RatBob Posted March 18, 2012 Posted March 18, 2012 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?
Paulwhite Posted March 18, 2012 Posted March 18, 2012 ok it went down on the left so im thinking clutch cable / lever needs sorting (could of bent so try adjusting the cable when you can get the engine running ), but a knock to the gear selector shaft could of either dislodged or broke something inside the engine (maybe) or its bent the lever just enough to make it hard to shift. your best bet is to get the carb out and give it a good clean/ inspection as it sounds like you have a bit of crud / dirt in your jets causing it to bog down and die when you turn the trottle.... while your taking the carb out have a look at the rubber boot that the carb sits in there prone to splitting, it could even be something as simple as when it went down it dislodged the carb but you wont know till you have a look. best thing to do m8 is sort the carb and get the bike running properly then adjust the clutch cable and see if that sorts it........oh just thought when was the last time u changed the oil??? bad oil could also be the cause of the hard shifting problem....and get a new battery!!!!! lol try www.wemoto.com and search for the xvs 125 and you will see a battery (high torque) for about 40-50 quid or the regular one for about £30 let us know how u get on, good luck.
RatBob Posted March 18, 2012 Author Posted March 18, 2012 ok it went down on the left so im thinking clutch cable / lever needs sorting (could of bent so try adjusting the cable when you can get the engine running ), but a knock to the gear selector shaft could of either dislodged or broke something inside the engine (maybe) or its bent the lever just enough to make it hard to shift. your best bet is to get the carb out and give it a good clean/ inspection as it sounds like you have a bit of crud / dirt in your jets causing it to bog down and die when you turn the trottle.... while your taking the carb out have a look at the rubber boot that the carb sits in there prone to splitting, it could even be something as simple as when it went down it dislodged the carb but you wont know till you have a look. best thing to do m8 is sort the carb and get the bike running properly then adjust the clutch cable and see if that sorts it........oh just thought when was the last time u changed the oil??? bad oil could also be the cause of the hard shifting problem....and get a new battery!!!!! lol try www.wemoto.com and search for the xvs 125 and you will see a battery (high torque) for about 40-50 quid or the regular one for about £30 let us know how u get on, good luck. Definitely no damage to the clutch cable or lever, that all works fine. Gear selector isn't bent, because it never touched the road during the accident. It might've been jolted slightly, it's a bit loose (there's quite a lot of lateral play in it). The carb is probably gonna come out tomorrow so that Dave (the mechanic) can diagnose it, so he'll most likely spot anything wrong. I'm going to go down there myself tomorrow afternoon though, as he lets me use his tools on the proviso that if I hurt myself it's my own fault. I'll see what I can find. And that battery is most definitely being replaced! I've already looked up all the sources like wemoto, bike it, m&p etc. and like you say, seems to be around 30 quid for the standard one. Any idea what benefits (if any) are to be had from the "high torque" version?
Paulwhite Posted March 18, 2012 Posted March 18, 2012 i dont know yet as iv only just ordered one (need to re wire my bobber b4 i can test it out) but the original one i had was ok till about 4 months ago (new in 2004 so 8 years of abuse) its had a rough time, been in the cold, fully discharged then recharged many a time, gone 2 years in a shed not doing nowt then put back in the bike.......it finally gave up when i had a short in the electrics causing it to swell and die. to be honest as long as your reg/rect is ok a bog standard one should last you a while.
Paulwhite Posted March 18, 2012 Posted March 18, 2012 anyway get an intro done and say hello to everyone (its just forum politeness) and i want to see some pics of your bobber! there are a few people on here who have a xvs bobber or an xv bobber (myself included) so would be nice to see what yours looks like
RatBob Posted March 18, 2012 Author Posted March 18, 2012 anyway get an intro done and say hello to everyone (its just forum politeness) and i want to see some pics of your bobber! there are a few people on here who have a xvs bobber or an xv bobber (myself included) so would be nice to see what yours looks like Yeah I will do, and thankyou for the suggestions! I've got some photos I can upload that I took when my bobber was 99% finished, I need to take some more when I get it back from the garage. I'm gradually painting all the chrome black (I hate chrome!). I love xvs bobbers, to me they have just the right "look", harleys don't really do it for me other than the noise! But either way I cannot stand the average billet barge, has to be a bobber. I shall definitely be checking out the various xvs bobbers on this forum, it's always good to have some inspiration. I'm planning on doing my big bike test fairly soon, and upgrading to the xvs 250. A whole lot of people never really understood why I spent so much money and time on a 125 but the way I see it is I've made all the mistakes and learned all the lessons on a cheap bike.
Moderator Cynic Posted March 20, 2012 Moderator Posted March 20, 2012 Oi, so what was it then? you can't come on with a problem then get it fixed and sod off without telling. Its rude and bloody selfish, somebody else could be having similar problems.
RatBob Posted March 21, 2012 Author Posted March 21, 2012 Oi, so what was it then? you can't come on with a problem then get it fixed and sod off without telling. Its rude and bloody selfish, somebody else could be having similar problems. Okay then, turns out, I RAN OUT OF FUEL. For some reason it was left on reserve when it came out of the garage, so it didn't behave how you would expect once it ran out as it was just running on vapors. The battery started to miraculously hold it's charge again once the engine was run with the tank filled. And the footpeg was slightly bent from the accident, which meant that I was changing gears at the wrong angle, causing the gear selector to feel stiff. The mechanic bent it back. So if anyone is having "similar" problems, I suggest you put some petrol in your tank.
Moderator Cynic Posted March 21, 2012 Moderator Posted March 21, 2012 Okay then, turns out, I RAN OUT OF FUEL. For some reason it was left on reserve when it came out of the garage, so it didn't behave how you would expect once it ran out as it was just running on vapors. The battery started to miraculously hold it's charge again once the engine was run with the tank filled. And the footpeg was slightly bent from the accident, which meant that I was changing gears at the wrong angle, causing the gear selector to feel stiff. The mechanic bent it back. So if anyone is having "similar" problems, I suggest you put some petrol in your tank. Unfortunate and a little embarasing but even money says there will be somebody who reads this when there bike runs funny and checks the fuel and prevents what happend to you.
Paulwhite Posted March 21, 2012 Posted March 21, 2012 lol bad luck m8 its happened to the best of us lol
RatBob Posted March 22, 2012 Author Posted March 22, 2012 To be honest I didn't expect it to behave like that. I always assumed that if it ran out of fuel, it'd just splutter and die, and then refuse to start. More than likely if it wasn't for the crash I would've assumed that it was out of petrol. Instead I was worried that it was something else. Ironically I was planning on stopping to get some fuel later on that night.
Moderator Cynic Posted March 22, 2012 Moderator Posted March 22, 2012 To be honest I didn't expect it to behave like that. I always assumed that if it ran out of fuel, it'd just splutter and die, and then refuse to start. More than likely if it wasn't for the crash I would've assumed that it was out of petrol. Instead I was worried that it was something else. Ironically I was planning on stopping to get some fuel later on that night. And with that response you have proved the worth of the post. Other owners now know that they go right weird when they are on the last gasps of gas.
Moderator Airhead Posted March 22, 2012 Moderator Posted March 22, 2012 Ahhh......too much air in the tank
RatBob Posted March 23, 2012 Author Posted March 23, 2012 Ahhh......too much air in the tank That's the one. Throttle at idle lets in lean but combustible fumes, throttle opens and the fresh air drowns it. Simple really!
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