OB-1

Prayers sent...

Prayers sent...

Well, it's been a while. Sold the bike, house, tractor, and just about everything else in 2014 and bought a 45-foot 4-slide motorhome. Traveled around for two years before my wife had enough so we bought a house and sold the bus. Looking to buy a bike again.

On a side note: VRLA batteries can actually survive freezing and still work after being thawed and charged. The freezing will certainly cause irreparable damage and greatly reduced life, but the battery will work. Freezing a VLA battery will result in destruction of the battery.

Push starting these puppies is no fun! Wife and I had to push start ours a couple of times while on a trip some years ago. "Faster Honey, faster!" She was not amused. Finally made to a dealer in Billings, MT, for a warranty replacement.

The battery in our bikes is small, only 18-20 Amp-Hours, so it doesn't take long to discharge it especially when the key is full on and the kill switch is off.

Sorry your bike was hit. IMHO, the police report is/was a good idea as some people are not nearly as honest and upright as they may first seem. Last Dec. a guy t-boned my wife & I. It was a very low speed accident between two pickup trucks. He ran a stop sign, in the rain, and hit the side of our truck. He & I exchanged info and I thought the incident was over when my wife informed me that she had called the police. I told the guy to wait for the Cops and while he seemed a bit upset he waited. Police report done and everyone went their merry way. We contacted the other guy's insurance to get our truck repaired. They said they would get back to us... Turns out the "at fault" driver didn't report the accident to his insurance and even dodged them refusing to take their calls, answer the door, emails, or even letters. Since we had a police report, his insurance took care of our repairs. That would not have happened if my wife had not called the police and insisted on a police report.

Prayers sent...

Bubber made a teardrop trailer a few years ago. It wasn't a camper, and it looked much better than the one in the video. He didn't seem to have any trouble pulling it.

Thanks, that was a good video. Now about this "friend" thing you're trying to pawn off on us... We all know better, but I guess it's alright if it makes you feel better to have a make believe friend...:rotf::rotf:

The weather here today is gorgeous! 76F at the moment, a few light clouds, and an occasion breeze. Please keep the snow back east.

Here's another resource for various state gun laws: http://www.handgunlaw.us/

Prayers sent...

I'm thinking that the Grand-Kids would love to ride in something like that!

No! I agree, your battery appears to be fully charged. I agree. 16-18 volts is too high. Sorry for the confusion... The voltage measurements you stated of approximately 16VDC at idle and 18VDC at 2000RPM are too high. This is a voltage regulator issue. The high voltage could also be caused by a high resistance connection, (bad connection), between the voltage regulator and frame ground. Open circuit voltage is battery voltage without load or charging current. An open circuit voltage of 12.94VDC is at the high end of normal if you have a VRLA, (Valve Regulated Lead-Acid, a.k.a sealed, AGM, Gel-Cell), battery. It can take a couple of hours for a motorcycle or car battery to drop to open circuit voltage after charging has been stopped. This means that after turning off the bike it may a couple of hours for the voltage of your battery to drop down to true open circuit voltage, especially with the high charge voltage you presently have. In short, don't worry about the open circuit voltage at this time. The stock voltage regulator keeps the stator winding at 100% output current for the present engine speed (RPM). The Mosfet voltage regulator varies the stator winding output current according to the actual load, (number of lights on, etc.). This is great as the stator winding will run cooler and last longer. Why Yamaha didn't use this regulator to begin with is beyond me. I intend to put one of these Mosfet regulators on my bike as I have no desire to change the stator again.

The true open circuit voltage of a lead-acid battery is directly related to the specific gravity of the electrolyte. The magic number is 0.84. Subtracting 0.84 from the open circuit voltage of a lead-acid cell, not battery, provides the specific gravity. Example: Open circuit voltage: 2.125VDC - 0.84 = 1.285 specific gravity. The nominal full charge specific gravity of a VLA, (Vented Lead-Acid, a.k.a flooded or wet), motorcycle battery is approximately 1.285. The nominal full charge specific gravity of a VRLA, (Valve Regulated Lead-Acid, a.k.a sealed, AGM, Gel-Cell), motorcycle battery is approximately 1.300. The true fully charged specific gravity of a given lead-acid cell is often a little higher than the stated nominal full charge specific gravity. An open circuit voltage of 12.94VDC would equal an average per cell specific gravity of 1.316. This would be the high end of normal for a VRLA battery. Here's the math: 12.94VDC / 6 cells = 2.156 average volts per cell - 0.84 magic number = 1.316 average cell specific gravity. Note: It can take a couple of hours for a motorcycle or car battery to drop to open circuit voltage after charging has been stopped.

Lithium batteries are not a good fit for our charging systems,and you can buy two good lead-acid batteries for that price.

Prayers sent...

My wife and I finally "upgraded" to smart phones two months ago so we could keep in touch with the kids and grand-kids. These are great tools, but I've found that many Apps take complete control of your phone. For example, Apps from Discover Card and United Airlines want to be able to track your location, access your personal data, send data, take photos, etc all without your knowledge. All this for the convenience of being able to pay your credit card bill or buy an airline ticket with just a couple of keystrokes. No Thank You. Be careful with Apps!

This is one the those rare threads that are better without photos...

The Glacier NP area is very pretty and has great M/C roads. Going To The Sun road is great even with all the cars. Highway 2 is a good ride except for the oil patch. Minot, ND to Wolf Point, MT will be the problem stretch. I wouldn't use the oil patch as an excuse not to go to Glacier, but I would consider dropping south to skirt as much of the 2-lane as practical through the patch.

You will likely have problems with all the oil field traffic in western ND and eastern MT. Lots of heavy truck traffic, lots of traffic, stuff falling off of trucks, very few available motel rooms or places to eat. Depending upon weather there could be significant amounts of mud on the road in places. Safe? No Passable? Yes Fun? Probably not.

Yes, the output power of the stator is RPM dependent; however, the stator output is always at the maximum level for the RPM. In other words, the load on the stator winding is always 100% of the available output. It doesn't matter what electrical loads we are or are not running, the stator is always putting out the maximum available power for the RPM. Any power not used by us or the bike is shunted to ground via the voltage regulator. This ain't a car charging system, it's a bike and this is a common design for bikes.

I think you missed my post. The stator windings in our bikes are always operating at 100% current. This is true even if the load on the DC system was zero. Improving the connections, while a good idea, does nothing to increase the life of the stator. There really isn't anything we can do to increase the life of the stator short of redesigning the whole charging system or installing series current limiting resisters which would further reduce the pitifully low output of our charging system. The stator windings fail due to a breakdown of the insulation in the winding.

We have the largest windshield Clearview makes on our 06-RSV. According to my wife, this windshield provides far more protection for the passenger than the stock windshield. The only downside is that I'm not tall enough to see over the windshield in the rain. This really hasn't been much of an issue. I keep the windshield liberally covered in Pledge furniture polish as this helps it shed rain and bugs. IMHO, the extra large windshield has not induced or imposed any handling issues even at high speeds in high cross winds.