robday
New member
This is a little bit of a ride report, but there is a good bit of wisdom in the story as well, and how seemingly little things can come back to haunt you later.
First, some background:
The journey started here in Los Angeles. I rode North to Atascadero (San Luis Obispo county) to meet my brother. The next morning we met the other two riders for breakfast, one of whom was riding a K1200LT (my brother and the other rider were on Yamahas). We then made our way East towards Fresno and into Yosemite.
The ride this far was great, perfect weather and not much traffic. Once we left Oakhurst, I started recording the ride with a Contour HD camera mounted under the fairing above the front wheel.
Once in the park, there was heavy traffic and a lot of very slow riding. My brother and I communicate with a Cardo Scala Q2 mutliset, and we were talking the whole time...and I wasn't paying close enough attention to my riding. I made a stupid rookie move and dumped the bike. Here is the view from the camera (that's my brother ahead of me):
http://contour.com/video/what-youre-not-supposed-do
This was a low-speed mishap that resulted in zero injury and almost zero damage to the bike. Scratched paint was the only apparent damage, and even that was minimal. The spot was deep, soft dirt, and it covered me and the right side of the bike. And that dirt came back to haunt me later...
After coming out of the Tioga Pass, we continued on to Lundy Lake, where we have a small piece of property with two travel trailers parked on it.
The next morning we rode up to Bridgeport for breakfast. On the way back to camp, we decided to stop on Conway Summit for pictures of Mono Lake. Upon leaving, there was a problem with the bike. The starter motor would not disengage! I shut off the key, then tried again...same thing. So I coasted down the summit until I was within a few hundred yards of Lundy road. I started the bike and rode it (with the starter spinning) back to camp. I sent the rest of the guys on their way for a day of riding while I dug into the problem.
When I got to camp, not only was the starter spinning, but it would not stop EVEN WITH THE KILL SWITCH AND IGNITION TURNED OFF! The rest of the guys were telling me that it had to be something in the dash/switches, which is partially correct. But I knew that the odds of the ignition switch shorting AND the start button shorting at the same time was minimal. So I began to dig for the starter relay.
Yes, that meant pulling the tank in camp (I ALWAYS have tools in camp). Since I didn't have the repair manual with me (and don't read German), I had to trace wires to know for sure which relay to check. I pulled the relay coil wires from the relay and again connected my PowerTank to jumpstart it since the battery had long since gone dead. Guess what? STILL SPINNING. Meaning the relay contacts were stuck together. Ugh.
Knowing that there was no way to get my hands on a relay in the Eastern Sierras, I decided to open it up and see if there was something I could do. I have AAA motorcycle coverage, but that would have likely meant the end of the ride for me. So I dug deeper...
I destroyed the housing to get it open, and found the contacts stuck together. As soon as I touched them, they came apart. They had fused in a very tiny spot. So I cleaned up the contacts and put the relay back together and in the bike.
Now I had to figure out why this had happened. So I opened up the switch assembly. At first everything looked fine. There was no dirt inside. All of the various contacts looked good. But I knew the problem was likely to be in there because the right handlebar was buried in the dirt when I dumped it. So I kept checking...and removed the start button/kill switch from the body. Several grains of dirt came out with it, and I remembered one of the guys saying he thought he saw the start switch "pop up" on it's own when we first saw problems on Conway Summit. Huh. So it would appear that those grains of dirt might have held the relay closed too long, and fused the contacts together.
I put the bike back together and test started it a dozen or so times. Everything was ok, but I knew the battery was shot and I needed a new relay.
I suited up to go meet the rest of the group in June Lake just as they returned. But they were happy to see me mobile, so we went for another ride out to Benton Hot Springs, the Owens River, and back through Mammoth to camp.
The final day was long for me, but extremely enjoyable. We rode over the Sonora Pass, and since it was Tuesday there was nobody on the road. We had it all to ourselves! Sure, Yosemite was beautiful, but the Sonora Pass is MADE FOR MOTORCYCLES in my opinion. This part of the ride was absolutely fantastic. The footage I have is stunning!
We came out near Modesto and decided to cut across to Hwy 5 so that we could ride together into Kettleman City where I would say goodbye to the crew and continue home. I put nearly 800 miles on the bike that day, between 10 and 12 total hours riding. It was freezing up on the Grapevine, but warmed up as I came into L.A.
I ordered a new starter relay this morning...ouch. $90? Really?
And I'm going to have to get a new battery too. I'm not buying another stock BMW battery, I want something a little more advanced this time. Any thoughts?
