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Post by bnc on Nov 28, 2014 15:56:47 GMT -5
Tom,
The link describing how to remove the Reflex bulb is correct but it helps to have small hands. Also, it is an optical illusion that the bulb is bigger around than the opening. It will come out the back side. For what it is worth, Reflex bulbs are 55 watt each.
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Post by bnc on Nov 20, 2014 15:42:58 GMT -5
Around here, Tesla's and Nissan Leafs are becoming pretty common. I see four or five every day. One of my best friend's now owns two electric cars. The electric car business is driving down the cost of batteries so I suspect that will be the future.
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Post by bnc on Nov 17, 2014 16:39:37 GMT -5
If you have no skills, disconnect the TPS from the bike and take it to a dealer for testing. I have worked on fuel injection systems for years and have most the tools to test them and the TPS has proven the most common failure. Having an engine steam cleaned can destroy them. They are poorly sealed, wire wound, variable resistors.
Oxygen sensors are next in line but typically exhibit different symptoms than described. The O2 sensor most often will become contaminated causing its calibration to change so that the vehicle will test high in NOx (lean) in an emissions test or high in hydrocarbons (rich).
ECU's have proven to be very reliable at least in the past ten years.
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Post by bnc on Nov 16, 2014 2:26:32 GMT -5
I would begin by cleaning the TPS (throttle position sensor). It is the electrical device on the right side of the second photo down from the top. This device is basically an electrical potentiometer like the manual volume control of old radios and TV's. When you move the throttle, its job is to tell the computer where you set the throttle. If it gets dirty inside it will be like a scratchy volume control sending mixed messages to the computer where you set the throttle. Here is part one of a three part video about how guy cleaned his on a Yamaha R6.
If you have an electronics background and own a multimeter, a simple test is to measure the resistance of the device and smoothly rotate it through its range. The resistance should likewise change smoothly. Any jumping around means it needs a good cleaning. The computer will interpret the jumping around as how you are controlling the throttle.
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Post by bnc on Nov 13, 2014 16:06:56 GMT -5
I have been involved in testing off the shelf clothing for ability to retain heat. Basically a heat source is placed inside an item then digital thermometers placed outside the item measures the temperature rise as function of time.
Most common items measured were synthetic fleece, acrylic lined items, Dupont Thermolite, wool, down, etc.
The biggest surprise was that some fleeces were no better than a T shirt while others were pretty good but the best fleece was only about 1/2 as good as a much lighter Thermolite liner. Thermolite and a heavy wool coat nearly tied but nothing compared to a down puffer style jacket which as like a factor of seven better than Thermolite.
The down jacket tested reminded me about the scarf. The jacket tested has a zipper that zips all the way up to form a high Mandarin style, down filled collar that ended up under my chin. No need for a scarf with that set up.
Down is great for riding when you are not engaged in any activity but I wore that jacket for a walk with my dog at 50 degrees with just a T shirt under it. I was covered in perspiration after an hour.
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Post by bnc on Nov 12, 2014 14:19:13 GMT -5
You might want to consider a Honda Reflex or its clone then. The Reflex has front and rear brakes on the handlebar, it has larger wheels (12" rear, 13" front), both brakes are disks, it has a 249 cc engine. Mine will do 65 mph at 7,000 rpm and 79 mph at red-line of 8,300 rpm measured on GPS. I do almost all freeway riding so the rpm's are almost always between 7,000 and 7,500. It still averages 68 mpg.
I think the clone version actually has fuel injection which is an improvement over the Reflex's carburetor.
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Post by bnc on Nov 10, 2014 23:23:59 GMT -5
My first scooter ran like this. The problem was the carburetor fuel bowl level was off. It was too high causing the bike to run rich. The spark plug was almost black. The black carbon trails on the plug were conductive. Every once in a while a carbon trail would short the spark plug. The bike would restart instantly.
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Post by bnc on Aug 27, 2014 22:00:50 GMT -5
The typical resistance range of most coils is 2.2-3.9 ohms on the primary winding and 10-16Kohms on the secondary winding. It sounds like your test shows the secondary, which it where the spark comes from, is open circuit.
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Post by bnc on Aug 23, 2014 12:52:52 GMT -5
That is speculation. Drivers have lots of reasons to get enraged. Lane splitting seems to do it too even where it's legal.
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Post by bnc on Aug 23, 2014 5:59:39 GMT -5
I don't see where this question got answered? I prefer to err on the side of caution.
I explained about why I feel rather negatively about this.
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Post by bnc on Aug 23, 2014 5:01:41 GMT -5
The 12 second rule applies in daylight scanning in front of you. I am talking about at night where the MSF rule is not to over ride the headlights. The Honda saw the vehicle in their path, braked, but the unexpected swerve into my lane created a danger in a fraction of a second.
Having a bike fast enough to keep up with traffic might prevent irritating other drivers or perhaps being rear ended but you are less safe in terms of the laws of physics, statistics and other drivers.
From physics, double the speed, quadruple the impact energy.
