Stuck by the side of the road for 4.5 freakin hours.

[Marc Albea]

Rode the V30 into work yesterday.  On the way home started to rain pretty hard so I stopped under a convenient overpass (on I-10W) to wait it out.  Bout 15 minutes later the rain stops and Marc tries to get on his way.  No deal.  Can't hear a friggin thing because of being under the over pass and having to contend with the amplified sounds of rush hour traffic whizzing by me so I can't even tell if the darn thing is kicking over.  finally had to sit there with my hand on the engine trying to determine if it was doing anything.  Nope, no dice.  Not even trying.  Ok, must be wet or summat.

Spend some time checking fuses and trying to dry out the nooks and crannies.  Still no dice.  Of course I'm wearing out the battery in the meantime.  Finally no battery so nothing anyway.

Supposed to have emergency roadside assistance through my M/C insurance.  Call the number provided, well, they can't find me in their database.  WTF!!!  Shafted.  They won't do anything.  Call AAA.  Don't tell them it's a motorcycle although the guy I talked to doesn't have a clue cause when he asked I told him it was an '85 Honda Magna.  Still he "supposedly" dispatches a wrecker to come out and jump me.  hour and a half later still nobody.  AAA calls me back, specifically where on the road are you located?  On the freeway, on the feeder or on a surface road?  I tell them, on the shoulder, in the fast lane on the freeway.  Sorry bud, we can't come out.  Have to dispatch the Safe Clear people.  Ok, well, do what you have to.  Waiting, waiting.  Got a chance to finish my book.  Look around occasionally, finally look up and there's a M/C cop pulling up behind me and a white SUV type sliding to the shoulder in front of me.  The SUV is a neighbor that saw me as he went by and was kind enough to take the next exit and come back around to see if I needed help.  He didn't have jumpers so I thanked him and sent him on his way.  the cop was real nice but basically useless.  He takes off down the road and there I sit.

Long about 6:45 a wrecker pulls in front of me.  (I've been out there since 3:15.) Glad to see you!  I just need a jump and I'll be on my merry way.  Turns out he's got a 24 volt system.  Thanks but no thanks.  I don't need to further my problems by burning out my electronics.  He tells me he'll check around and see if he can find someone with a jumper box.  Ok, well, thanks.  Call my son and tell him to stand by cause I might need him to drive down and help me out.

Oh, one good thing.  I had about 6 bikers on various brands stop to see if they could help.  

Of course by now it's 7:15, I'm out of smokes (I know, I need to quit!) and it's looking like I'm going to spend the night under the overpass.  Call my son again (I'm down to 1 bar on the cell phone and I'm just hoping it'll hold out long enough to get someone here.) and tell him to head my way.  

7:45 and the eldest son pulls in behind me at the same time another wrecker slides in front of me.  Wrecker driver again is worthless.  24volt system.  Son has cables so I hook them up and promptly blow the 30amp fuse.  In the meantime the wrecker guy is telling me he's calling a flatbed to tow me off of the freeway.  I say fine but I'm looking for a piece of wire heavy duty enough to replace the 30amp fuse (Gonna do that fuse mod this weekend, LOL) Find a old rusty bit of wire but can't get the phillips head screws loose cause I don't have my tool kit with me having left it in my garage this past weekend and forgot to put it back in my tank bag.  Wrecker driver has no tools.  Finally use the knife my son is carrying and manage to insert the wire.  hook up the jumper cables once more and cross my fingers.  VROOOOM.  Starts right up.

8:30 in the evening and I've only been out there a little over 5 hours.  Wrecker drives leaves and I take off with my son behind me in his jeep.  Make it home and turn the bike off, try starting it again.  Nothing.  Stick it on my little battery tender in the hopes that it will charge sufficiently to start the bike.  Think the battery must be hosed (Had problems with it last week by way of reminder, was mostly out of water) but I leave the charger on overnight.  Nope, still showing charging but the bike won't start this morning.  Ok.  Guess I'll have to spring for a new battery and a fuse mod.

So, disagreeable as it is I've now got two Magna's inop. and I'm left with having to use my wifes VStar.  LOL.  Beggers can't be choosers.

Moral of the story.  Some days it just don't pay to get out of bed!!!!

[Greg Cothern]

Marc, man sure hate to hear of your troubles.  Does sound like the battery gave up the ghost.  Did ya try and push start it?  
What is up with Big Bird?  You mentioned both Mags were inop.
Hope you get things straightened out QUICK!

[Marc Albea]

I actually didn't try to push start it.  If I had been on a side road or even a feeder I might have but I was too ascared to attempt it on the side of I10.

The big magna actually isn't down per se.  Still runs well, just need brakes and a rear tire before I'm willing to ride it on a daily basis.  LOL.

[bogiefree]

Marc, sure it's not the regulator?  I had similar problems on my trip last year to Canada.  Replaced the battery but a week later started having the same problems.

If the battery's completely dead you can't even push start the bike.  When mine died the first time I got a boost from a guy on an old Gold Wing.  He carried a small set of jumper cables.  His boost only got me another 50 miles before I had to stop for gas and couldn't get the bike going again.

I now carry a small set of jumper cables on my bike so nixt time you can call me instead of the auto club...

[Marc Albea]

Hmmm, might be worthwhile for me to go buy a cheap voltmeter to test the batt.  I will say though that it "seems" to be battery related as putting it on the BTender Jr. never gives me a green, charged indication and, I was lax in maintenance on the battery casue it was almost dry 2 weeks ago.

Send up your cell number so the next time I'm stuck on the side of the road in Houston I can give you a call in Dallas.  LOL.

[Greg Cothern]

Marc you gotta ask why the batt was dry?  Might be something to it.
Oh and dont think for a minute that Dave wouldnt ride to H-town to give you roadside assistance, LoL.  He likes to put miles on that red Magna!

[John Faubion]

Marc,
It sounds like the regulator may be bad. One of the failure modes of the Honda regulator can cause the battery to overcharge. This is quite often evident by the fact that it boils off the water in the battery. The way it happens is if the limiting circuit gets shorted or the voltage reference circuit is open, the battery will continue to recieve the full voltage available from the charging circuit. This excess current gets converted into heat by the battery which causes the water to boil. Once the water is gone the plates in the battery begin to melt which can cause shorts in the battery thus a dead battery after sitting for a while.
One way to check for this condition would be to start the bike either after replacing the battery or by using jumper cables to another battery (can even be a car battery just don't start the car!). Using a voltmeter set to measure DC volts, check the voltage across the battery. With a fully charged battery you should see about 14 volts. If you are seeing closer to 18 then the regulator is not limiting the current and it will fry the next battery as well. While your at it set the voltmeter to measure AC volts and measure across the battery again while the bike is running. If you measure more that a volt of AC, then the one or more of the diodes in the regulator are bad. Pretty much either one requires replacement of the regulator.