lemppari

Cleaning the relay base contacts seems to have done the trick. I'm just back from a 3 week 3500 km bike vacation without a single charge flicker or any other electrical gremlin. The starter turns somewhat slowly, so I still think the battery has to be replaced at the end of season. Riding two up+travel gear in the autobahn at 140-150, I noticed a high pitch vibration through footpegs on suspension rebound. That would indicate a worn drive shaft joint, wouldn't it. Well, after doing the clutch umphteen times over, changing the shaft is childs play. Only more expensive......

Every time my V11 has had such related issues, dead tacho, lights etc, it's been the relay contacts. As you might have read, I've been struggling with a flickering charge light phenomena which then accumulated to a strangely jumping tacho needle incident just before my trip to Central Europe. Luckily I remembered having similar incidents years ago and after cleaning and tightening the relay base contacts all systems were ok for the duration of the journey!

Riding down from Kokkola to Helsinki, I had some oncoming motorcyclists flashing their headlights, so that might probably have been why. Come to think of it, I had a no tach, no headlight and might have been no blinkers scenario the first summer after having bought the bike. That time there was no flickering gen light, only stone dead lights and tacho. After a connections clean-up all systems were go. All the relays are still original, so it wouldn't hurt to change them as well. So it's down south to Braunschweig or maybe Röttenbach to get some. Funny though that I didn't even remember the first incident.

Just went through every connection coming from or going to the generator and voltage regulator. We are leaving for Central Europe tomorrow, so I'll have plenty of time to watch the gen light while riding the autobahn on our way to Italy.

Most likely a combination of both. Yesterday the tacho started To act, the needle dropped To Zero at idle, then worked ok To 3 thou, then jumped up and Down, only To stabilize again at 5 thou. I then went through all relay connectors and look and behold, it has been accurate since. For all I know, the battery may well be the Original one from -02 and way past its' prime.

A very tempting idea would be to change the regulator to the version that dispenses with the charge light circuit altogether. One would have to change the connectors, though. Hmmmmmm............

So, coming home from work still without a single flicker after charging the battery last evening, I went and connected my voltmeter to the battery terminals. Steady 12.75 when not running. Idle without lights was the same, but at times undulating between 12,5 and 12,9. Switching the lights on dipped the voltage appr. 0,2 Volts, undulation as well. Steady 13,9 V at 3000 rpm, 14,2 at 4000 and up with lights on. I think it's best to go and buy a small digital voltmeter and put it somewhere in the dashboard so I'd be able to watch the voltage when riding.

My garage is some 5 km's from my front yard and all my tools are there, so no, I couldn't measure the amount of smoke in the system. And yes, the regulator is what I believe to be the villain in this story. We're coming south in a week's time to holidays and as I'm riding down past Braunschweig I might as well visit S+D and buy a new one. Or maybe if Mike at HMB might have one, I don't know.

Put a Cetek battery charger to fill the battery with smoke yesterday evening and there was absolutely no flickering in the dashboard when I rode 60 km's to work this morning. Could it be that all these symptoms are caused by a battery past its' prime time? I don't recollect ever changing the battery and I've had the bike 7 yrs .

A new phenomena occured. I rode the bike home and left it running on idle. The charge light shone dimly and I desided to see what happens if I switch off the lights. The charge light glow grew instantly brighter and switching the lights back on dimmed down the charge light. Repeated switches gave same result...... ??????........

I used to have a sixth gear noise louder than the exhaust. Haven't had such since I fixed the problem by changing the tranny. Got a slightly used box cheaper than parts for the sixth gear would have cost as new.

Seems I have to add rear spring preload quite substantially now that most of my riding will be two up and with bags and all. Any rough suggestions as to how many collar revolutions? Or if I'm to measure SAG, where do I get the total movement to compare SAG by?

Extra ground wire has been added last autumn, so bad earth should not be the cause of the light show. But yes, I haven't checked the generator end of the yellow wires. I had a funny experience with my LM I last autumn, I lost all current gradually, first to go was beam, then went the blinkers, and one km before my garage the bike died. I have a Silent Hektik regulator screwed inside the gen cover with sturdy nicely secured connections, only somebody hadn't connected a wire properly in the connection. Out went all 32 amp/h of electrons from the battery. Easy fix for once,though...

Had a nice long test ride yesterday. Weather was warm and dry, not a single flicker that I would have noticed before riding back home via a 35 km archipelago road when we met chillier and more moist sea air and bingo, charge light started it's dim flickering. When I rode back inland and stopped for groceries the flickering stopped for the rest of the ride. My money is still on inadequate sealing of the voltage reg.