P.S. Please feel free to have a laugh watching that video...I did, and you can hear me at the end of the clip...
First, some background:
The journey started here in Los Angeles. I rode North to Atascadero (San Luis Obispo county) to meet my brother. The next morning we met the other two riders for breakfast, one of whom was riding a K1200LT (my brother and the other rider were on Yamahas). We then made our way East towards Fresno and into Yosemite.
The ride this far was great, perfect weather and not much traffic. Once we left Oakhurst, I started recording the ride with a Contour HD camera mounted under the fairing above the front wheel.
Once in the park, there was heavy traffic and a lot of very slow riding. My brother and I communicate with a Cardo Scala Q2 mutliset, and we were talking the whole time...and I wasn't paying close enough attention to my riding. I made a stupid rookie move and dumped the bike. Here is the view from the camera (that's my brother ahead of me):
http://contour.com/video/what-youre-not-supposed-do
This was a low-speed mishap that resulted in zero injury and almost zero damage to the bike. Scratched paint was the only apparent damage, and even that was minimal. The spot was deep, soft dirt, and it covered me and the right side of the bike. And that dirt came back to haunt me later...
After coming out of the Tioga Pass, we continued on to Lundy Lake, where we have a small piece of property with two travel trailers parked on it.
The next morning we rode up to Bridgeport for breakfast. On the way back to camp, we decided to stop on Conway Summit for pictures of Mono Lake. Upon leaving, there was a problem with the bike. The starter motor would not disengage! I shut off the key, then tried again...same thing. So I coasted down the summit until I was within a few hundred yards of Lundy road. I started the bike and rode it (with the starter spinning) back to camp. I sent the rest of the guys on their way for a day of riding while I dug into the problem.
When I got to camp, not only was the starter spinning, but it would not stop EVEN WITH THE KILL SWITCH AND IGNITION TURNED OFF! The rest of the guys were telling me that it had to be something in the dash/switches, which is partially correct. But I knew that the odds of the ignition switch shorting AND the start button shorting at the same time was minimal. So I began to dig for the starter relay.
Yes, that meant pulling the tank in camp (I ALWAYS have tools in camp). Since I didn't have the repair manual with me (and don't read German), I had to trace wires to know for sure which relay to check. I pulled the relay coil wires from the relay and again connected my PowerTank to jumpstart it since the battery had long since gone dead. Guess what? STILL SPINNING. Meaning the relay contacts were stuck together. Ugh.
Knowing that there was no way to get my hands on a relay in the Eastern Sierras, I decided to open it up and see if there was something I could do. I have AAA motorcycle coverage, but that would have likely meant the end of the ride for me. So I dug deeper...
I destroyed the housing to get it open, and found the contacts stuck together. As soon as I touched them, they came apart. They had fused in a very tiny spot. So I cleaned up the contacts and put the relay back together and in the bike.
Now I had to figure out why this had happened. So I opened up the switch assembly. At first everything looked fine. There was no dirt inside. All of the various contacts looked good. But I knew the problem was likely to be in there because the right handlebar was buried in the dirt when I dumped it. So I kept checking...and removed the start button/kill switch from the body. Several grains of dirt came out with it, and I remembered one of the guys saying he thought he saw the start switch "pop up" on it's own when we first saw problems on Conway Summit. Huh. So it would appear that those grains of dirt might have held the relay closed too long, and fused the contacts together.
I put the bike back together and test started it a dozen or so times. Everything was ok, but I knew the battery was shot and I needed a new relay.
I suited up to go meet the rest of the group in June Lake just as they returned. But they were happy to see me mobile, so we went for another ride out to Benton Hot Springs, the Owens River, and back through Mammoth to camp.
The final day was long for me, but extremely enjoyable. We rode over the Sonora Pass, and since it was Tuesday there was nobody on the road. We had it all to ourselves! Sure, Yosemite was beautiful, but the Sonora Pass is MADE FOR MOTORCYCLES in my opinion. This part of the ride was absolutely fantastic. The footage I have is stunning!
We came out near Modesto and decided to cut across to Hwy 5 so that we could ride together into Kettleman City where I would say goodbye to the crew and continue home. I put nearly 800 miles on the bike that day, between 10 and 12 total hours riding. It was freezing up on the Grapevine, but warmed up as I came into L.A.
I ordered a new starter relay this morning...ouch. $90? Really?
And I'm going to have to get a new battery too. I'm not buying another stock BMW battery, I want something a little more advanced this time. Any thoughts?
P.S. Please feel free to have a laugh watching that video...I did, and you can hear me at the end of the clip...
