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After 10 days of waiting for a carrier to pick up a contract to move my 86 Aspencade from Jacksonville, FL to Corpus Christi, TX, I said ‘to hell with it’, got a flight to Jacksonville and threw a leg over my ‘new’ ride to make the 1,300 mile trip back to Texas.
My first clue that things weren’t 100% perfect was when the seller showed up on the bike, and the bike was running - - - . Hmmm. Now he had told me (pre-sale) the sidecar with two headlights and three tail-lights, overloaded the charging capacity, but everything worked ‘just fine’ with the sidecar electrics disconnected.
The first thing I did was to turn the bike off, and try to restart it - - - which (of course) didn’t happen. With a little eye-to-eye discussion, the seller admitted that the bike needed a jump to start - - every time. Now that may have been due to the el-cheapo lawn-mower battery he had installed - - but never-the-less, he was prepared. He popped a side cover and there was a ‘jiffy-start’, a pair of jumper cables, AND a second battery, all charged-up! Right, wrong or indifferent, this guy DID know how to back-up start problems!
So we got the beast running again with the jiffy start, and I headed down the road. The front suspension was ‘bottomed’, and even minor bumps hit so hard they knocked the mirrors out of alignment. Still, the price was right, and I wasn’t looking for ‘like-new’. The state of the paint and rubber made the advertised 31,500 miles look real.
The engine was strong - - no skips or misses, and ran through the gears without a hitch. Cruising at 60 or 70 was smooth as glass.
The first planned stop for the night was Tallahassee, about 160 miles. Plenty to shake down a new bike, and I didn’t want to do too much at night riding on an untested bike. The first ‘meltdown’ happened about an hour later.
Loss of power - - that ain’t right. Turn signal for the next exit - - no turn signals. That ain’t right. Horn – Gwaak. That ain’t right! No headlight - - THAT ain’t right! Skip, pop, flashing display - - meltdown. By that time I was off I-10, on a two-lane road under construction.
Have you ever noticed those concrete construction barriers about 4’ high, with a little lip at the bottom? Well, if you are new to riding with a sidecar, and your first instinct when things go wrong is to move as far to the right as you can, I can tell you those barriers are perfect for catching a sidecar wheel and dumping you over in the middle of traffic on your left side.
While I was pinned under the bike fumbling for the kill switch, a couple of cars went by entirely too close to my inert body.
And then things got better. There were flashing red lights - - - from a fireman who just happened to be behind me, and saw me dump the bike. He got traffic stopped in time to keep me from becoming roadkill. We got the bike back up and in less than a minute, his flashing reds were joined by some blue and red flashers form a county sheriff, who just happened to be going in the same direction.
It took about 15 seconds to come up with a plan. The sheriff said, ‘There’s a school at the bottom of the hill. I’ll stop traffic, the fireman will help you get it turned around, coast into the schoolyard, I’ll give you a ride to a motel, and you can figure out what to do in the morning’. Yee ha! Sounds good to me! But you know - - - -
When you are on a bike that won’t start, and you are traveling downhill, instinct says, drop it in second, pop the clutch, and see what happens - - - - which I did. Shazam! New bike! Lights, horn, turn signals. All back. No problems.
So we met up in the schoolyard, and I thought about trying to find anyone who knew what a ’86 Goldwing was in this little Florida town, much less how to get it to Texas. No scratches on me - - - and no scratches on the bike, either (no idea how that happened). So I asked my new best friends what they thought about having a run at Tallahassee, which was still a couple of hours away - - - and they thought I should go for it. Can you believe that? Three professionals standing around in the middle of a disaster, and not two sound gray cells to rub together! Unbelievable.
Down the road. The second meltdown came about an hour later - - power loss (it didn’t take long from first symptom - - decreased power – to wheezing and snorting, to dead. Clutch in - - pop clutch - - - back on the road.
Spent the night in Tallahassee, and then my ‘long leg’ – Tallahassee to Geismar, LA - - about 460 miles. I had three more meltdowns similar to meltdown #2. Not fun, but not too drastic either. Lots of revving and backfires, followed by smooth sailing. Made it into Geismar, and spent the night with my brother. After a good meal and a relaxing evening, it occurred to me that the problem was an overload/overheating problem - - or a ‘time-oriented’ problem, like occur with electronic circuits - - errors accumulate until the circuit throws-up, and then needs a ‘power-off’ reset. If that were the case, when I saw a meltdown coming, all I had to do was pull the clutch, hit the kill switch, turn the kill switch back on, release the clutch, and be on my way.
I got to test the theory the next morning on my way to Houston. It worked just fine. When the display flashed, I executed the ‘meltdown avoidance maneuver’, and it worked without a hitch.
A night in Houston with yet another brother (convenient how they are spaced-out like that) and down to Corpus Christi with three more meltdown threats.
So what is going on? I have read the posts on pulse sensors, but I understand those only apply to fuel injected models. Also read the suggestion to solder around the terminal block, which I plan to do - - . I think the alternator is working - - - in fact the wimpy little battery actually started the bike after my Houston stop. I will get a decent battery. If there is a voltage regulator associated with the charging system, that seems like a reasonable candidate.
Any thoughts? Other than ‘get a new hobby’? My wife already suggested that one. He, he, he. Not going to happen - - - .
