I am OFFICIALLY an idiot!/Maiden Voyage

[Clerek]

So,

I had my maiden voyage today on my XS Rod I have been building for the last couple months, and it went amazingly well. It was a smooth, very comfortable ride, considering it is rigid and the only protection I have against the bumps are 4" seat springs.

My neighbors are really pissed off at me for working on it for so long on my back patio of my apartment, so I decided to just pull off the road into an empty church parking lot. I had been riding for about two hours, and noticed the idle was a little high. So I decided I would try adjusting it. I am fairly confident in my mechanical skills, and am also confident in myself enough that when I do something stupid, I have to tell people about it. To make FUN of MYSELF...

Anyways, I was adjusting it and got it low enough where I was happy with it, and so I decided to take some pictures:









After about 20 minutes of just enjoying myself and admiring my bike, I decided to head home. Well it turns out I adjusted WAY too much, but didn't realize this was the problem. So I just kept trying to crank it over, and ended up draining my battery...UM...I'm...OFFICIALLY...an...idiot!

I called a friend and she came and gave me a jump and I kept trying to get it to turn over, but couldn't so I finally gave up and on the way home (she gave me a ride) I realized what the problem was and went back and adjusted the idle correctly and now it is running perfectly again...

So this is the story of my maiden voyage on my butchered XS...Let's try this again. Next time I won't get so tied up in modifying the bike and spend more time restoring a 30+ year old bike...

Thanks for everything everyone!
-Rick
Obsessed...

[DGXSER]

Very nice work on the bike!! I will say this (before Fred does), I strongly suggest a rear fender!! If you get caught in the rain or anything like that, forced to ride through the deep puddle where they are testing a fire hydrant, your going to look like a drowned rat, but with no front fender either, at least it will be an even soaking!

We all do stupid stuff now and then. I pushed my 11 for about a 1/4 mile or so before I realized I forgot to open my petcocks after I did some carb work. at least I figured it out BEFORE I pushed it up the bloody hill!!

[tarzan]

Nice Rick,

It sounds like you had a good ride anyway.
Did you get the carbs synced?That seat looks kinda painful.lol
I was thinking after you stopped by yesterday about your pipes.
Maybe you could put some course steel wool in the end of the pipes to muffle them down a little.You would have to fabricate a small baffle to hold the steel wool in though.But that might quiet it down to a manageable level and create a little back pressure too.
rick

[fredintoon]

Very nice work on the bike!! I will say this (before Fred does), I strongly suggest a rear fender!! If you get caught in the rain or anything like that, forced to ride through the deep puddle where they are testing a fire hydrant, your going to look like a drowned rat, but with no front fender either, at least it will be an even soaking!

We all do stupid stuff now and then. I pushed my 11 for about a 1/4 mile or so before I realized I forgot to open my petcocks after I did some carb work. at least I figured it out BEFORE I pushed it up the bloody hill!!

Hi DGXSER,
nah, I've mostly given up preaching about hardtailing being a sin and a perversion but I do worry about the lad's safety without a rear fender.
I disremember if it was him or another I posted this to but it bears repeating.
This CAN happen:-
You hit a bump at speed and the seat's 4" coilsprings throw you into the air.
The airblast moves your body back behind the seat.
Your arse hits the tire which carries it forward to let the seat's rear edge rip your nuts off.
Hello Mr. Eunuch.

Lest you think you are alone in gas tap switching foolishness, my first powered vehicle was a Cyclemaster, a powered back wheel that fitted in an ordinary bicycle.
32ccs of snarling power!
Pedal started off to work, engine runs 1/4 mile then quits.
Pedal 1/4 mile then the engine fires up again. For a 1/4 mile - - - and so on. For the whole 7 mile trip.
Turns out that I'd left the gas turned off but the tap leaked enough that the carb would eventually get enough gas to run for a while. I swear I learned more practical engineering working on old bikes than during my 5-year apprenticeship.

[Clerek]

HA! I am in the middle of fabricating the rear fender. The ONLY reason it isn't on is that it isn't finished yet. I have one, but I just couldn't wait to ride the bike...

I also have on for the front, but didn't put it on because I thought it would look funny with a fender on the front and none on the rear!

