Topic: 25 Rides in 2025, Frank's New Years resolution that we can all enjoy.

[ofreen]

My battery just died without any sign of being tired. No juice for oil warning nor neutral. 2 years old.

I bought my first AGM battery, a Westco, back in 2000.  There was a lot of skepticism about them back them back then, but it was unfounded.  Just getting rid of the vent tube was huge, was the slow self-discharge rate is a great benefit.  I never got less than 8 years out of a Westco, the last one I bought is in the R100GS and has a 6/17 date on it.  I never had an AGM fail suddenly like yours, they would just gradually get weaker.  One of their attributes seemed to be reliability.  Back in the old days with the flooded cell batteries sudden failure was the most common failure mode that I saw, plates being shorted out by crud at the bottom of the case.  Battery quality has always varied, with the integrity of internal construction being a big variable. I figured it was only a matter of time when poor quality would catch up to AGMs like everything else.  Purity of lead seems to be a big problem.

[PeWe]

My battery just died without any sign of being tired. No juice for oil warning nor neutral. 2 years old.

I bought my first AGM battery, a Westco, back in 2000.  There was a lot of skepticism about them back them back then, but it was unfounded.  Just getting rid of the vent tube was huge, was the slow self-discharge rate is a great benefit.  I never got less than 8 years out of a Westco, the last one I bought is in the R100GS and has a 6/17 date on it.  I never had an AGM fail suddenly like yours, they would just gradually get weaker.  One of their attributes seemed to be reliability.  Back in the old days with the flooded cell batteries sudden failure was the most common failure mode that I saw, plates being shorted out by crud at the bottom of the case.  Battery quality has always varied, with the integrity of internal construction being a big variable. I figured it was only a matter of time when poor quality would catch up to AGMs like everything else.  Purity of lead seems to be a big problem.

Sorry about the battery details. A good warning to all of you regarding too cheap batteries.

I found a thread about these cheap batteries.
Less lead inside but stronger acid solution to crank up the voltage. Shorter life though.
I read that the voltage after charging is 13.2V. The battery my friend brought  for me to get my bike home was a cheap battery too. A few bucks more, GEL version.
I charged it over night, my CTEK charger show all leds lit so fully charged.
I measured 13.2V something so the info I read seems to match.

This type of batteries have tricked smart chargers as Ctek when constantly connected. The battery voltage is too high so the charger will not kick in. Battery will not give much current when it needs too.

Better to charge over night now and then  when charger starts to feed  ~14.5V until that stage is OK.

My blue K6 has also a cheap battery, 1 year old.
The new Global AGM I have ordered will go in there. (It has a low cost battery too. )
Cost more than double than my cheap failing one. My K6 battery cost 1/3.

My experience of short lived batteries since early 80's  have been slower starter, need of kickstart. Not a situation when bike dies.

Getting stranded can cause a bad situation when it happens far away from home.

I have searched for a small plan b battery to plug in. All are rather bulky.
It must be a battery that can be charged by the bike. But very small risk it will happen again

I fetched the bad battery at my friends house today. Measured 12.67V. Connected the charger that quickly entered phase 4, ready to use.
Full after 15 minutes.
But battery had very low amps in it last time. A few shakes have changed it?

A charger with inbuilt 60A test load to simulate the starter would be fine.

[willbird]

#26, 79 miles, 6-31-2025.

Did my weekend overtime boogie of working until 10pm Friday, setting alarm for 1:50AM, clocking in at 230AM or so and clocking out at 1030AM. Drove the wifes cage to Ft Wayne, IN and got some new riding boots. Grabbed some BBQ brisket for me and pulled pork for her and drove back home. Hopped on the bike and headed South to US 6, east to Napoleon, OH, North to Wauseon, OH, then onto the Ohio Turnpike back home. That section of the pike is free now, and runs a nice smooth 80mph.




Bill

[budman]

Got ‘em done today.  Sorry it took me a while to get to them.  Had a super busy month.  They’ll be heading to Kevin next week, and he can start passing them out.

Congratulations again to lash for being First In, and to the others who have hit 25 so far.

[Kevin D]

WOW!

Looking great Bud
Thank you so much

Coming to you soon
Lash
BallAquatics
and Willbird!

[willbird]

Thanks Budman and Kevin, nice work to everybody  who has rides logged :-).  The whole process is one way to help avoid parked bike syndrome for sure :-).


Bill

[Kevin D]

Budman, how are you doing?
Are you going to therapy or to the gym for a workout?
Got your eye on a new bike or your 750 chop?
Tell me about the bike in your avatar.
You should know you’re missed around here.

