Going home last night from work when my bike died. Was on Peckham High Street, doing 30, in fast moving traffic when, well, nothing. All the electrics went dead. First instinct was to hit the hazards so that the car behind me didn’t smash into to me, but of course that didn’t work. Managed to pull into the middle of the road though. Then had a nightmare time getting off into a side road.
And to add insult to injury the breakdown company (Green Flag - SHAME) took 3 hours to get someone out to me.
Really quite pissed off, though I guess I have to at least be thankful that I wasn’t killed or seriously injured. Could have been a hell of a lot worse in many ways.
Bike is going off the Sondel in Sidcup to be looked at (Yamaha FZS600).
So that is my tale of woe. Any ideas what could have gone wrong!? My first thought is that the alternator has gone based on the fact that it is has something to do with a electricity and I know the name of it. Does anyone with a slightly finer grasp of mechanics have any better ideas?
First check would be battery terminals to make sure they were clean and tight.Then as suggested check the main fuse - There is often a fuse, well hidden sometimes, that everything goes through.
Could be regulator, rectifier, generator, battery etc. but unlikly to leave everything completly dead like that as they will tend to leave a battery that is very low in charge but but wil lstil lshow some life - for exampel the hazards didn’t work in this case.
Checked the main fuse box and everything there was ok. Not sure if there are any other fuses.
Battery is only about 6 months old, so I really hope it is not that. And everything is clean and screwed tight there. EDIT: Nope, don’t have a battery charger.
I thought about how maybe a bump had loosened something but then I don’t see how. I was going along a smooth stretch at the time and the power loss was just so sudden and absolute.
stupid question but does it start? turn on lights etc or is it still dead?
check all fuses in fuse box as well as main one.
if you can check with a multimeter to see what charge the battery has
Still if, and for now that is an IF, it is something as simple as that, then it makes Green Flags refusal to even send a mechanic out, due to it being an electrical problem, even more ludicrous.
Right. I have just got home from the pub. I have been drinking since work ended at 5 ‘o’ clock, so I think it is fair to say I am pretty well intoxicated. Not only am I drunk, but it is dark outside, being as it is nightime. My bike is also, for the record, not parked under any street lights. And I, from the advice garnered here, and from DL’ing the manual earlier off the Yamaha website, have just fixed my bike.
It was the master fuse. I have it here in front of me. This little ******* bugger, barely the size of a thumbnail, nealry got me killed.
So yes. To Greenflag I have to say this: You ‘solo practice’. If I can fix my bike whilst ******* pissed with a bit of knowledge gotten off the net then you could at least have made the effort to send someone out to at least have tried to fix my bike rather than saying “Oh, electrical? Well ARGH go sing. We ain’t touching that”.
Thank you LB. I feel quite good, and releived, that this fix has cost me no money, no hassle, no problems with getting to work. It is a lesson learnt. There may be a box saying “FUSES” but not all of them lurk under it. The master has his own pad away from it.
EDIT: Quality. These boards are really quite puritanical when it comes to swearing.
