Wrenching And Retching With Concours Owners Group

April 21st, 2008

This may not be a big deal for most motorcyclists, but I just got highway pegs on my Kawasaki Concours. So why is it a big deal for me?

Because for many, many years there were none available. The fact that you can finally get highway pegs for a Concours is thanks to Murph, not Kawasaki. Who is Murph? Murph is a guy who has taken it upon himself to create and market a wide variety of accessories specifically for the Concours. With the first highway pegs he created for the bike you had to cut a hole through your body work, which a lot of guys did, but others were reluctant to do.

Murph's pegs on my bike

But Murph kept at it and now he has come out with a set that requires cutting through a bit of plastic underneath the body work (out of sight) but not the body work itself. You mount the main bolt to the spot where the radiator bolt normally resides, and then a bracket goes sideways from that spot and pokes out one of the vent slots on the fairing. That’s where you attach the pegs.

Now, I’m pretty handy with a wrench, but trying to get clear on what I needed to do to install these things had me bothered. Fortunately, I didn’t have to go it alone. The local chapter of the Concours Owners Group, which I recently rejoined, has a yearly tradition of meeting at Rick Hall’s place up the South St. Vrain Canyon for Wrench and Retch. Folks ride on up to Rick’s and help each other out with the work they need to do on their Connies. Steve, whose last name I didn’t get, has a 1999 Concours, same as mine, and has the same pegs, so he helped me install mine. Rick supplies the tools and the workshop. Rick also cooks up a big pot of chili each year for after the wrenching is all done.

So finally! Now I can go out on these long trips we take each year and I’ll have a way to reposition my legs. Heck, I used them on the way home. From Rick’s I went on up the St. Vrain to the Peak to Peak Highway and on home that way. It was about 75 miles and my legs were ready for some shifting long before I got home. And by gum, they work! Thanks Murph.

Biker Quote for Today

Always replace the cheapest parts first.

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Posted in Kawasaki, Motorcycle Gear, Motorcycles | 1 Comment »

On The Road Again: An Update

April 18th, 2008

OK, it took a new battery to get me running again. That’s after having put in a new battery in October. That’s just wrong.

Unfortunately, all the issues did not get answered. The first question is why did this new battery go dead after just five months? Then, why didn’t it take a charge at home? Why did it take a charge in a shop but then turn up dead again a few weeks later?

I bought the previous battery from Pep Boys in October. That store closed so I took the battery yesterday to a different Pep Boys. There I was told 1) anything sold from the other store was on an “all sales are final” basis since it was closing. 2) The battery had only a three-month warranty so they had no obligation to do anything about it. 3) We’ll be happy to sell you another battery.

Thanks but no thanks.

So I went to Performance Motorcycles down the street and described the situation. The very savvy woman behind the counter said what I was describing said that the battery took a surface charge and that was what got the bike started, but why it was then dead a couple weeks later. She also said this Energizer battery was a low quality battery compared to the Yuasa battery that is OEM on Hondas. So I bought a new Yuasa. It has a one-year warranty.

Then things got complicated when I got home. First I discovered that my battery charger somehow got switched from 12 volt to 6 volt. That could explain why the battery wasn’t charging properly, if in fact it was not defective. And then I found that I did not have good contact between the cables and the battery previously. The way it works, I have the cables coming to the battery posts, and then I also have the wires for my trickle charger and my electric vest to hook up there as well. When I removed the battery in March, the first time I had the problem, I did not connect the vest wires because it’s getting warm now. But what I discovered is that that meant the screws I used were too long, and when screwed in as far as they would go did not snug the contacts up to the posts.

So between 6 volts versus 12 volts, and not a good connection, it is no wonder that I couldn’t give it a charge, or even that it went dead between rides. That Energizer might have been perfectly fine after all. Except that it had gone dead the first time. No new battery on a bike that has been regularly ridden should be dead.

That means I’ll never know what the true situation was. But what I do know is that I’m running again and went for a ride yesterday. That’s what it’s all about, right?

Biker Quote for Today

A bike on the road is worth two in the shed.

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Posted in Biker Issues, Motorcycle Gear, Motorcycles | 1 Comment »

Easy Way To Confirm A Defective Battery?

April 16th, 2008

I was going to ride my CB750 yesterday, but it wouldn’t start. This is just like what happened a few weeks ago. The battery was dead.

The problem is, this is a new battery. I just bought it back in October. It worked fine then, it worked fine in November, it worked fine in December, it worked fine in January, it worked fine in February . . . and then in March it was dead. I put it on a trickle charge but after two days when that didn’t do any good I took it to a shop and they put it on a charge. A few hours later I took it home, put it in, and the bike fired right up. And now it’s dead again.

OK, I’m good at troubleshooting so here’s what I’m looking at. If anyone has any thoughts they’d like to offer please do.

