaned it and reinstalled, so unless I missed one (which IS possible), I think that I am comfortable ruling out a lose/corroded ground... But I will look again in the morning with fresher eyes... Unfortunately, it looks like I am going to not be able to take the bike on this upcoming trip, since it will take too long to get one of these silly things I wonder if I could talk the local dealership into pulling a regulator out of the crate of a new bike ... Doubtfull but it may be worth a shot.
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After a looooong day at the office I came home and was able to put some more time in working on the bike. I went ahead and wired the passing lamps properly (fused from the battery to a relay that is activated by a switch and the headlamp switch in the appropriate position). I wired the whole setup with 10 gauge wire and a 30 amp relay, mostly because I had some extra 10 guage wire and connectors laying around. I did find that one of my spotlights is burned out so I will make a trip to tractor supply, wally-world or autozone to find a comperable replacement that is gaurunteed to be less that what yamaha wants for a replacement. After finishing the wiring, I put the tank back on and pulled fuses to electrical components that I would prefer to NOT fry (audio system and cruise control) put the rumpus outside the garage and started it up. Unfortunately I do not have a tachometer so this test was mildly inconclusive but yielded some intreguing results which I will outline below: 1) Turn key to on position (read ~13 volts) 2) Pushed starter button (minimum of 12.5 volts) 3) Immediately checked for any sign of AC voltage - This was passed, no AC voltage present at time of reading (implying that the rectifing circuit is functioning properly at the time of the test) 4) 20 seconds after bike started (reading of ~17 volts) 5) Reved motor while watching meter; (I was unable to get a reliable read while I was changing the engine speed - mostly because I only have two hands) 6) Reved the motor significantly and held for meter to stabilize (read 13.9V on first test) 7) Let motor go back to idle (read 13.6 with a 0.1V fluctuation both up and down) 8) Reved the motor significantly and held, waited for meter to stabilize (read 13.8V) 9) Realized it was 11:30pm - Stopped reving motor 10) Took a long measurement while at idle and read a pretty steady 13.6 V 11) Shut off motor (read 13.1 V with key in on position) 12) Let bike sit for 15 minutes 13) repeated 1-3 with same results 14) Let idle and took measurement (read 16.9V with a 0.2V fluctuation both up and down) 15) After ~30 seconds of idle read steady 17.0V 16) Shut off motor, turned ignition off. So, this 17.0V thing bothers me a little... So I guess I need to sleep on this a little bit and maybe try to track down a tachometer tomorrow... Any comments are welcomed. Thanks again for following along! Rick M.
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I should be around. Is this your son's first year?
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Oh yea, I did take a small screwdriver and bent the contacts within the terminals on the harness so that they would pinch tighter. Good call though, thanks.
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Brian: Ha, well I don't know about either of those... I was unaware of that rally, but I think I will definitely stop by for at least one of the days... I will not camp out there since it is just a few miles from my house, but I would like to stop in and see what it is all about.
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Well, after a mixed day of working on the bike and trying to get enough work done to stay up with where I need to be I have found a few things: 1) Almost all of the wiring harnesses had some dirt on the outside but appeared next to new on the inside, none the less I blew them out, sprayed them with electrical contact cleaner, blew them out again, greased appropriately then reconnected. I found that the radio connector under the passenger seat (the 10?-pin connector) was actually loose. I firmly connected that one and subsequently I have a reliable volume control now but still seems about 1/2 as loud as it was before. 2) The contacts and wiring harness for the regulator/rectifier literally looks brand new. One thing that I did find is that when I went to disconnect it, it just slid off. That is the little release on the wiring harness seemed to not be fully engaged. I do not know whether this is relevant or not, but that is what I found. I firmly reattached it and checked to ensure that the 'locking' mechanism snapped into place; and it did this time. 3) I have looked over all of the wires I can get my hands on, unwrapping them and rewrapping them after inspection and have found none that have worn through the insulation or have sharp bends. Of all that I tested there was continuity within the wire and no unexpected shorts to ground. Obviously I was not able to test all of them so this is mildly inconclusive. (I mostly did this because it was convenient to do while I let the contact cleaner dry.) 4) Only 1 out of 45 dealerships/suppliers that were contacted today claimed to have a regulator/rectifier in stock. Unfortunately the parts guy spent 10 minutes looking for it and could not find it. 5) Last thing I tried to do was check the resitance of the stator. I fought for a while to get the probes on the leads correctly and I could not quite get in there... So I came in to read up on suggestions on how to get to it and may or may not attempt again tonight. I realize that some may see cleaning and inspecting the harnesses and wiring this thoroughly is a waste of time but I figured at this point it could not hurt anything especially since I needed to take the bike apart a little bit to properly wire the driving lamps so another few hours of preventative maintenance could potentially leave me with many more trouble free miles... but we'll see. Summary: Today was very much inconclusive which I view is a good thing. Not finding anything blatantly wrong, discolored, melted, smoking, etc is a little discouraging in that it does not firmly identify an issue but somewhat encouraging to see that it very well could be something as simple as a battery or if it is the regulator/rectifier (which I suspect would have showed some discoloration SOMEWHERE on it or within the harness or contacts if something happened with it). But we'll see. First thing in the morning I am going to go ahead and put the tank back on so that I can start it up and test the charging system (since everything else seems to be checking okay). I wanted to be darn sure that there was not anything else that would potentially fry anything else on the bike before I started it up... As I write this (and look it back over) it sure looks like I have not been very productive today, but, hopefully this thoroughness will pay off in the end... I guess I will stop there for now.
