Well the weather is sh1t today, cold, windy and wet, but I decided to attempt an "Easter Resurrection" (thanks Dave) of my bikes over at the self storage place. For reasons I really can't explain, I've been ignoring them for over a year now, so my plan today was to get the Triumph Rocket III and Honda VFR750 running, and maybe take them for a ride.
I've been filling their tanks right up to prevent rusting, so I took a 20 litre fuel can with me to dump their fuel into, and 2 x 1 gallon fuel cans with fresh fuel in them, along with my little lithium battery jump start box. The first thing I did was empty the VFR's tank, then dumped it into my car, assuming that my car would run OK on a 60/40 mix of good fuel and dead fuel.
Easter Saturday 2020 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I managed to fill the car with just what was in the VFR, so I dumped the Triumph's fuel into the 20 litre container and brought it home to use as degreaser, or weed killer, or whatever. I dumped a gallon of fresh fuel into the VFR's tank, connected my jump starter pack which is a pain in the arse, because if you don't get the clips onto the battery's terminals perfectly, it won't transmit any power, which took lots of fcuking around.
My biggest concern was to get the VFR running, because everything I've read about them mentions what a pain in the arse they are to clean the carbs. The old Motobatt battery was in the bike when I bought it 4 years ago, so I was surprised that it held a charge right up to last time I rode it, but not today, it was dead. Once I got the jump battery's clips perfect the dash lit up on the honda, and after a bit of cranking, it fired up, on one, then two, then three, and finally four cylinders, and blew heaps of smoke, due to the crappy fuel that was in the carbs. 50% there.
The Triumph was a different story. Once again, the battery was completely flat, but the lithium charger didn't like it at all, and wouldn't transfer power. Poop. Oh well, I remembered that I have a new battery in my garage that I bought for it three years ago, that hasn't had acid in it yet, so I'll acid it up, and put it on the charger, and (hopefully, depending on weather) next weekend I'll take it over and get the huge beast fired up.
OK, so the Honda was running, it was pissing down rain, but I found a full rainsuit in the rear case of my Yamaha FJR1300 that I'd forgotten I owned, so I put it on, put my jacket on, helmet, gloves etc, and jumped on the little VFR.
Easter Saturday 2020 1 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I knew that things weren't going as well as they should when the electronic speedo refused to work at all, and the tach was reading 3K RPM when it was probably closer to 6. I did think about switching it off and back on again in the hope that it would reset, and even though I had the lithium charger thingy in the pocket of my jacket, I wasn't keen to switch it off again, just in case it wouldn't start again.
I have RACV (auto club) unlimited recovery insurance cover, but at the moment with the CV thing, I'm pretty sure the tow truck driver wouldn't let me sit in the cab with him and get a ride home, so I was a tad nervous about doing a big ride, when it was only working on power from the alternator, and the ignition was fighting the headlights (which can't be turned off on this bike) for power. It idled fine, but as soon as I gave it some throttle, the extra fuel would overwhelm the weak spark, and it'd miss and fart. I rode about 40 miles anyway, just to get the fresh fuel thru.
Anyway, no biggie, I'll buy it a new battery for the VFR as well, and hopefully next weekend, take it for a better (longer) ride.