From statistics,
From other drivers,
According to NHTSA, 49% of motorcycle deaths were from being hit by other vehicles but of that 49%, 43% were head on or from the side, only 6% were from the rear.
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Post by bnc on Aug 21, 2014 14:01:22 GMT -5
What I meant is if I plan an extended trip or vacation like that guy Wan I do such planning and I have a GPS stuck on my windscreen.
Believe it or not, if my bike is not capable of the roads for a daily commute, I take public transportation. Around here there are a lot of wealthy older people (I would think that true of Florida too) but they complain so much to the police about fast drivers in the 25 mph zones that police are enforcing it. I don't dare go past about 30 mph even in my car. The seniors even managed to get a 35 mph street rezoned 25 mph so passing through this town you have to be careful because the towns on both sides are 35 mph on the same street.
Again, if you are on 25 mph streets, an accident won't be as bad as if you are going 65 mph on the freeway. The only people I knew personally who got killed on two wheels had it happen on the freeway. One was hit by a truck. Another the police report said he lost control and was hit by multiple vehicles southbound on the freeway.
I was almost in a fatal accident a few years ago. It was merging from one freeway to another at night. Going east bound on one freeway, the merge ramp going over the north/south freeway, then a shallow left turn onto the north/south freeway. I was in the blind spot of a Honda Prelude to my left and ahead of me. Remembering from MSF to stay out of the blind spot, I slowed down. Almost immediately, the Honda hit its brakes and swerved into my lane leaving me stopped behind his left rear by about a foot. We both stopped. I was standing on broken glass. Looking over the Honda, I could see a car had hit the right guard rail leaving the broken glass I was standing on, it then crossed the ramp and ended up nose first in the left guard rail with its lights out completely blocking the path of the Honda.
Coming from a smaller bike, I dropped back but if I had used the extra power of the sport bike and tried to pass him to get out of the blind spot, he would have knocked me over the right guard rail and it was straight down.
That is why I am not impressed with arguments that extra power will get you out of a spot. My experience is that that solution can also kill you.
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Post by bnc on Aug 21, 2014 0:57:09 GMT -5
The idea that it is not possible to find a route suitable for the capabilities of a 100 cc bike is hard to believe when a guy named Wan documented on a blog his travels back and forth across the US on a 50 cc Honda Ruckus. His average speed being 25 mph.
I have never seen a situation like you describe so I won't say there are no such roads nor do I know that there are no other routes for which a 100 cc is suitable. I have ridden my 125 on roads that took me probably twice as long to get some places but it could be safely done and no one was on my bumper. I could have taken a faster road with a posted speed limit that I could in theory maintain but no way any one was at that speed limit and yes there were people on 125's on that road but it was their choice and they did have a choice.
I sometimes had to use Google maps creatively to get places but it can be done like by telling Google you are on a bicycle. It was kind of enjoyable actually. I discovered places off the beaten path I would never have known about if it weren't for the fact that I was not trying to get there fast.
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Post by bnc on Aug 20, 2014 12:50:43 GMT -5
The only people I know who can ride WOT ride 50 cc and under bikes. I thought we were talking 100-125 cc and 400 cc bikes. My very ancient 1985 125 cc WOT would do nearly 60 mph. Given the speed limit on most city streets here is 25 mph I suspect I couldn't get away with many WOT rides for long.
I did not mean to suggest giving a non-aggressive driver a larger bike would make them aggressive, but I feel a person who on a small bike would ride it beyond his/her capabilities and ride on streets for which the bike is ill equipped is an aggressive driver and that would not go away with a larger bike. I also think people who tailgate are being aggressive and unsafe as is the the response to try to outrun them on an underpowered bike rather than pull over.
Regarding MSF, I only meant to indicate that in both single and multiple vehicle accidents, speed plays a big part, and energy of impact goes up with the square of the speed increase. They taught us that in driver ed as well as MSF. So if you can't go any faster, the impact energy is limited. If you can go faster, twice the speed, four times the impact energy.
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Post by bnc on Aug 19, 2014 14:07:56 GMT -5
I used to ride a 125cc so I know what it means to have traffic backed up. Once a guy gave me the finger as he was able to pass me, just as I was pulling over to let everyone by. Also, I tried to stay off streets that exceeded the limits of the bike regardless of the posted speed limit.
I never took corners too fast to avoid tailgaters. I just pulled over an let them by. It doesn't take a lot of knowledge to realize the limitations of a small bike; I seldom see much evidence that riders of small bikes behave by being aggressive with them. Conversely, give rider a more capable machine and they start to become more aggressive because they can.
If someone tailgates, the temptation with a big bike is too tear out of there and the smaller bike is to pull over. I know that temptation because I now have a larger bike. It is like showing weakness to have to pull over. It is human nature to speed away. The problem in my opinion is that speed is not always the best option. Especially if tearing out of there means hitting gravel and going down which is not likely if you just pull over.
But I digress, I don't believe tailgating and having to tear out of there is any near as common as the aforementioned accident types described in MSF which are mainly speed related. I think it is always possible to find an accident type that gives the advantage to the bigger bike but it does not make it generally safer.
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