It's a fun, fun time as i'm sure anyone who has broken down knows.
Thankfully, the AA were with me inside 20 minutes, they gave the battery a bit of juice, and i was home 15 minutes later as i'd broken down about a mile from home after a brief 50 mile ride out on my own.
I should have noticed the early warning sign in my heated grips turning themselves off (a power saving feature when it thinks the ignition is off), but i certainly noticed stuttering when idling a few miles later.
It's on charge now, so i'll at least be able to get in to work, where i can charge it fully, then load test it. I'll also test the charging system on the bike to see where the issue is.
Working in a motorbike garage does have advantages ;)
I've got a new after-market RR coming tomorrow, which has better wiring and connectors etc.
There's a voltmeter i want, but postage from the US to the UK is a good 120% the cost of the item, so that's out the proverbial window... And there's no European supplier and nothing on eBay.
I have heard that the SH775 was not designed for high rpm use, that it should only be used on engines with a redline below 10,000 RPMs. Also the SH775 can only handle 30 amps with proper cooling, while the FH020 and SH847 are good for 50 amps. I installed an SH775 on a friends zx6r and I can tell you that it made considerable heat compared to the FH020 on my VFR800. I think the SH775 on a VFR800 would be highly stressed, while the SH847 on a VFR800 would live a much happier and easier life.
I've got a new after-market RR coming tomorrow, which has better wiring and connectors etc.
There's a voltmeter i want, but postage from the US to the UK is a good 120% the cost of the item, so that's out the proverbial window... And there's no European supplier and nothing on eBay.
You are going to want to wire it straight to the battery, fused and with some kind of switch, either a simple push button or something more complex like a relay (powered by battery with a switching current from a head or tail light). I just used a simple push button switch and wired straight off the battery.
You are going to want to wire it straight to the battery, fused and with some kind of switch, either a simple push button or something more complex like a relay (powered by battery with a switching current from a head or tail light). I just used a simple push button switch and wired straight off the battery.
I did what Candy described, installed a relay to control power direct from the battery through a fuse to the relay, then on to the voltmeter. The relay is powered from the tail light feed. I installed my voltmeter in the steering head, used a cheap garden hose fitting to make an adaptor that just pushes snugly together. I armoured the wires against chafing as they enter the bottom triple clamp with some vacuum hose.
The criticism I have of my VM position is that it is hard to read in sunlight. If you set the voltmeter further down in the darker recesses of the fairing you'll have a better chance of reading it more easily.
Honda made a dogs breakfast of the Earth system on the VFR and I would put it that many regulator fails happen when the earthing goes intermittent stupid so I suggest you wire the volt meter not to where it will show ideal condition of the battery but into the muck I call the green wire common earth harness maze. I wired between the positive ignition lock connector block and picked a random negative green wire connector elsewhere. On turning on the ignition the voltage shown is lower than battery voltage but it shows a circuit under load. Just use a multimeter to measure a healthy ( engine running and not running tests) at battery Volts +/- and compare to voltmeter +/- and that's your baseline.
I had a proof of concept a few months ago after I had done some work on the bike. Went for a ride and the voltmeter was all over the place when I was at steady RPM. Seems I had done one of the most common sources of regulator fail. A loose negative battery terminal. My 5$ 1" voltmeter just paid for itself.
Still need to get my low-beams working. I know it's not the switches, at least. Probably not the bulbs, but may be either the relay or some corrosion on the loom-side of the connectors to the bulbs. My money is on the relay.
May also try out some LED bulbs for the brake lights. The one i've put in the front parking/side light is doing well. Nice and bright.
I have heard that the SH775 was not designed for high rpm use, that it should only be used on engines with a redline below 10,000 RPMs. Also the SH775 can only handle 30 amps with proper cooling, while the FH020 and SH847 are good for 50 amps. I installed an SH775 on a friends zx6r and I can tell you that it made considerable heat compared to the FH020 on my VFR800. I think the SH775 on a VFR800 would be highly stressed, while the SH847 on a VFR800 would live a much happier and easier life.
46,000 miles on my SH775 with no heat and no failures, I am installing one on the RC51 Friday.
Still need to get my low-beams working. I know it's not the switches, at least. Probably not the bulbs, but may be either the relay or some corrosion on the loom-side of the connectors to the bulbs. My money is on the relay.
May also try out some LED bulbs for the brake lights. The one i've put in the front parking/side light is doing well. Nice and bright.
Which RR did you buy? I got one from wemoto.com made by electrex, I got one of these cheap Chinese voltmeters like Terrys, must get it installed soon.
Supposedly Electrix is made in the UK and makes good stuff, but that rr screams Chinese garbage. Hopefully you'll get a few years out of it before you have to go through this again.
We use them in the workshop from time to time. When needed. Quality is always good, customer service is top-notch. We've had no problems over the years.
It may not look fantastic, but i'm confident in the actual quality of the unit. And even IF something goes wrong with it, i know it's backed-up with a warranty and support.
They do their own R&D, i know that much. These units are for more than one bike, so concessions have to be made. I would have liked direct plug and play, but again; Time constraints.
If i'd have had the time, i'd have gotten a mosfet R1 RR and done the mod. I just can not have the bike off the road for a day, let alone several plus...