spikelovesmetal

2010 YBR125 (fuel injected). I've read through the forums but haven't found the same problem as mine, so apologies if I have missed one. My speedo has been 'enthusiastic' since I've had the bike, but after riding another bike (MT07) I noticed how much it seems out by (indicated 30mph is probably more like 22-24mph), and also that the speedo needle is very slow to respond to deceleration. When I rolled to a stop at a roundabout, it was still on 20mph and looked as if it was stuck in treacle, winding down very slowly. I took it to the garage on the same ride and they kindly had a look at the cable and hub and said that both looked fine, but it would be worth having a sit down with the dash side myself and seeing if I could spot anything (saves me a labour charge!). I've got the dash out now, and with the fascia off I can see that the needle isn't catching on anything (glass etc). If I wind the speedo needle with my finger to 70mph and time how long it takes to wind back to 0mph, it's 6.5 seconds. However, four of those seconds are from 10mph to 0mph. The end part is very slow, like the coil spring is stuck but I can't see a problem with the spring. If I plug in the speedo cable, I can move that with my fingers and get the needle to smoothly move to about 10mph (still seemed a bit fast). I can also wind the cable the wrong way and it will 'snap' the needle back to 0mph without much apparent resistance. The speedo cable rotates freely and doesn't bind, although it probably needs a degrease and lubrication. Can anyone suggest how this can be fixed? Is a new speedo cable worth a go, or does it sound like a clock fault?

The fuel injected YBR's have a fast idle system which is designed to run the engine at elevated rpm's for the first five to fifteen minutes or so of stop-and-go riding (depends on current temperature etc) and then backs off to run normally. Normal is 1300 to 1500rpm. When I took mine to a garage for servicing, they started it up and it was reading too high because it was cold and started on the fast idle speed (2000+ rpm) so they wound back the idle to what 'normal' was. Consequently when I got back on the bike to ride home, ten minutes later it slowed the idle speed down and died at the traffic lights. After a couple more stop and stalls I figured out what was happening and had to rev it to keep it going, which I'm sure made me look a bit of a tit. After adjusting the idle back via the idle speed adjuster (right side of the throttle body) it worked perfectly. Make sure it's in neutral first - clockwise to increase idle, anticlockwise to decrease. It's a good idea to check the idle speed periodically and also after changes such as spark plugs, air filters, valve clearances etc. - pretty much any change to fuelling or exhaust. If this doesn't work, the fast idle solenoid would be another place to check.

Thanks for that! I've looked up both the Yuasa which sells itself as an OEM battery and the Motobatt version (MBTX7U). The equivalent Motobatt has higher CCA which would be an advantage in the nippier weather, but lists 8Ah rather than the 6Ah recommended in the manual. Will the Motobatt still be ok to use? From memory that figure just tells you how quickly it will charge/discharge, but I just want to check before I end up with another bloody doorstop.

Sorry for the delay! I had charged the battery a week or so before so didn't think to check it again once it was back on the bike. Turns out in that time it had already gone from around 90-100% charge to 40-60% and also went through the Recover cycle on the Optimate. Charged it again off the bike following your advice, left it a couple of days and got the same problem. New battery time! Can anyone recommend a good manufacturer? The battery is a YTX7L-BS in the book. Yuasa looked good but I'm confused looking at it why a maintenance-free battery would come with separate acid.

This is for a YBR125ED 2010 (fuel injected) with about ~3050 miles on the clock. Sorry for the long post, I thought it would just help if I listed all the details in here! My beloved Wibber (both because it's a YBR and because it goes wibberwibberwibber when running) had a service a couple of months ago following a fork rebuild. Among other things, the workshop set the idle back as they said it was running too fast. It's a 15-30 minute drive back depending on city traffic, and I was finding that by the time I was near home the engine was near to cutting out when I stopped at traffic lights. I ended up doing the girl racer thing of having to rev it at a standstill to stop it cutting out, much to the amusement of cars around me, but made it home with no other issues. I looked up the problem in the Haynes manual and it pointed out that while the idle is high from cold (~2000) it should drop after ten or fifteen minutes to around 1500rpm. Wibber at the moment is hovering around 1000rpm after ten minutes, and sometimes under. I've been riding up and down a car park now and again to practice slow-speed handling and decided it would be a good time to reset the idle. I hadn't been on it in about a month, but the bike started first time, first press of the button. All the lights work, neutral light came on along with the engine light which extinguished as normal after a second or so. Brake light, indicators and headlight all worked, and it happily pulled away and did laps of slow downhill with various stops to simulate slow traffic, turn at the end, run up to the other end in second, turn again and repeat. I did this for about ten minutes straight with no issues, other than the revs starting to drop. On the last lap I stalled it turning around at the end, and then it cut out as I was slowing on the return lap from 2nd gear. I put it in neutral, turned it off and parked it to one side because a couple of people came down to move their cars. My other half decided to have a practice too (he uses Wibber as well as a city get-around bike). He sat on it after about 5 minutes of waiting for cars, checked the sidestand was up, key in, turned it on, waited for the engine light to extinguish and it would not turn over. I will now attempt to recreate the sound using letters (crap): Normal startup sound: wheeeechugchugchugWIBBERwibberwibberwibber (cue normal running). The 'wheeee' sound is the electrical whine, chug is turnover, and then wibber, is, er...Wibber. This startup sound: wheeeNRRRRRNRRRNRRRclunk. Electrical whine, 'nope nope nope', clunk when I take my hand off the button (around 3 seconds max, because at one point it sounded like it would go again). It doesn't sound like it's getting to turnover but it still makes the starter sound. It almost made the same sound as the 'you've got the sidestand down, you pillock' noise it makes, so we put the stand back down and up again. It went all the way up with no problems and clicked against the stopper, so it's not blocked by anything. Tried it again: wheeeeeNRNRNRNRNRRRRclunk. We turned it off, key out, back in again, same issue. Had a thought that it wasn't in neutral despite the light, so I got back on, put it in first, rolled it forward on the clutch, back into neutral and the neutral light comes back on. Tried again, same issue. EDIT: Forgot to mention, when you turn it on the engine light still extinguishes after a second or two as normal. With the starter button pressed it comes on and flickers when the bike is going NRRRR until the button is released. It's not a consistent flash (long and short for an error code), just a fast flickering on and off. It stays off once the button is released. Left it a bit. Engine case was warm but not hot. Lots of head scratching. We tried changing the gear to second and then back to neutral with no effect. It had half a tank of petrol left. No drips or leaks. Oil level is at max and is starting to turn from that golden new oil colour to a bit darker (not black, but certainly darker than the new oil). I rolled it down the hill in neutral and tried it again but the same thing happened. I thought about it maybe not having enough idle to start properly so adjusted it up slightly (I know you're not supposed to do it with the engine not running but it was worth a shot at that point) but this didn't work either, so I put it back to where it was. OH got on again just to see if we could have knocked anything out of place, but the only thing he came close to was the rear panelling. I was worried about flooding it then so we parked it up and left it. We tried all of the lights again, bar the main beam which doesn't come on unless the engine is running, and they all worked fine. Any ideas at all? I've had a look through the forums and Haynes manual and can't find any problem where it stops working suddenly after being fine - everything seems to be 'won't work from start'. I can't see what's made it go from running fine bar an idle problem to deciding it doesn't even want to turn over when somebody else sits on it. I'm sure the spark plug was checked as part of the service too, and if it's a flat battery would the lights still be working, or would it even have started at all? Please help. I want to get riding again!