[Kevin D]

Ride 4   96 miles   Home-Pinckney-Dexter-Ypsilanti-home  62f  47mpg

Almost forgot, yesterday after morning chores I went for a 1pm ride. First stop a convenience lunch at McD’s in Pinckney: Quarter w/cheese, Diet Coke, fries are good. On towards Dexter at Jennys Farm Market they have Percherons, big horsepower. There used to be a hayride but the wagon rolled, one person killed, big lawsuit, no more hayrides. The horses romped across the hillside, thought I was watching the Budweiser commercial! They were gone before I could find a place to stop.
 On to Ypsi, I was looking for the vintage cycle shop but it’s gone from River town, there used to be big bike nights there at Sidetrack and Aubrey’s, I should dig deeper and see if the shop is moved. I found the NYCentral caboose, around the corner. brown caboose and brown Honda. The caboose is older than the Honda and looks good, but it doesn’t roll like the Honda does. Whaddaya think?
 The iris are blooming in the front yard, very nice.

[budman]

Budman, how are you doing?
Are you going to therapy or to the gym for a workout?
Got your eye on a new bike or your 750 chop?
Tell me about the bike in your avatar.
You should know you’re missed around here.

I’m doing good overall.  Thanks for asking.  I’m still having a tiny bit of pain in my left collarbone area and my right side where I broke a rib, but it’s not too bad.  Seems to be getting better little by little.  Probably give it another six months and then maybe go see a chiropractor or something.

Been a busy year for work.  I don’t know if that’s because it’s actually getting busier or because I don’t have anything else to do so I work a lot.

I look at bikes a lot online, but I’m only dreaming.  I don’t have the money to do anything right now.  A friend of mine sent me a photo last week of two rolling mid 70’s Goldwings that the seller was asking $600 for both.  Just wanted them gone.  Looks like too much work for me right now. Tempting though.  I think about the chopper project a lot and dream about what it will take to make it happen.

The avatar bike is a K4 that a different friend gave me.  Complete basket case.  There wasn’t much to work with.  I replaced, fabbed and modded a lot of stuff on that bike.  Took me 2.5 years to build.  I trailered it to Durango, CO in 2017 and rode it to the SOHC4 gathering where I met Frank and the rest of the group.  I posted a progress thread here as I was building it.  Probably buried some deep in the forum.  I ended up selling it back to the guy who gave it to me for about half of what I had in it.

I miss hanging around the forum and riding.  Just not the same, driving through the hills like it is on a motorcycle.  I took my first day off since mid-March last week and went had barbecue for lunch.

For old times sake…

[lash]

Bud and Kevin, thanks so much for your continuing contributions to this thread! Hope you can get mobile soon Bud and get riding.

[lash]

124 km. for #38 on the wing. Started the day out with cutting the grass. June 1st and I have to wear a touque to cut the grass! At least its supposed to warm up tomorrow. Hopefully get a ride in on a 750 then.

[BallAquatics]

Thanks Budman and Kevin!  Budman you don't need to post rides to hang out with us, just whatever you're up to, or something that crosses your mind.  It's great to hear from you!

That said, Mom is not doing too good.  I'm logging lots of miles riding back and forth to Madison Health over in London, Ohio.  Some how she cracked the upper part of the bone that is her tail bone.  She doesn't remember having a fall and her Apple watch did not alert us to a fall.  The ER Doc said it's probably just age related, she turned 97 in February.

Also, the mower threw a stone through the back glass on my old '99 S10.  I've never done any glass replacement so it should be a new adventure!  Got the old one out and cleaned up the sealant, have then new glass, just waiting on a couple of tubes of sealant and I should be back in business.

My lady friend is off for two weeks in Florida for her grandson's high school graduation tomorrow, so I'll be free as a bird for the next two weeks, except for getting Mom back on her feet & getting the truck back on the road & pending yard work & .....

[newday777]

Ride #6 for me today 6/1/25 on the wing, 148 miles. 52° at 8am start after showers this morning ended @6am and cloudy to broken clouds. Far better than yesterday's super thunderstorm and 2" rain. I headed south to Sutton Massachusetts to the Massachusetts British Iron Association show and Swapmeet. It's the 4th time I've gone to it, 2 years ago I came back with a NOS CB750 frame on the back seat of the wing. I did see and talked with the guy I bought the frame from and will probably drive/ride down to his place in CT to get a good condition seat and some parts he forgot to bring up today, he said his mind has been on helping his wife as they are expecting their second child.
Today I only bought a couple things, a pair of turn signals and a F1 headlight, mount, turn signals and gauges in semi rough condition but rebuildable. And a Honda roundel Tee-shirt.
There were some good bikes in the show to walk around and see, I liked the 75 blue GL1000 and talked with the owner, he bought it with 2000 miles on it, and has 80,000 miles on it now. Saw a half dozen or more friends there too. A great day indeed.
I got home @ 4pm. 63° for a high temp. The average daily high this time of year is 78°. Wednesday is supposed to be 85° so back to summer again.

