A blog about motorcycles, motorcyclists, and motorcycle shops

Musings on riding and working on bikes, and observations as I travel and visits bikers, riders, motorcyclists, events and shops

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Friday, October 31, 2014

The light at the end of the tunnel is a fast approaching bike

Just a quick update on the ongoing saga of the electrical gremlins on the 86 Connie Miss Swail:

Headlight "whip" had some bad solders in it.  Don't know if they were originals or previous owner repairs but the best solution is to graft on a new one.  Probably coming off the huge bins of "donor-cycles" Bill and Bud at Poway Motorcycle have in the side storage unit by the shop.

As they troubleshot the bike, they found a huge voltage drop in the ignition circuit.  They knew to look for this as the bike had been starting slowly and they've seen this over the years as the Kawasaki's they work on age.  The fix it putting a relay in and bypassing the failing parts or something along those lines.

All told, the parts and extra labor don't add that much more to the bill, and compared to getting stranded somewhere with a 700 pound bike (tough to push up into a truck-AMHIK) and it will be money well spent, even if I only ride this bike another 4K miles to 100K and then start parting it out on the Connie forum.  I should get it back today or tomorrow, put some miles on it and continue restoring the 1994 as its replacement.

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