Thanks for all the info. I've had another look at the bike forks today keeping what you've all said in mind. The right leg seems fine - no traces of oil on it as the suspension moves and feels dry. The left leg, however, has a little 'tidemark' of oil on it to wherever the inner tube dips in, e.g. under braking. I'm quite content that the majority of the oil they put in after fixing the seals is still in there, as it isn't pouring out in buckets over the wheel/brakes etc. There aren't any visible defects to the seal area, either - it just seems to have reverted back to being a kangaroo again with an oily left leg. On the right inner tube there's a few spots of rust but above the line the tube would sink to. On the left leg there's a score mark about 4mm long and in almost a dead straight horizontal line (showing up diagonally on the tube). It's deeper than a patch of rust, and almost looks like a saw mark. The garage I originally took it to warned that because of this the fork seals might last another 3000 miles or only 3, but only time and riding the thing would tell. The rest of the fork assembly seemed fine in their view. I've got it booked in to have the inner tubes replaced and a service (minus oil and air filter which I've done) whilst it's sat there. Perhaps important to note that the 12 miles consisted mainly of taking it to the garage (1.6 miles), bringing it back and getting petrol (another 2 miles) and then it's been sat at home. The other miles have been spent taking it up and down the car park every Sunday trying to build my confidence up after being reduced to 'bike wimp' status. I've not been leaping on it from a height, and it's not been doing stoppies or endos or crunching into any potholes so I hope it's not anything to do with how I've been riding it. I've no expectations of it ever being a mini-Ténéré but was interested from a protection point of view, as they tend to have lots more rock flying towards them than road bikes. Has anyone else had a problem with stones damaging their forks with normal road use? Thanks again for your advice!

I've had a look at aftermarket gaiters and have found some rubber ones that fit my bike already. However, searching for advice about them on other forums and message boards has almost warned me off them a bit. Somebody on a Ténéré forum pointed out that they tend to trap dirt, grit and water inside them, hence why they are seldom featured on more modern bikes as opposed to 80's or 90's models where they were quite widely used. I was wondering if there was something like the plastic guards you see on upside-down forks that act a bit like shin pads (like on WRs), but for, um, right-way-up forks. I suppose my question in that case is more 'do I worry about protecting the forks, or just let it happen?'. Are stone chips like that about as likely as getting one that cracks a car windscreen, or is it a good idea to get something to protect them with winter coming up (gritter lorries etc)? I'd rather not be forking out (haw haw) a hundred quid every time there's a bit of grit nearby, but if I've just been unlucky that'd be good to know too.

Hello, I recently bought my first bike, a 2010 YBR 125 with 3,000 miles on the clock, and bar some teething problems it's been great. I took it for its MOT shortly after getting it and had to have the fork seals replaced, as braking was akin to running into a wall holding one of those big yoga balls. There wasn't any oil on the forks when I had looked at it a couple of times, but the bloke pointed out that by this point it had probably all squeezed out given how bouncy it was (a quick emergency stop-type exercise in the car park saw the 'Yamaha' logo almost touch the top of the outer tube). The workshop pointed out a stone chip on the left inner tube and said that although they had measured it and found that it shouldn't be in the range for the forks, it might be the cause of the problem. Sure enough, one month and, er, 12 miles later I'm back to doing kangaroo impressions and am looking at replacing the inner tubes. I know rubber fork gaiters have generally fallen out of favour, but can anyone recommend an alternative to protect the forks, such as plastic guards or neoprene cable-tie on beasties? Or have I just been unlucky? Thanks in advance.

Hello YOC! I've just joined this forum in order to help maintain my bike, a 2010 YBR-125. It's my first bike, and although I've already fallen off it once (sorry) I'm keen to keep it in good nick. I've recently passed my CBT and am hoping to go to Direct Access soon, though learning to drive a car may come first to help with some confidence issues. Looking forward to chatting to you all.