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I am not surprised either. I just wanted to make sure it would turn over and it started. I shut it off within (literally) 1-2 seconds. Lunch time now. I have taken off the regulator/rectifier and looked at the connections. There is no discoloration at all. My plan after lunch is to disassemble the plug that the r/r plugs into to see if I can see anything that would indicate a poor connection, etc. I have been thinking about it and I am going to see if I can find a wiring diagram for this particular rectifier/regulator unit. I have access to some high quality oscilloscopes and i was thinking that I ought to be able to determine functionality (or lack there of) BUT I need to know the particulars about the circuity (which I realize I may not be able to come across). Granted I can probably run the bike for a few minutes to check the charging system since it ran for the 2.5ish hours yesterday it took me to get home... My presumption is that any damage that would be done has already been done by now... Thanks again for the input, it is greatly appreciated! - Rick M.
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Oh yea, when I flip the cruise switch the lights come on momentarily then the "on" light stays on, like it had always done in the past. Also the dash lamps seem to be noticeably brighter, BUT I really do not know if they actually are or if it is just my imagination...
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I figured I would post an update... The battery was fully charged so I let it chill for a few hours while I tried to get some sleep. Installed it this morning (along with a new headlamp) the lights function properly (except for the driving lamps, but I have not checked the bulbs or the fuse). The radio comes on and I do not get that gd awful noise within the headset when the radio is set on speakers or headset. The CB turns on, but I have not done anything but turn it on and off in the garage. When I turn the CB off there is a loud pop that comes through the speakers (but it thinks that it is receiving something). Turning the squelch all the way up, it stops receiving, I turn off the CB and there is no pop. The other thing that seemed a little fishy with the radio is the volume knob was not functioning properly. It would turn up 1 level per click but turning the volume back down was quite sparatic (meaning that sometimes it would go down while turning and sometimes it wouldn't). Also with the radio, the volume seems to be significantly quieter than usual. I pushed the starter button, the bike cranked and started right up. I immediately shut it off because I want to get through the rest of the electrical connections before I do anything else with the bike. I am going to run out and pick up a relay, some wire and connectors so that I can wire up the driving lights 'properly'. While rewiring those, I will check the inline fuse as well as the bulbs (I suspect it is just the bulbs since the headlamp burnt out yesterday and it is on the same circuit). For the radio, I will double check the connections, look for any sign of arcing or discoloration in the harness as well as along the wires that feed to the radio then probably be back on here looking for other things to look at to try to troubleshoot that too... But one step at a time. Thanks again for all of your support, I will definitly keep you posted and have more questions as I get through all of this. Rick M.
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Right you are. I hope I didn't say that it was somewhere... :-/
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Brian: I believe it was a passing thought at one time but with the conditions down here I think that may be a good way to go. I am actually lucky enough to be able to park it in the shade for most of the time it is outside (at work anyways). And I have put a healthy coat of wax on it as well as leather conditioner for the seat. BUT, I did not anticipate the dust to be as bad as it is so a cover seems like the right way to go...
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Brian: I did my homework before going out to purchase the new battery. I had to go with something that was available off the shelf so that I could get this ready for next weekend (hopefully I can have some conclusive results by then). It is an OEM replacement made by Interstate; it IS the AGM type ... Pretty neat stuff! Concerning the battery that I pulled out, it was difficult for me to tell where the electrolyte (it was a 'sealed, maintenance free' battery -- according to the outside anyways... I forget the brand but it was one that I had never heard of and seemed like an off brand; maybe a 'local' auto parts store house brand or something) was but I did notice significant corrosion on at least 2 of the plates (near the top) of the cells that had the moving caps. And yes, low electrolyte would certainly be a source of failure... I wish I would have looked more closely at the battery and taken pictures now (I already took it in to be recycled... I think I'm going to head back to where I got it to see if they still have it and would give me another look at it....) Looking around the outside of the battery and all around the battery compartment, down the frame etc I saw no direct signs of ANY acid leaking out. I do realize that it sometimes takes a while to show up but it seems to me that if it has been sloshing around for a long time IF anything were to have snuck out I would have seen hints of it somewhere. I am aware of how corrosive H2SO4 is and have already mixed up and wiped all of the nearbye areas with a basic solution that should neutralize any of the acid that could have possibly spilled out. Thanks again. Rick M.