It could be that the battery is defective. One sure way to confirm or refute that would be to buy another one and see if the problem arises again. That would confirm that it is not the battery. The problem with that is the expense, and if it turns out the battery is not the problem then I’ve got two batteries and still have a problem.

It could be a short. This is what I would expect if a second battery did the same thing, and if it is then that’s going to be a pain to track down. But I don’t think it’s a short. If it was a short I suspect the entire battery would be dead, but as it is, there’s enough juice to turn the light on and if it were a short I would expect it to have no power at all.

It could be that there’s a problem with my charger. The last time I let it charge for two days and still got no response at all when I pushed the starter button. A two-hour charge at the shop got me going. This wouldn’t explain why it went dead again but it would explain why two days of charging did nothing. Do I have two problems? There is definitely electricity coming out of the outlet I plug into–I checked that. How do you check a charger to see if it’s working?

It could be the starter. I wondered about that the first time but once I got the battery charged it fired up with no problem, so I don’t think that’s it.

It could be the fusible link, too, but I checked that and it’s fine. Plus, as with the starter, that was a non-issue last time.

This is all complicated by the fact that the shop I bought the battery from has since closed its doors. I can’t just take the battery in and ask them to test it and give me a new one if it’s defective. This is really a pain. Yesterday was a gorgeous day and I wanted to ride. Bah.

Biker Quote for Today

A good mechanic will let you watch without charging you for it.

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Posted in Biker Issues, Motorcycle Gear | 1 Comment »

MoTow Is A Lifesaver When You Need Them

April 15th, 2008

Have you ever had a problem on the road? Or have you gone out to start the bike and it wouldn’t, and it’s not the battery?

At times like this it can get expensive. Having your bike hauled somewhere to be worked on can easily cost you $100. Unless you’ve had the foresight to sign up for MoTow.

MoTow Roadside Assistance is offered by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) for the piddling fee of $25 per year. You have problems, you call for assistance, and they have “people who know how to tow motorcycles” available to help you out 24/7. The service covers all your bikes and it doesn’t matter what you ride.

Now, maybe you have a pretty new bike and don’t generally have mechanical problems. Good for you. On my old bike, my 1980 CB750 Custom, it can get dicey at times. There have been a couple times that bike has just quit on me. But the MoTow guy has showed up quickly and hauled the bike to the shop. Not a dime out of my pocket (not counting my annual membership).

It doesn’t have to be a problem on the road. A buddy of mine called just yesterday hoping I would have some great idea to get his bike running so he wouldn’t have to spend a bunch on it. He has a newer, more dependable bike, but it seems he left it parked all winter, never fired it up, and didn’t put in gas stabilizer. Bad decision. I’m no miracle worker. But he has MoTow so he called and got the bike hauled to the shop. He’ll have to pay for the carb cleaning himself. That one use of his MoTow membership will pay for his membership for three years.

There is a catch here. MoTow is only available to AMA members. AMA membership is $39 a year. So that’s not quite such a savings, right?

Well, you get a lot more from AMA than just access to MoTow. You get a monthly magazine, American Motorcyclist, which has a lot of good reading, but that’s not really the important thing. What you get with AMA membership is representation in government. We all know the limitations non-bikers continually try to put on us and it’s not pixies who fight those battles to protect our rights. It’s the AMA.

Here in Denver they recently passed an ordinance that allows the police to ticket bikers whose exhaust pipes are not OEM. The idea is to fight noise but it is so wrong in its implementation. It basically says that it doesn’t matter how quiet your bike is, you can get a ticket if it is not an OEM muffler and pipes. Never mind that while the cop is writing you a ticket, a really loud car or truck may pass by, ignored by the cops. The ordinance is clearly discrimination against motorcyclists. And the AMA is on the case. They haven’t gotten it changed yet but they’re still working on it.

I could talk a whole lot more about what the AMA does, I’m a real believer in the organization. But I’ll save that for another time. Right now, just think about the fix you might find yourself in if your bike breaks down on you and how good it would feel in that case to know that help from MoTow is just a phone call away.

Biker Quote for Today

A friend is someone who’ll get out of bed at 2 am to drive his pickup to the middle of nowhere to get you when you’re broken down.

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Posted in American Motorcyclist Association, Biker Issues, Motorcycle Safety | No Comments »

Short-term Buy Better Than Long-Term Rent

April 11th, 2008

Do you ever spend an extended period of time away from home? And more importantly, from your bike(s)? For example, your job sends you somewhere for weeks or even months. Sure, that doesn’t happen to most of us but it does happen to some, and it did happen to me once.

So what do you do to feed your motorcycle need while away? I’ve mentioned this before in passing but want to spend a little more time on it today.

Certainly, if you are just gone for a week or a few days you ought to take advantage of the opportunity to ride somewhere new. That’s getting easier and easier thanks to there being more places that rent motorcycles. I did that when my company sent me to Nashville for a day, and I stayed over the weekend and rented a Harley.

