Hi everyone, first post, but long time lurker.
Was out riding my bobber the other day when I got into a lowside due to a loose road surface.
Bike went down on it's left side, foot peg and handlebar grip both scuffed, and it bent my side mount number plate bracket. Obviously the number plate was trashed, and the tail light bulb died too.
Picked the bike up, gear shifter was acting like it was in a false neutral, but got it down to first then up to neutral eventually, and managed to start the bike up fine. Bike was on it's side for no more than a minute. Engine cut out on it's own. Everything else was alright, so I rode it over to a mates house for a cup of tea and a celebratory "first crash cigarette", then went home. It went fine, no problem going through the gears, no issues at all.
Next day I took the bike out to get some takeaway, noticed an intermittent problem with the throttle. Twisting the throttle would give a spluttery response, or sometimes barely a response at all, as if I was pulling away in 2nd or 3rd gear. It got me home alright though, and seemed to clear up on the way back.
Day after that and I was planning to pop out to the pub to meet some friends. I took the bike out to the shop to get a bite to eat beforehand, and came across the same problem again. Also the gear selector appeared to be getting worse. So after stalling at a few junctions/traffic lights, I get to the shop, buy my stuff, hop back on, and it starts and runs fine. I notice a mate walking and stop for a chat. This chat took about 5-10 minutes tops. After we said our goodbyes I tried to start the bike, and it wouldn't start, battery was low!
(I should point out at this stage that my battery has been knackered for as long as I've had the bike, and was known to be knackered by the previous owner)
So I took it back down the lane I just came up, to ride it down the hill and bump it in 4th. Got it up to 4th gear, took my hand off the clutch lever and she fired up. Pulled the clutch in again, and it started revving up on choke like it normally does. I braked and pulled in to one side, and waited for the engine to warm up. While I was waiting, I went to change gear back down to neutral so I could relax my hand, and I could not for the life of me get it down a gear! I tried everything, shifting up, down, stomping on the lever, but it would not budge. So then I tried taking the choke off, so I could do a quick roll down the hill and speed off, see if actually moving would help with the gear change. As soon as I did that, the engine cut out!
So I tried bumping it again, got it revving high on choke, tried blipping the the throttle, but rather than revving the engine higher, just a slight turn of the throttle was enough to slow the revs down to barely anything. It was like the throttle was now working in the opposite way. I tried one big twist of the throttle to see if I could knock some sense into and it just killed the engine.
So, take 3 with the bump start, and by this time there wasn't even enough juice in the battery to sustain an ignition cycle. I dumped it in a well lit car park overnight and went home.
Phoned my regular mechanic, who seemed to think it might be that the carb float is stuck. My best guess is that the throttle cable isn't pulling 100% of the time, and is slipping back closing the throttle gate rather than opening it. Neither of us have any clue what the gear shifter is up to, as it wasn't even scuffed by the accident. His other theory was that the battery was causing a problem with the ignition cycle.
I'm totally stumped. It's in the garage and he's gonna start looking at it tomorrow. Any one have any ideas?