[Kevin D]

Lookin’ good budman

[Kevin D]

Check this out willbird:

[BomberMann650]

Ride number #2. 135 miles

Mounted new tires, cleaned the brake calipers, lubed up the hinges.  Before pressing *start* so I could recharge the batteries for a couple of hours
A lively afternoon of humming around the most backroad of backroads I could find.  A couple of which demanded respect as they would not forgive any errors in judgement   
Riding in the PNW poses a different set of challenges that don't get talked about that often.  Aside from the asphalt rarely seeing the light of day.  The local flora means every corner is a blind one.  This is quite the departure from riding in the desert or midwest where visibility is reported in Miles.

Still had a good time.  Rambled into a saloon by a logging mill for a burger, stuffed with bacon, and topped with bacon.  Then blasted further into the hill country to see the old train depot.  And catching a highway for the long way home.  Hit some more twisties reminiscent of TN129 or AZ191.

Needless to say, the new tires are scrubbed in.

[willbird]

Check this out willbird:

Thanks for the road sign.

Bill

[willbird]

#27, 263 miles, 6-2-2025, took a ride up to Novi, MI to visit a cycle accessories store that is mostly an online presence, was hoping to be able to try on some gear for size but their selection was slim.  The ride up there I used my Garmin and lots of it was bumper to bumper interstate, I'm ok with the 80mph part but not bumper to bumper stuff so I took the scenic route back home. I knew that would get me onto 12 and it did, nice ride back.


Bill

[Kevin D]

Novi, MI

Bill, you’re in my home area. Most of my cycle gear purchases require 2 visits. Cycle Gear is new in town, and from what I have seen is not stealing any sales from other places.

If you’re willing to come this far:
 Rosenau in Dearborn Heights, Ford rd near Telegraph is my first stop
 Motor City PowerSports, Bloomfield Hills, Telegraph n of Square Lake 2nd stop
Both places have a reasonable variety of gear on hand and top notch Managers who can rifle those 1000page catalogs to get you the (size, colors, features) gear you want.

I do my best to avoid 275, 96, M14, 23, sometimes you can’t. Pontiac Trail is a nice cross country road, maybe you used North Territorial or M52 on your return ride.

[willbird]

#28, 66 miles, 6-2-2025.

Rode North to US20, east to ST RT 66. south to US6, West to St Rt 576, and then on home. Nice evening for a ride.


Bill

[willbird]

Novi, MI

Bill, you’re in my home area. Most of my cycle gear purchases require 2 visits. Cycle Gear is new in town, and from what I have seen is not stealing any sales from other places.

If you’re willing to come this far:
 Rosenau in Dearborn Heights, Ford rd near Telegraph is my first stop
 Motor City PowerSports, Bloomfield Hills, Telegraph n of Square Lake 2nd stop
Both places have a reasonable variety of gear on hand and top notch Managers who can rifle those 1000page catalogs to get you the (size, colors, features) gear you want.

I do my best to avoid 275, 96, M14, 23, sometimes you can’t. Pontiac Trail is a nice cross country road, maybe you used North Territorial or M52 on your return ride.

Hey thanks for the info :-), will consider it next time I feel froggy in that way :-).

12 goes quite a way up towards where we are talking about. I was on Pontiac Trail for a ways on the way home :-). With the Euro sizes and then folks say they "run small" it is a real crap shoot unless you can try stuff on to get an idea. M52 as you may know becomes Ohio 109 goes through Delta OH, I grew up 7 miles east of Delta :-). Not a of choice as far as being willing to travel because there is jack spit nothing around where I live really in that regard as far as I know anyway.

Bill

[Terry in Australia]

The weather today is crappy, cold and raining, but up until now the days have been pretty good. Still cold, but sunny and dry, at least. On Saturday Spotty and I finished our tinkering on the Yamaha VMax, so i could take it over to the bike shop for a Roadworthy inspection yesterday. All of the brake discs were marginal, at best, so we installed some new R1 discs that Spotty had in his VMax stash, and some Suzuki Hayabusa calipers that I bought on Ebay. I ordered some braided lines too, but even with the OEM rubber lines and MC, the stopping power of these 6 piston calipers is awesome.

