The climate right here within the midwest is heat sufficient in February to be one thing that positively retains me up at night time. In order to assist maintain a few of these ideas from overrunning my mind and sending me right into a doom spiral, I opened the storage door, grabbed my gear, and swung a leg over my trusty BMW R1100 GS yesterday for the primary time since late September. Pressing the beginning button was an immediately acquainted sensation, however the anticipated thrum of flat twin exhaust pushing by an aftermarket Italian can by no means got here. I’ve forsaken my good two-wheeled pal, allow them to down. In return, it’s making me sit in my very own ideas.
Well, we will’t have that!
I pleasure myself on being one thing of a useless battery whisperer. I’ve lived within the sorts of utmost temperature swing climates that run batteries ragged my total life, and it appears the standard of batteries has declined during the last decade or so. When you will have 10 vehicles and three bikes, one thing is sure to have a useless battery each on occasion. So I introduced out my trusty CTek charger that I’ve relied on for the higher a part of a decade and slapped the clamps on the terminals. There was simply sufficient juice left within the Bimmer’s 12v system to get the charger to spring to life. I set it to the “recondition” mode and let it do its factor.
While getting the bike up on its middle stand, I seen the entrance tire was fairly low on air. After pumping it again up, it didn’t present any indicators of leaking, so I’m undecided precisely the place that air went over the winter, however that’s a thriller I concern I’ll by no means resolve.
Okay, the BMW’s been sorted out. “Let’s just hop on the Livewire and get out to enjoy the day,” I foolishly mentioned to myself. Gear on, key discovered, swing leg over, press begin. Once extra I used to be met with fuck-all from the two-wheeled machine underneath me. Like a cussed cat being carried into the bathtub, it merely didn’t wish to cooperate.
This state of affairs jogged my memory that the Livewire was displaying indicators of an sad 12v battery final fall, often displaying a “low battery” image on the sprint firstly of a trip. The small lithium 12v battery on these electrical machines are recognized for giving up the ghost rapidly, as they do little greater than facilitate the bike’s lights and sprint. They maintain a cost by a DC-to-DC converter that steps down the large battery’s excessive voltage to a 12v stage to take care of operations.
Well, I saved the large battery at 33 % after I tucked it away final fall, as you must. Unfortunately, the 12v was useless, and the bike wouldn’t wake from its slumber. Using an previous jumper field, I bought the bike to get up, however not run or settle for a cost from the wall plug.
Thankfully after an extended night time on the CTek, the unique Harley 12v is again within the inexperienced zone and must be able to get this bike again as much as snuff.
Unfortunately, after treating each bikes to a wipe down wash and cleansing all of final summer season’s bugs from the radiators, and giving all of the black plastic trim a wholesome quantity of Mothers Back To Black, the solar went down and it had began raining. Goddamn midwest climate.
The Livewire is at present a bit extra of a unadorned bike than it often is, as a result of the manufacturing facility black trim is off on the paint store getting a good looking shade of Porsche GTS Red utilized to it. Here’s a blurry image they despatched me some time again. I can’t wait to see the bike with the items reinstalled.
The ethical of the story right here is that whenever you park your bike for some time, even when it’s simply a few weeks, put it on a battery tender. When I put these bikes within the storage final fall, I used to be actually hoping to get a couple of extra rides in earlier than the using season was over. I even purchased heated gear with the intent of lengthening my using season into November, however simply by no means bought round to it. It’s my very own rattling fault, and I’ve no one accountable however myself. Ride your shit.
Source: jalopnik.com