Wyn Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Hi I'm 23 and travel 55miles to work so decided that I wanted a bike as its a far cheaper way to get about and a lot more fun, so did my CBT and went searching for 125s. I read a lot of reviews on all sorts of bikes and decided to stick with a Japanese bike over a cheap Chinese one. I definatly wanted a comfy one as the journey takes about an hour and the cruser style ones seemed to look the comfiest, with their sofa like seats. The XV Virago had caught my eye and had brilliant reviews, so I decided to go and have a look at one I had seen for sale for £900. I met a woman who was selling it on behalf of her son and claimed he had hardly used it and it was always dry stored. The bike had a little cosmetic damage where it had been dropped in the past and light paint damage but the engine sounded great. I offered her £850 and she accepted. I drove it all the back to my house (60ish miles) with no obvious problems. BUT... I was then going to show it off to my family and friends but on the way I stopped for two mins and the bike cut out and wouldnt start again. After looking for obvious problems I bump started it and got it to my parents house and had a friend come and look at it. He found that one of the rectifier wires/terminals had been arcing out and suggested it might be the generator windings but wasn't confident. Also he noticed it wasn't responding well under acceleration and it would occasionally cut out on idle, he suggested a good blast would clear the carb which helped the acceleration issue a little but had to be kept on half choke to avoid cutting out on idle. I realise now why it was probably a little cheap for one of these bikes. And I reckon I could have offered her a lot less and she probably would have accepted it just to get it out of her hands, but hey-ho I hope I can get it back up to scratch. I intend to take it to a garage to give it a proper service but any advice from experienced Yamaha enthusiasts or if you have had the same problems I would really appreciate your input. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator DirtyDT Posted June 6, 2012 Moderator Share Posted June 6, 2012 Hi Wyn. Welcome to the forum. I was at St Clears - near Carmarthen - in March. Post the Virago woes in the workshop section. A good carb clean and a check of the inlet rubbers wouldn't hurt (a common fault). and a few pic's of the electrics would also help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wyn Posted June 7, 2012 Author Share Posted June 7, 2012 Thanks DirtyDT. Were you on your hols down there? That's not far from me at all and Im in Carmarthen quite regularly. Once I have taken some photos I will put a new post in the workshop section and I shall try cleaning the carb and rubbers at the weekend. I appreciate your quick reply. Many thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmy Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Alright mate, welcome to the forum. I too have recently joined the YOC Forum. One of the reasons for joining was the fact my son had running issues with his sr125 (a single cylinder, distant relative to your virago). Anyway he was experiencing the same problems as yourself. If you know the wire is arcing make sure you tape it up properly. Get a multi meter and fire up the engine, put the multimeter across the battery terminals and you should get a reading of about 14.5v. This will tell you, a/ The genny is charging and b/ the rec/reg is doing its job. Next up if you have access to a strobe light connect that up and removing the access plug with the engine on tickover you will see the timing marks lining up, rev the engine to about 5k and you should see the advance mark coming in to line up with the static mark. This is a lot easier that it reads. Turned out my boys bikes' CDI unit was failing and unfortunately the only way to test these is by replacement. If you know anyone with a virago, it is a 5 min job to change over to test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wyn Posted June 9, 2012 Author Share Posted June 9, 2012 Cheers jimmymck, very helpful. I've taped the wire up for now (think I'll replace the whole connection). Since taping it up the battery has been charging fine and starts pretty instant. Just waiting for some nice weather now to take it for a test spin. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator DirtyDT Posted June 9, 2012 Moderator Share Posted June 9, 2012 Thanks DirtyDT. Were you on your hols down there? .......................... Yep. Had a week down there. The week we had the fantastic weather. Great place. There seemed to be a Sunday old bike run out from the local Little Chef. Not sure if it was a one off but loads of old skool bikes leaving the carpark. Pity I was in the car!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wyn Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 Yep. Had a week down there. The week we had the fantastic weather. Great place. There seemed to be a Sunday old bike run out from the local Little Chef. Not sure if it was a one off but loads of old skool bikes leaving the carpark. Pity I was in the car!! Ah dont know about that old bike run but theres a show on in carmarthen soon, Aug bank holiday I think. So what bike is it you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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