VMax brake upgrade 1 June 2025 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I've taken 4 bikes across to the auction place (Triumph Rocket III, BMW K100RS, Kawasaki KZ750 and Suzuki T350) so on Sunday I took the Ducati S4 916 Monster for it's first 100 mile ride. It's a magnificent little bike, surprisingly smooth for an "L" twin, tons of grunt, great brakes, and  is incredibly nimble in the twisties. Even with my heavy coat and winter gloves it was still cold, so after I lost most of the feeling in my fingers, I turned for home, not stopping for food. I did stop for a stretch, a cigarette and some pics though, in the "Valley of the rocks" as I've named it.

Ducati Sunday 1 June 2025 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

By the time I got home, I needed to thaw my core and defrost my pinkies in the shower. Yesterday was nice and sunny so I took the VMax across for it's roadworthy inspection and then back to the storage unit for some pics to send to the Club plate coordinator, and I'm glad I did, because I think the rain will be around for a few days. Hopefully it'll fine up for the weekend, as Spotty and I have plans to "customize" the VMax a tad with modern 17 inch wheels, Delkevic pipes, and shorter rear fender, small fairing, and if my new oil filter has arrived by then, we'll do an oil and filter change too. The VMax will probably become my "Go To" bike, and I hope to have it legally on the road shortly.

VMax RWC 2 June 2025 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyway, #13 down, I've hit the halfway mark, so it's all downhill from here.  

[Kevin D]

Ride 5   55 miles   79f   47mpg

Terry that’s a major housecleaning that you’re doing. Hoping that your sales go well.
It’s good to see you back in the saddle.
And a good deal of thanks is due to you, picking up this thread after Frank passed.
This thread is six years running now.

We are getting a break with some decent weather and longer days, I went for a dinner ride out to Whitmore Lake at 6pm. Maybe a dozen boats out on the lake enjoying some flat water.  No, I didn’t have chicken dinner, but I found these good sized roosters guarding a driveway on Seven Mile road. Northfield township is mighty safe anyway. Further on, A township officer was waiting for me today but at that moment I was keeping my throttle hand in control. I was cautiously watching for deer as the sun lowered itself. There were several feeding in nearby fields, and a newborn nursing not 50 feet from the road. None sprinting across the road. I arrived home safely at 840pm, 25 minutes before sunset.

[willbird]

Ride 5   55 miles   79f   47mpg

Terry that’s a major housecleaning that you’re doing. Hoping that your sales go well.
It’s good to see you back in the saddle.
And a good deal of thanks is due to you, picking up this thread after Frank passed.
This thread is six years running now.

We are getting a break with some decent weather and longer days, I went for a dinner ride out to Whitmore Lake at 6pm. Maybe a dozen boats out on the lake enjoying some flat water.  No, I didn’t have chicken dinner, but I found these good sized roosters guarding a driveway on Seven Mile road. Northfield township is mighty safe anyway. Further on, A township officer was waiting for me today but at that moment I was keeping my throttle hand in control. I was cautiously watching for deer as the sun lowered itself. There were several feeding in nearby fields, and a newborn nursing not 50 feet from the road. None sprinting across the road. I arrived home safely at 840pm, 25 minutes before sunset.

I see quite a few of those big Roosters around in random places, makes me curious about their origin story. The ones I see around my area are for sure not "new" by any means and they all look alike.

[Kevin D]

Ride 5   55 miles   79f   47mpg

Terry that’s a major housecleaning that you’re doing. Hoping that your sales go well.
It’s good to see you back in the saddle.
And a good deal of thanks is due to you, picking up this thread after Frank passed.
This thread is six years running now.

We are getting a break with some decent weather and longer days, I went for a dinner ride out to Whitmore Lake at 6pm. Maybe a dozen boats out on the lake enjoying some flat water.  No, I didn’t have chicken dinner, but I found these good sized roosters guarding a driveway on Seven Mile road. Northfield township is mighty safe anyway. Further on, A township officer was waiting for me today but at that moment I was keeping my throttle hand in control. I was cautiously watching for deer as the sun lowered itself. There were several feeding in nearby fields, and a newborn nursing not 50 feet from the road. None sprinting across the road. I arrived home safely at 840pm, 25 minutes before sunset.

I see quite a few of those big Roosters around in random places, makes me curious about their origin story. The ones I see around my area are for sure not "new" by any means and they all look alike.

Yard art
There was one rooster in a restaurant entryway recently. These two on Seven Mile weren’t on duty last year.
I like the authentic ag heritage theme: wagon wheels, plow, rusty tractors, quilt barns, family name done in barn shingles.
Theres also a full sized Bigfoot and velociraptor nearby, and a big landscape supply company on North Terrirorial that has most anything.
https://www.rock-shoppe.com/
Also a bunch of Harleys for sale.