Motorcycles

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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gnatty, drove the Yamaha FJR. I know you don't like that style of bike but tons of power across the band, comfy, good seating position, very smooth, nimble enough and enough luggage I could do an overnight or weekender with Mrs. Piob.

So you finally getting off the fence?

Clocked a few hundred miles on my Fatboy this weekend. As much as it pains me, have ordered a windshield for it. Looks like ****, but beats the fatigue of holding myself on when doing 65 mph down the highway..

In other news, was driving on I-85 in Atlanta last week when a chunk of metal flew up off the road, bounced off my car hood and hit my windshield..

Not sure exactly what it was since it came so fast, and took a little eraser sized chunk of paint off my hood, but I remember thinking how lucky I was I wasn't on two wheels at the time..

Sorry to hear that but yeah, good thing you were in a four wheeler at the time.

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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Sorry to hear that but yeah, good thing you were in a four wheeler at the time.

Not as sorry as I am sure I will be when the dealer tells me what it'll cost to have the ding repaired..

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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gnatty, drove the Yamaha FJR. I know you don't like that style of bike but tons of power across the band, comfy, good seating position, very smooth, nimble enough and enough luggage I could do an overnight or weekender with Mrs. Piob.

Screw gnatty -- that's a good bike.

Originally Posted by eg1

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Screw gnatty -- that's a good bike.

Still can't get bike to start. Need some help. It's a 2010 BMW 1200GS Adventure. I came to the conclusion that the battery had a dead cell. I put a new battery in and it was turning over pretty good but the bike wouldn't fire.

I let the thing sit all winter without a battery tender or stabil. Dumb I know, but that wasn't my plan. There was very little gas in the tank so I'm thinking that maybe some moisture built up or something. I put fresh gas in it but still couldn't get it to fire. I drained the battery a bit and lost some cranking power. So it's sitting on a battery tender now but what should I do next? I'm thinking of draining some fuel out. Don't know the best way to do it on this bike. I'll have to look into it. Also thinking maybe I should pull the spark plugs and clean them. Any other ideas?

I'm not too familiar with that specific bike, but: Pull the plugs, look at them, clean them or replace, gap them, check to see if they are sparking when out of the bike. I would guess they would be wet with gas immediately after trying to start the bike. For internal combustion to occur you need: Fuel Air Compression Spark (at the right time) Simplistic but it is good to keep in mind when trying to think of what to do next. If you have all these things even pretty-much, the bike will at least cough when you try to start it. (assuming you don't flood the engine, etc.) Are you SURE that you are getting a decent spark? If you aren't getting spark, the bike will not start. If you are not getting spark on either plug, it is probably something upstream. If only one works, it could be the other plug. If you switch them and one side of the bike works and the other still doesn't with a good plug, it is a wire or coil on that side. Etc. Check the air filter and make sure nothing made a nest in there. Maybe replace it if is dirty/due for one. If the plugs are wet/damp and/or you smell gas when you pull them out, you are probably getting fuel. You could try adding some Seafoam, but I think bad fuel is much less likely to be a problem than people seem to think. You could have a really clogged filter or something though. Compression I wouldn't expect to be an issue in this case. Hopefully that gives you some ideas of where to go next. Also, (the spark test should tell you, but) your bike is new and high-tech and may have some sort of immobilizer or starter kill etc... and make sure your engine stop switch is set to run, I have spent more time than I like to admit trying to diagnose a dead bike when it was just the switch on the bar

Originally Posted by Jbreen1

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I let the thing sit all winter without a battery tender or stabil. Dumb I know, but that wasn't my plan. There was very little gas in the tank so I'm thinking that maybe some moisture built up or something. I put fresh gas in it but still couldn't get it to fire. I drained the battery a bit and lost some cranking power. So it's sitting on a battery tender now but what should I do next? I'm thinking of draining some fuel out. Don't know the best way to do it on this bike. I'll have to look into it. Also thinking maybe I should pull the spark plugs and clean them. Any other ideas?



Well to me, store it with a full tank of stabilized fuel, or drain it fully. But this is fuel injected, most injected engines are somewhat less brone to fuel issues, and somewhat less prone to spark issues and such.

Normally the plugs are no/start issues when you have points and don't get a good powerful shot.

To me I would 1. Check air filter for mice. 2. Check Kill switch, 3. check that you're in neutral and clutch pulled in. 4. Check that you have fuel pressure - pump shorted? Do you hear the pump run when you turn the key on? 5. Dealership.

Good points. Be sure to check the connectors/wiring for the neutral and clutch switches if applicable. Those are the types of things that can get jostled while moving the bike around and cause maddening confusion.

Yea the easy to miss things have been checked. Bike is in neutral. Checked the kill switch. The fuel pump does activate when I turn the ignition on. I'll have to check the filter.

Don't bother checking the air filter. It'd run poorly with a blocked intake, but it would run.

Have you checked for spark? Pull one of the plugs and check, but I'm 99% sure this is a "bad gas" issue. I'd drain the tank at the petcock and go from there.

Originally Posted by bigbjorn

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Don't bother checking the air filter. It'd run poorly with a blocked intake, but it would run.

Have you checked for spark? Pull one of the plugs and check, but I'm 99% sure this is a "bad gas" issue. I'd drain the tank at the petcock and go from there.

I think I am tending to agree, sounds like bad gas.

"Air. Gas. Spark. And you usually have air."
- my grandfather.

Originally Posted by bigbjorn

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"Air. Gas. Spark. And you usually have air."
- my grandfather.

Wise man. Last year, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why my Bonnie would not fire up after stalling out from an idle as I left it to warm up from a cold start. Took me 10 minutes to figure out my petcock was switched to "off"

Originally Posted by gnatty8

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Wise man. Last year, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why my Bonnie would not fire up after stalling out from an idle as I left it to warm up from a cold start. Took me 10 minutes to figure out my petcock was switched to "off"

Lol! I'm so glad that the salesman told me about the fuel switch when I bought my bike. My bike started sputtering after only a week or two of riding it, and after the initial couple seconds of panic I remembered the petcock...

Another piece of wisdom that I found out later on is that one should always jump start a bike in 2nd gear.