New 850 Ride. Big Road Trip

[850 Combat]

At my age, I can't see anything but glare at night in the rain any more.

[bccap]

At my age, I can't see anything but glare at night in the rain any more.

Same here. My night vision sucks now. I just avoid rain and night riding unless I have no choice.

[RobertGS]

Almost time

Bags are packed! I'm flying out to Victoria Friday, picking the new to me 850 up Saturday. Thanks to Trevor for welcoming me to Victoria and making sure I don't get lost after arriving, looking forward to checking out his rides and having a beer. And to AZR for putting me on to this bike in the first place and going to the trouble of heading out to the bike and installing a luggage rack for me.

Saturday will be a "get the bike sorted with a permit and loaded up, windscreen on". Then my buddy who rides and lives in Vancouver head out for a bit of ride on the island, ending up in Vancouver Saturday night.
After that it's 7 days of riding ending up in Toronto, the first 5 averaging about 850km (530miles), last two I'm taking it easy, more like 350km (210 miles). I'll camp each evening and have booked some great campsites.

I'll be taking pictures and writing a few notes along the way. I'll only have my phone with no data so any real updates and pictures will have to wait until I get back after the 27th.

It's been 10 years and two kids since I've been on a bike trip like this.

It's gonna be good.

[Guest]

Sounds like this trip/purchase is well deserved. Have a great, non eventful trip Robert. Looking forward to the pics when you get home.

[eil]

Woohoo, sounds like an adventure!

[trevor]

Looking forward to meeting you Robert.

[trevor]

Well I met Robert.
I picked him up at the airport...looking for a guy with a motorcycle jacket.
We came back to my place for some beers and pizza. His buddy showed up with a bottle of wine (thank you Jeff). Just realized Robert left a bag here...oops must have been the alcohol.
Great to meet you today Robert!!

[RobertGS]

So this adventure just got more challenging. The bike is not charging. Made it about 150kms before I found that out. Did q quick test with a new battery installed.

1) battery not connected to bike. 13.2
2) battery connected with bike not running droped to something like 12.5 and with high beam on 12.2
3) running at 2500 rpm about 12.3
4) running at 5000 rpm still about 12.5

We tried following the testing chart and got stumped right away not knowing how to do connect the red multimeter lead to the red output wire of the RR. I see the red wire but don't see a way to obviously clip the lead to it...

Fuses look ok. (I know that doesn't mean they are).

Other interesting information is the low beam headlight is not working and the brake lights are not working.

So for someone entirely not experienced at electrics... and still hoping to start this big trip.... suggestions?

I've got a call into the PO, no response yet.

[RobertGS]

Hi all,
I wanted to say a big thank you to Trevor and his wife for the amazing welcome to Victoria yesterday. It was great to meet him and he went out of his way to pick me up at the airport and we had a great time at his place. Looking forward to being back in August and going for a ride then.

So got a much needed night's sleep and I'm going to see what I can do to zero in on the electrical issue I'm having. I would really appreciate ideas and I know it's a whole bunch to ask, but if anyone is around North Vancouver, (that's where I managed to make it yesterday) I would sure appreciate a hand running through the electrical fault finding chart... Had it towed from the ferry to Lynn Valley area in north van.

Still hoping that within a day or two I can get it sorted and start the trip east.

Thanks guys.

[bccap]

Just to see if it's a ground issue run a ground wire from the r/r directly to the negative battery terminal and recheck your readings. Electrics aren't my strong point so I'd be of little help. I just replaced my r/r and got lucky as that was the problem.

[tkent02]

Lights burned out, that's probably because the charging voltage went way too high before it died.

How far to get it home? Charge the battery, kick start it, leave the headlight off, it's a points ignition so it should go an hour or two before the battery is too dead to run. Maybe more. Shut it off at lights, etc to save power.

I drove an MG from California to Seattle on one charge that way, it still had a little bit left when I got there.

Wait, are you trying to get to Toronto?
Carry a battery charger if you have to go that far.

[RobertGS]

Bought it and planned to ride it back 7 days to Toronto...where home is. (I know, now I'm wondering about that plan).
The ignition is upgraded from points, not sure about the ignition model but it's electric
Supposedly new RR and stator.

[tkent02]

Any help from the guy you bought it from? You didn't really make it very far.

[GSX1000E]

I would do as tkent suggested and add several ground wires to the system and clean the contacts of the stock ones. Extra/clean grounds cure most of the charging ills of these bikes in my experience.

[tkent02]

If there's space, carry several batteries, or better yet strap a big car battery on the back and wire it in, you can run the ignition all day off that. Charge up overnight at the hotel and repeat until you get to Toronto.