Hey guys, I just recently joined this forum last month when i bought my first bike.
My fiance has been pretty enthusiastic about getting a bike for herself so she went out and got her permit last week. I was teaching her the basics when she was coming to a slow stop, turned the front wheel and tipped the bike over. She didn't land too hard, but it was enough to break the front right mirror and break the end off of the brake handle. The bike landed on the right side.
Since then, the bike warms up and then proceeds to totally die after that. It happened yesterday and again today when I took it for a spin. It will start correctly then after its warmed up, it'll totally die.
After it died today, the battery felt like it was dieing because it would just click after repeated starts. If I just left it for a while, it would crank over again but not start.
I searched a few different key word phrases but didn't come up with anything useful. Before I start pulling things apart, is there something obvious that I'm missing that would cause these problems?
Thanks in advance.
Just about any tip over will break a mirror and bend/brake a lever. They goes for just about any bike. Next time you take it out for her to practise I'd pull the mirrors off. You don't need them for learning in a parking lot anyway. Good luck with the training though. I tried to teach my wife how to ride, but I'm an awful teacher, so she just had to wait for her MSF class.
As far as the bike, you might want to check that the fluid levels are where they should be. Did you notice any puddle after she dropped the bike? Maybe it leaked some fluid. How many times have you started it without actually getting to ride it? You also drain a little bit of the batteries life every time you start the bike, which then gets recharged as you ride, but if you keep starting it, and letting it idle until it dies, the battery isn't going to recharge.
As far as why the bike would die after it gets warmed up, I'm not too sure, but 99% of the problems you run into this bike can be solved by pulling off the carbs and cleaning them, and reinstalling them.
Good luck with it! Someone should be a long shortly that can give you a better answer than mine.
hi,
i had the same symptoms as yours. I landed the bike on the right side and the pick-up coil was damaged...(i own the 06' model, so there is only one pick up coil). :cry:
I changed the coil(thanks to advices of people over here) and everything ok...
I hope you will soon find the problem and fix it.
Good luck!!!!!! :D
Check the carburetor overflow / breather tube for presence of gasoline. If there's gas in that line that hasn't drained, dump it out and route it properly to drain. If there was gas there this should fix the issue.
Otherwise sounds like classic symptoms of an air leak from either a loose carb to engine or carb to airbox boot.
I've had 3 walking speed laid downs and nothing got damaged. Even after a 40 mph lowside with the bike first slid on its left then stood up from hitting the side of the hill and ended up on it's right, with the gauges smashed, handlebar bent, brake lever bent, tank badly dented, both mirrors were still good. Go figure.
Everytime the bike was laid down, the carburator flooded, so I had to pin the throttle wide-open while cranking to clear the carburator and got it started. After the lowside, I had the bike repaired, but the battery died the day after I got the bike back. It turned out the battery fluid level was low, and just refilling the battery w/ distilled water solved the problem. I thought batteries were all sealed nowadays so I was surprised by that, and I'm not sure if the low fluid level was related to the lowside (i.e., could the battery leak with the bike on its side?) or just a coincidence.
Edit: oh, my bike is a naked '01. Not sure if the mirrors on a faired bike are more vulnerable or not.
Thanks for the replies, very helpful.
I inspected the.bike after I read these posts and the battery is dead and just clicks now. There are no fluids leaking and there weren't any when it first dropped either. I'm going to pull the battery to charge it and go from there.
A few questions if someone would indulge me real quick.
How does a bike charge itself? Could a battery on its way out cause a bike to die when coming from 25 mph to a stop?
Thanks in advance.
The way an engine works is... the spark is generated from power from the battery, that enables the engine to turn which enables the Alternator to charge the battery.
Now think of the battery as a bathtub full of water. Each time the spark fires is like taking a cup of water out of the tub. If the alternator is only putting back a halfcup each time, eventually the tub will be empty.
At 25mph there is enough engine rotation to enable a full cup to be put back. BUT, as idle there is only half a cup. As the battery is on the bordeline, coming from 25mph to stop will reduce the engine rpm and thus what the alternator puts back and now there is not enough to generate a spark. Not spark = engine die.
Throw in the headlight and taillight being on and there is additional drainage on the battery.
Check the battery's charge, yes. Also check the battery's connections.
Michael
never mind
I was thinking it was also the battery water levels.
All you have to do is remove the caps on the top of the batterym, fill a needle with water and re-fill the individual cells.
Incredibly suprising to see an un-sealed battery on this bike...
Especially because when it sits outside for a day in the sun at work, it has a 50% chance of not starting due to low battery fluids. :embarassed:
Thanks for all the replies.
My question about how the bike charged itself sounded vague and I apologize for that. I'm a mech engineer by trade and have worked on a lot of cars so I understand how alternators and the like work, but since I've never pulled a bike apart before (or been in the presence of one being taken apart) I was just curious as to where the alternator or charging mechanisms where and how much load they needed to properly charge a battery.
So just a quick update, I pulled the battery and the fluid was very low. I filled it up with distilled water and bought a 12V trickle charger from pep boys last night.
Hopefully its the battery and her dropping it was just a coincidence. I'll know for sure when I get back home and give it a go.
i stepped on an oil slick at a downhill stopsign and dropped mine. idled fine and rode it a few blocks until it died. turned out the bike ran outta oil press. check your dipstick and make sure you have oil in there. if none shows up on the stick then you have to burp it by unscrewing the oil filter access and pulling the filter til you get flow with no air. bike started fine after that. gl.
Quick update:
I charged the battery and started her up. She ran fine and warmed up after 2-3 minutes. I got as far as a block away before the bike started to sputter and die. The bike started again and when given any throttle, it would just cough and die.
Any suggestions before pulling anything apart?