Yes I am sure more than a couple of us are more than **** when it comes to the care of our rides.

 

Many of us would put Felix Unger to shame when it comes to the care and cleaning of our rides.

 

I bought my bike to ride not clean, it lives on the street and is ridden everyday rain or shine.

 

While I am not a fan of cleaning motorcycles, I do it. I pay pros to detail my Camaros. So cleaning my bike, is not all that bad. My bike is always garaged when not ridden. If it is taken to work, it is covered. I never ride in the rain. I rarely get caught. In 36 years and 10 bikes, I bet I have been caught in the rain 8-9 times. I also do not ride when it is much above 80 degrees. Nor do I ride much at night. When I do, it is always a short in town trip.

 

Thought I would give you guys a heads-up on some recent issues.

I went away last week for a tour of Ireland, starting in Dublin then working south to Waterford through Kerry and around the West Coast before a scenic return to Dublin and then home (planned for tonight) and then a scenic route through Wales via Snowdonia, A470, Brecons then the M4 home. All in all some of the most scenic areas in Europe and fantastic roads for motorcycling.

Before going away I had the 5000 mile service done, got the local dealer to check out a rattle from the exhaust (nothing found, must be when cold they say) and went away happy.


Day two in Ireland it rained a little but days three and four had heavy rain. The first heavy rain was when going up and down the mountains of Kerry and resulted initially in a brief misfire then the throttle sticking at 2000 RPM (sometimes surging to 3500). After a worrying ride to somewhere nearer sea level I found out there were only two dealers in Ireland and both about 150 miles from where I was. HoweverI rang one, spoke to a Tech went through the diags and he suggested spraying around the Spark Plugs, electrical connectors, throttle housing, etc. with WD40 as it all sounded like water ingress on the spark plugs and throttle housing. This seemed to cure the problem for 24 hours......... Then the problem came back with a vengeance and displayed more fault codes (running very rich amongst others) so after calling the dealer in Dublin and some discussion with my riding buddy we decided to can the tour, lose out on three pre-paid hotel reservations and head to Dublin at a pace. The dealer in Dublin was superb.

1. Exhaust loose (my local dealer said no fault)
2. Exhaust Clamp worn and corroded
3. Back box internals have disintegrated and rattles like a tin of nails - needs replacing
4. Air Filter very dirty (bathed in oil)
5. Connector in ECM corroded - cleaned and lubricated and time under warranty
6. Headbearing needs adjusting - loose

They charged me about 127Euro for the non-warranty stuff (air filter and muffler clamp with the rest of the work claimed on warranty. The bike is just short of 1 year old, has now got 6000 miles on it, lives in a heated and ventilated garage and had never been ridden in the wet until the past few days and also was only serviced 10 days ago.

I have just washed the grime off the bike and shall be heading in to the local dealer shortly for a chat.


To be continued.......

 

So when do you ride then??

 

I start early in the year. If the weather is right, I have ridden a few times in Jan and Feb--but the roads have to be clear and clean. Typically, I ride to work as much as I can from some time in March to the end of June. I don't ride if it is much above 80 or the chance of rain is more than 10%. I usually ride in the early morning on the weekends in July or Aug. I then resume commuting to work Sept into Nov. Since starting my new job in Jan 2014, I am putting 5500-6500 miles a year on my bike.

 

I take it you mean 12 months old. Sorry to hear about all the problems your bike has experienced. I do not recall what intake you were running, but if it was an open intake like my DK Customs 587, did you have a rain sock on it?

What you have experienced is one reason I do not ride in the rain. I now have to S100 my bike today. I gave it a good spray cleaning over two days.

 

I started using the s100 wax on the rec of a HD detailer. It is good stuff and doesn't mar up the black crinkle.

 

Was tired. Meant to have typed 1 year or 12 months!


Intake is standard. The water ingress was around the ECU connector and that had shorted out and connected two pins. Just agreed on some work, all labour FOC and having a new Heavy Breather, PV Tuner and V&H 16801 slip-on. Will decide on a full exhaust later on, but the 16801 replaces the stock tailpipe. Both dealer and me wait on HD for comments on the muffler and the corroded clamps as not good on a dry weather bike that is not yet 1.