Rick CorpusKid Kelley
After 10 days of waiting for a carrier to pick up a contract to move my 86 Aspencade from Jacksonville, FL to Corpus Christi, TX, I said ‘to hell with it’, got a flight to Jacksonville and threw a leg over my ‘new’ ride to make the 1,300 mile trip back to Texas.
My first clue that things weren’t 100% perfect was when the seller showed up on the bike, and the bike was running - - - . Hmmm. Now he had told me (pre-sale) the sidecar with two headlights and three tail-lights, overloaded the charging capacity, but everything worked ‘just fine’ with the sidecar electrics disconnected.
The first thing I did was to turn the bike off, and try to restart it - - - which (of course) didn’t happen. With a little eye-to-eye discussion, the seller admitted that the bike needed a jump to start - - every time. Now that may have been due to the el-cheapo lawn-mower battery he had installed - - but never-the-less, he was prepared. He popped a side cover and there was a ‘jiffy-start’, a pair of jumper cables, AND a second battery, all charged-up! Right, wrong or indifferent, this guy DID know how to back-up start problems!
So we got the beast running again with the jiffy start, and I headed down the road. The front suspension was ‘bottomed’, and even minor bumps hit so hard they knocked the mirrors out of alignment. Still, the price was right, and I wasn’t looking for ‘like-new’. The state of the paint and rubber made the advertised 31,500 miles look real.
The engine was strong - - no skips or misses, and ran through the gears without a hitch. Cruising at 60 or 70 was smooth as glass.
The first planned stop for the night was Tallahassee, about 160 miles. Plenty to shake down a new bike, and I didn’t want to do too much at night riding on an untested bike. The first ‘meltdown’ happened about an hour later.
Loss of power - - that ain’t right. Turn signal for the next exit - - no turn signals. That ain’t right. Horn – Gwaak. That ain’t right! No headlight - - THAT ain’t right! Skip, pop, flashing display - - meltdown. By that time I was off I-10, on a two-lane road under construction.
Have you ever noticed those concrete construction barriers about 4’ high, with a little lip at the bottom? Well, if you are new to riding with a sidecar, and your first instinct when things go wrong is to move as far to the right as you can, I can tell you those barriers are perfect for catching a sidecar wheel and dumping you over in the middle of traffic on your left side.
While I was pinned under the bike fumbling for the kill switch, a couple of cars went by entirely too close to my inert body.
And then things got better. There were flashing red lights - - - from a fireman who just happened to be behind me, and saw me dump the bike. He got traffic stopped in time to keep me from becoming roadkill. We got the bike back up and in less than a minute, his flashing reds were joined by some blue and red flashers form a county sheriff, who just happened to be going in the same direction.
It took about 15 seconds to come up with a plan. The sheriff said, ‘There’s a school at the bottom of the hill. I’ll stop traffic, the fireman will help you get it turned around, coast into the schoolyard, I’ll give you a ride to a motel, and you can figure out what to do in the morning’. Yee ha! Sounds good to me! But you know - - - -
When you are on a bike that won’t start, and you are traveling downhill, instinct says, drop it in second, pop the clutch, and see what happens - - - - which I did. Shazam! New bike! Lights, horn, turn signals. All back. No problems.
So we met up in the schoolyard, and I thought about trying to find anyone who knew what a ’86 Goldwing was in this little Florida town, much less how to get it to Texas. No scratches on me - - - and no scratches on the bike, either (no idea how that happened). So I asked my new best friends what they thought about having a run at Tallahassee, which was still a couple of hours away - - - and they thought I should go for it. Can you believe that? Three professionals standing around in the middle of a disaster, and not two sound gray cells to rub together! Unbelievable.
Down the road. The second meltdown came about an hour later - - power loss (it didn’t take long from first symptom - - decreased power – to wheezing and snorting, to dead. Clutch in - - pop clutch - - - back on the road.
Spent the night in Tallahassee, and then my ‘long leg’ – Tallahassee to Geismar, LA - - about 460 miles. I had three more meltdowns similar to meltdown #2. Not fun, but not too drastic either. Lots of revving and backfires, followed by smooth sailing. Made it into Geismar, and spent the night with my brother. After a good meal and a relaxing evening, it occurred to me that the problem was an overload/overheating problem - - or a ‘time-oriented’ problem, like occur with electronic circuits - - errors accumulate until the circuit throws-up, and then needs a ‘power-off’ reset. If that were the case, when I saw a meltdown coming, all I had to do was pull the clutch, hit the kill switch, turn the kill switch back on, release the clutch, and be on my way.
I got to test the theory the next morning on my way to Houston. It worked just fine. When the display flashed, I executed the ‘meltdown avoidance maneuver’, and it worked without a hitch.
A night in Houston with yet another brother (convenient how they are spaced-out like that) and down to Corpus Christi with three more meltdown threats.
So what is going on? I have read the posts on pulse sensors, but I understand those only apply to fuel injected models. Also read the suggestion to solder around the terminal block, which I plan to do - - . I think the alternator is working - - - in fact the wimpy little battery actually started the bike after my Houston stop. I will get a decent battery. If there is a voltage regulator associated with the charging system, that seems like a reasonable candidate.
Any thoughts? Other than ‘get a new hobby’? My wife already suggested that one. He, he, he. Not going to happen - - - .
Rick CorpusKid Kelley
