Everything you wanted to learn about bike maintenance: (or, not?)
My new (to me) Suzuki SV650S — With a dead battery at the moment.
Can you believe I’ve had my new Suzuki for over 3 days, and I haven’t even ridden it yet? I need off-traffic time on the bike, and it’s been raining (and the bike *really* needs new tires). I had wanted to ride it yesterday, but, sadly, the bike’s battery is completely dead. No fun!! I’m going to try to fill the electrolyte compartments in the battery up with distilled water tonight to see if that helps, because jumping it last night a couple of times didn’t. I guess I’ve learned early about a) where the battery compartment is b) how to take off the seats c) There’s an ‘auxillary’ switch right next to the ‘lock’ position for the key (bad location — easy to miss when you aren’t familar with the bike) d) how to jump-start a motorcycle with a car e) how expensive owning a bike can be
Oh well. It’s an adventure. I really hope to get all the issues fixed so that I can go play in traffic!
EDIT: I forgot to mention, all of my toys seem to have broken this past week. Seriously… What the hell? My 42″ of plasma goodness died (it’s truly screwed and needs to go back to Costco — Pain in the ASS), my iPod seems to have this issue of resetting, every time it gets a full charge. (The screen looks funny with this line through it.) And, then, my bike. I’m considering TUESDAY as the start to a fresh new week, with better luck. I’d like to throw away and forget last week, thank you very much.
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cool bike girlie…. have fun riding aroud on your new bike. The next few days are suppose to be awesome for riding…..
Ooh! Purdy!
Hey Jen,
If you are in need of a shop to assist you in maintaining your new ride… Imperial Cycle in Burnaby is very good and honest.
They can supply you with the new rubber and a new battery.
Hope you have a great time riding it. BTW – traffic is always lighter in the back roads of Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge.
Cheers,
Clint
U just bought the thing!! Call for warranty repair!
I’ve heard good things about Imperial, and if I recall correctly one of their mechanics offers lessons in bike maintenance targetted at female riders – worth looking into. If your bike has fuel injection, you won’t likely be able to jump-start it, if carburated no probs. Check out the fora on bcsportbikes.com for recent threads on inexpensive tires.
One more thing, pick up a tankbag while you’re shopping for tires.
sorry to hear about your bad luck…good news is that this week is supposed to be all sunny!
I’ll also vouch for Imperial. If it wasn’t for the fact that I love the guys at BBY Kawasaki, I’d definitely go there (and have a few times when BBY Kawi was closed.)
Other thing to try: Have you tried push starting it? It’s easiest on a hill, although if the bike won’t start that way, then you’re sort of at the bottom of a hill and need to get back up it… if you can get someone to push you while you try to pop the clutch, it might save pushing the bike back UP a hill.
I’ve had to do that on my bike a few times, it’s not the most fun thing ever. Bleah.
Tried push starting the bike several times yesterday, in the underground parkade where there were some slight hills to help me out. No Joy. Jumped it off my car battery and got it running, let it go for about 10 minutes at high rpm (choke stayed on), and it still won’t give power. Looks like the battery is well and truly dead on this one.
Bad motorbike!! No Biscuit!!
Well, at least you didn’t buy the bike from Costco… ha ha ha he… (Inside joke).
Very cool bike. Drive it safe will you!
verify this:
SPAM=garbage
I had a similar problem with a bike of mine. Turned out that the voltage regulator/recitifer was proper fscked. Measure the voltage across the battery with a multimeter while cranking it up past 2K RPM. Definately worth doing before getting too far down the new battery route
Thanks for the ideas guys — It’s definitely the battery, Clamb, as the bike started fine when I bought it, but it was left on accessory for a few days, so the battery was completely out of juice.
ahhhhhhh …. hence the reference to the ‘auxillary’ in the things you learnt! Really should read blogs AFTER coffee. In that case …. go get yourself a trickle charger when you get your demineralized water
is it just me or does that photo look like the bike was superimposed on a street background in photoshop? it’s probably just me. nevermind. =)
Heh, ya Heather! It’s the absence of shadows that do it — But, that is the real photo! (Colour corrected because the original was very dark).
that is indeed a bad battery. pooh.
once you get it up and running… wanna go for a ride?
I’m having a craving for starbucks in Squamish all of a sudden…