RedTwin Diary #4 :Rating MC Towing in the Bay Area

This event/s span three consecutive weekends, in this order.

Week One: I had a wonderful ride going, Panoramic Highway, Route One
through Marin....up to when the Red Twin began to gasp and sputter as
I got on 101 from Tam Junction....it died as I coasted off at Marin
City.
Bummer.
I called the guy who had sold me this Italian sputterer, not to
complain about the bike but he owns an MC towing service out of
Novato.
He arrived within the hour, loaded up
Mr.RedDucatiwithadeadbatterythatwouldn'trunatall into his very cool
truck with a very trick motorcycle picker upper thing and took me home
to SF.
Towing guy rating: 10 out of 10 and I got a discount for obvious
reasons

I was pretty sure it was just an old battery so I bought a new and
installed it. badabing, it runs again!

Week Two: I had a wonderful ride going, down the coast on Route
One...up to when the Red Twin began to gasp and sputter (does this
sound familiar) and died in front of the Pacifica Commuity Center.
Dam, and I had a new Regulator/Rectifier sitting on my work bench but
was too optimistic to install it (or lazy?)....typical optimistic
outcome.
I pulled the headlight leads, hoping to get a little more out of the
nearly completely dead (but new) battery, and after listening to a
sickening "click, click" sound, I decided to call Bike Guy Motorcycle
Towing Service. ( just for a change of pace). Since I had used this
service once before I felt I should give him the business.
Well, as it turned out Bike Guy was in a grouchy tow guy mood, but
said he'd try to fit me in or some such thing. I agreed, then after
about 10 minutes I called CC Rider Towing Service.
They were out riding but picked up the call (in Alice's parking lot of
course) and said they would be happy to come get me in about an hour
or two.
I called the grouchy Bike Guy and cancelled the tow.
Unfortunately it took CC Rider about 3 hours to actually show up. So I
caught up on phone calls while lying around on the lawn at the
Pacifica Community Center.
They arrived just as I was going to get kind of sunburned, loaded up
the ItalianSputteringMachine and we headed up to SF.

Week Three: I had a wonderful ride going....all the way to Point Reyes
Station, and all the way back home.

http://colevalley.net/photos/bikes/98ducati/duc__at_bovine.jpg

I guess I don't need an alternator! Thank gawd for that.

So...
MotoHaven is great if you are in Marin, I recommend them totally.
Bike Guy was good a few years ago, but might be grouchy when you call
for a tow.
CC Rider is great, even if you do have to wait a little.

And if you ever get a dead battery, check your regulator/rectifier,
too! (as if I didn't kow that having owned about 40 motorcycles)

Jim S
Ducati 916 (no sputtering now)
BMW R1100RS

 

Jim

For under $20 you can buy one of those 6 LED "battery
alternator tester" thingies. This gives you a set of 6 LEDs
which turn on one at a time for voltages between 12 and
14.5 volts.

I bought one of these gizmos years ago at Radio Shack
for about $10 and installed it permanently on the bike.
It's alerted me to a couple of different charging problems
including regulator failures. Not the prettiest thing in the
world, but a really useful addition to your instrumentation.

On my bike, with a headlight that can be shut off and
some extra lights and heated grips, I've limped home
with both low and high voltage problems because I had the
early warning.

 

Rob, I have seen those and some others, too. One just shows voltage at
the battery, like the output of a Digital Multi-Meter.
In fact it is a big hit with Ducati owners who have the same rectifier
issues that Honda owners have.
I brought home a rather large CPU fan from my parts bin at work, and I
think it might be easy to wire in to the switched power at the fuse
box. It's 12v DC, and why the hell not? Of course it's another load on
a rickety designed system, but I am already committed to some heated
grips, so I may as well pile it on!

I had an 851a while back and I moved the regulator/rectifier to a spot
way up in front where it could get plenty of wind, and away from the
cowl/fairing where considerable heat likes to accumulate. I never had
to get a new R/R for that bike.
My VTR also had issues around r/r over heating, and the "wisdom of the
VTR mailing list" was to use an Electrex (aftermarket) unit and to
deploy some kind of additional cooling setup to keep it from getting
toasty.
Interestingly I was stuck behind a couple of slow pokes in the early
afternoon and felt the heat starting to build under my ass and that
the motor seemed to be very annoyed at having to snork along like
that.
Jim
Ducati 916
R1100RS

 

The rickety electrical system for your bike is being
touted as an upgrade for the rickety electrical system
on my BMW airhead.

What I like about the 6 LED box is that ir's cheap
and easy to read at a glance. I don't really want
a very exact readout. I want a good/no so good
type display that I can read in a fractrion of a second.

I'd agree about giving the R/R more air. You also ought
to make sure your main cables are all good and making
clean solid connections. A loose ground plays havoc with
all manner of electric stuff. DAMHIK.

 

Stephen (Bike Guy) has always been exceptionally friendly
and helpful to me. I've done more business with him than
I wanted, but I've always been quite pleased with his service.

-Patti

 

As I understand it, one tricky part is getting the rear subframe
and drive train out of the way without disturbing the ABS deity.

Interesting that you've had R/R problems. R/R reliability in
the alternator upgrade has been much debated on the airhead
list. The alternative upgrade is a beefier electrically excited rotor
with a diode board and stock three wire regulator,

 

To clarify, Euromotoelectrics sells an airhead
charging upgrade which I believe is pretty much
the same as the Ducatti charging components.

My experience with Euromotoelectrics has been
all positive but I have no experience with their
R/R unit and some worry about this component.

I have yet to upgrade my charging system and
continue pondering alternatives.