Ttaskmaster

Cheers guys - Just wondered. The one I just replaced came with the bike anyway. It wasn't an original (I don't think, anyway.....) A GS (ZTONG Yee Industrial) make of battery (GT12B-4). The problem is as follows - Rode to Kent, 90 miles, lights on all the way, no worries. Rode all the way back, lights on, no worries. Went to park up at home, next to her Ladyship and stalled. No problem, flick into Neutral, Clutch in and...... BZZZZZZZZZZZZTTT............ No starter-motor. A couple more goes and then no BZZT either. Neutral light looking a bit dim, too. Push-start down the hill, she starts fine (though I'm regretting being a smoker as 37 stone of bike is a bit of a b*tch to push). I sit there on medium-high revs for good few minutes (just like the AA and RAC do) and then switch off for another go. She starts fine. I ride down the road, park up and switch off. My intuition niggles, so I try one more start-up and again not even a BZZT. Battery seems dead and not holding a charge. Guess I was running the lights off the alternator... So, I take the battery inside and attach it to my solar charger. After a whole day and night (yes, it works off a normal lightbulb, just not quite as well) of charging, the voltage as measured by Multimeter remains at the same 11.5 as when I first checked it pre-charge. Does any of this suggest issues with anything else on the charging circuit, other than the simply dead battery?

1/. She gets a weekly run of 120 miles, follwed by a clean. 2/. Having had a weird battery failure, this will be checked professionally very shortly. 3/. I don't usually ride with lights on unless in poor visibility/at night. 4/. I think No. 3 answered this rather well

Back to the original topis and to Mr. Knackered Avons..... What's wrong with brand new Avons, then???!!! I run a 650 Drag on Avon Venoms quite happily. I have ridden in pissing rain (including over the weekend), freezing weather and chucking snow, all at up to 107mph. OK, part of this is because I am a nutter and DEMAND my bike does what she's supposed to. The other part is because I have excellent tyres. Manual says Dunlop or Bridgestones, I believe.... Well, I've decked the pegs out at ninety-something without any hint of traction-loss. I've ridden 12,000 miles on my tyres and I'm nowhere near thinking of replacing them yet!! Nowt wrong wiv yer Venoms, mate!! Pretty cheap, too.

If the 1100s are the same as the 650s, the biggest point to note is that the Classics have something like 20-50kgs extra weight - The mudguards are all metal!! This does slow the bike down compared to the Customs. It doesn't make a difference generally since it's not a race bike, but betwixt the two the difference is notable!! Also, metal means any stone chips in your paintwork could turn to rust spots and then to big holes, which are expensive to fix. I have seen this happen and it looks ugly as sin!!!

T' Other Half has Highway Hawk straight-throughs on hers. That is definitely The Sound - Not deafening, but you hear her bike a good 20-seconds before she rounds the corner. Noise resembles a Spitfire engine.... I think a lot of them will go blue. Not sure why or how to stop it. As for re-jetting, It's not essential, especially with some pipes. But EVERYONE I know who has custom pipes recommends it (though they themselves don't always bother...). By comparison, I still have factory standard pipes on my 650 Drag. I can outrun every other 650 in town because either they haven't re-jetted or they are too busy listening to their pipes to know when to shift gear.

Also check you have the correct amount of oil. Somewhere between the Min and Max marks, as dictated in your Book Of Lies...... sorry, Users' Manual!! Having too much oil in the sump may cause clutch drag, meaning that it's so full the clutch plates cannot seperate properly. Even a new clutch cable, properly adjusted, will not disengage the clutch and allow for changing. A clue is (with the sidestand UP) that it stalls for no reason when clicking into first, and/or it doesn't like shifting into Neutral while the engine is running. And yes, I did discover this from having overfilled my own oil sump!!!

Hi all, Okay, for my first post...... How long should I expect to get out of a battery on a 650 Drag? Just had to replace mine and it was suggested that the battery was just old...... I've had it about a year myself and, though it is a GS replacement battery, it's done anywhere up to 34,000 miles over the past 9 years. Just wondering how good that is? Ta, Woody.

Hi all, Here be the customary tip of the hat, wherein I introduce myself and tell you all about me.... Name is Woody, bike is a '99 reg 650 Drag Custom in Red n' Silver. I'll most likely be hanging out, asking stupid questions in the Workshop area as I'm pushing towards 40,000 miles on the clock now, 12,000 of which are mine since buying the bike in September last year. This does mena that, due to both her age and my relative inexperience, the bike is at that stage where stuff starts to go wrong!! I ride in all weathers, every day, all year round, so the poor bike does have a seriously hard life. That said, she is well behaved and jumps to it without complaint. I belong to a local motorcycle owners' club, do rallies, attend parties and am fairly into much of the biking scene. Not a fan of racing particularly, though I am supposedly attending the TT next year (SWMBO has issued an order on this one!!). Whilst I liked the Long Way Round, I only bought the 2-DVD set Off the road, I have interests in drumming, martial arts, lock-sports, leatherworking, reading, walking/hiking and a few other unusual things. So yeah - Hi all!!!! Look forward to seeing you around, Woody.