But as we all know, motorcycle rentals don’t come cheap. You can pay that high price for a day or two, or even a week perhaps, but there gets to be a limit to how much you can justify spending.

Here’s a better alternative, and it’s what I did when my company sent me to Sacramento for a month. I bought a bike in Sacramento with the agreement that the dealer would buy it back from me for a specified price when it was time for me to go home.

Think about the options this opens up. Most rental companies have a fairly limited selection. But what if you walk into a dealership and make your selection from all the used bikes they have for sale? And if one dealer doesn’t have anything you’re interested in, move on to another. You ought to be able to find exactly the bike you want at a price you can manage.

So how does the repurchase arrangement work? First of all, both parties agree up front that if you drop the bike or bring it back in any condition different than when you took it, except with a few more miles on it, then the whole thing is up for reconsideration. You have to understand that there is a possibility that you will have acquired a new bike, or that the repurchase price will be less than you originally agreed upon.

The other key is finding a dealer to agree to this. Not all of them will. I got lucky that the first place I walked into, when I asked to speak with the manager and told him what I wanted to do, he was willing. He told me that not all dealerships would do this.

The key was, he rides and is a motorcycle lover himself. So when I presented myself as someone who just had to have a bike to ride while I was out there, he understood. Of course he wasn’t just being altruistic. I paid full price for the bike and if anything had happened to it he would have had a sale. As it was, he got a nice chunk of cash and put the bike back on the floor for the same price it was listed at before.

And my benefit was that I had a bike to ride for a month at a fraction of what I would have paid for a rental. As I recall, he made $400 off the bike for the four weeks I had it. I’d call that a bargain. And because I only had it for four weeks I could ride with just the dealer tag and didn’t have to get plates on it. Of course I contacted my insurance agent and had it insured.

As I said, I got lucky because the first place I tried I found someone who was willing to do this. If I was going to do it again I would call the local dealers in advance and see who might be willing. I’d be prepared to give all the reasons why it would benefit them, in case they were reluctant. And who knows, maybe you wouldn’t find anyone. But it doesn’t hurt to try it, and boy did I love having that bike for that month.

Biker Quote for Today

Every day is a good day to ride! Some are better than others.

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Posted in Motorcycles | No Comments »

Big Dog Ride Is One I’ll Miss. And You?

April 9th, 2008

How hardcore are you anyway? Hardcore enough to do the Big Dog?

First let me tell you what the Big Dog Ride is. OK, first of all it’s for BMW riders, so that lets a bunch of us out. What they say on their website is this:

The BIG DOG RIDE is a BMW “Invitational Ride” for owners of BMW G/S and GS model motorcycles. It is neither a race nor a rally. It is an annual gathering of a fraternity of BMW aficionados of G/S and GS styled motorcycles that mutually appreciate riding their motorcycles with like minded philosophers in the best environment for on and off-road riding in the world, the Rocky Mountains of North America.

Then there’s this:

Each year an entrant can expect to ride between 800-1,200 miles on the BIG DOG RIDE over some of the highest, toughest mountain passes in the Rocky Mountain range, sometimes reaching 14,000 feet above sea level. Rain, snow and sleet can be encountered in August, as well as 100-degree heat. The BIG DOG RIDE has been to Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. Riders often make numerous crossings of the Continental Divide, sometimes fording swollen streams, and riding over snow fields and shale cliffs. It is not unusual for a rider to be in a single-track path no wider than 24 inches, with a drop-off of 1,000 feet on one side and a sheer rock cliff on the other.

And then this:

The BIG DOG RIDE is not for the meek, mild or poseur GS rider. It has rightfully earned the description as being the “highest, toughest BMW motorcycle event in the world.” It is dangerous, and fun. BIG DOG riders can be heard laughing from mountain tops at the start of the event to the finish, as well as from and to their homes, often as far away as Vermont, Florida, Canada and California.

Here’s where the name comes from:

On the second ride one of the errant participants found himself stuck on a snowfield. He had to disassemble his motorcycle to turn it around, then with the help of several others; they pushed, pulled and dragged both rider and BMW back up and over the pass he had come down. The “helpers” were likened to the big Saint Bernard dogs of the Alps famous for rendering assistance to stranded hikers and skiers. After several more mishaps where riders had to be helped by their fellow entrants as they pushed their personal riding envelopes past points of explosion, all the riders came to be known as “BIG DOGS.” The event in the third year was called the BMW GS BIG DOG RIDE, and that’s the name that has remained.

OK. I could go on quoting their website but you can go there yourself and read and see it all. This year’s event is Aug. 14-17. Any Big Dogs out there?

Biker Quote for Today

You start the game of life with a full pot of luck and an empty pot of experience. The object is to fill the pot of experience before you empty the pot of luck.

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Posted in Suggested Rides | No Comments »

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