Thanks guys

T-, I will be calling you tomorrow...I ran into some problems when I was on my way home...

-Rick

[MeatTooth]

Nice ride!!! as far as finding a solution to your exhaust the cutoff point is so close to the bend that a fabricated baffle wouldn't fit in there. I've heard of some ppl shoving steel wool up there and then putting wire mesh over the pipes but that could be a fire hazard. Maybe if you fitted some turn down tips the sound would be muffled by directing the sound at the ground......plus it blows dust up when you ride and looks kinda cool.

[dbeardslee]

Clerek - The bike's looking good, but don't those open exhausts get your shoes kind of hot ? I made some jumper cables out of lamp cord and three inch alligator clamps. They work well, and they don't take up much room. JAT

[TADracer]

Good looking machine! I like the lean and mean look about it. Nice work.

[Erik the Red]

Firstly, congrats on getting your machine on the road!

I called a friend and she came and gave me a jump and I kept trying to get it to turn over, but couldn't so I finally gave up and on the way home (she gave me a ride) I realized what the problem was and went back and adjusted the idle correctly and now it is running perfectly again...

I'll preface this with the caveat that electrical stuff is my weakest subject, but I thought I'd bring this up... *knocking on wood* You may want to check your regulator/rectifier unit.

Back in my younger days (w/ the Honda), my alternator went out which lead to dead battery. I got a jump from a buddy, but only a little way down the road. Later, at the dealership, they told me that the jump from the running car had fried my R/R unit. Something to do with the amperage being huge from a car. That one cost me about $300. -I hope it didn't happen to you, but you may want to double-check your bike.

Again, I don't know jack diddly about the electrical system, but thought this may be pertinant. Can anyone confirm or deny this may or may not have happened?

[psycoreefer]

I want to jump in here,

this "jump starting from a car will fry your __________" (fill in the blank with any part of a bike that has an electrical connection) is just plain crazy. If the bike's wiring is good and the charging system on the car is working properly you won't have any problems, as long as you hook the jumper cables up right. they are both 12v systems and the amps don't matter, your bike will only pull as many amps as it can use and no more, the same number of amps it pulls all the rest of the time its running.

If there is a problem with your reg/rectifier after a jump start it was likely broken before the jump and was the cause of the need for a jump to begin with...

[skids]

Now that is the kind of thing that would happen to me!




QUOTE=fredintoon;233610]Hi DGXSER,
This CAN happen:-
You hit a bump at speed and the seat's 4" coilsprings throw you into the air.
The airblast moves your body back behind the seat.
Your arse hits the tire which carries it forward to let the seat's rear edge rip your nuts off.
Hello Mr. Eunuch.

[cywelchjr]

I want to jump in here,

this "jump starting from a car will fry your __________" (fill in the blank with any part of a bike that has an electrical connection) is just plain crazy. If the bike's wiring is good and the charging system on the car is working properly you won't have any problems, as long as you hook the jumper cables up right. they are both 12v systems and the amps don't matter, your bike will only pull as many amps as it can use and no more, the same number of amps it pulls all the rest of the time its running.

If there is a problem with your reg/rectifier after a jump start it was likely broken before the jump and was the cause of the need for a jump to begin with...

Actually many charging systems don't like fighting with another, and you CAN damage one by leaving it hooked up after the jumped vehicle starts. That said, I have always found that jumping a bike works just fine with the car not running, and you don't have a 100 amp charging system trying to shove that 100 amps down your little batteries throat (which can damage the battery). As a matter of fact, I would never hook a full on car charger to a bike battery for more than a few minutes for the same reason, these things want only a few amps being pushed into them or they overheat.

Remember, some charging systems are less robust than others, and depending on how they regulate, a larger system can damage a smaller one if it's trying to pull the voltage down while the other is pulling it up.

PS, I don't think this would be a problem on the XS charging system as it regulates by adjusting the magnetic field in the alternator, but some bikes use less effective methods. Brings to mind my old Honda with a headlight switch that turned off half of the alternator windings with the headlight to prevent damage (and yes, you would damage the system if you ran the full thing without a headlight or equivelent load on it).