Sunday, November 4, 2012

Ready to Rumble

I'd replaced the rectifier and damaged wiring from a couple of weeks back and then went out for a test ride. Geoff came along with his new Sony video camera, its a great little unit. We stopped after about 20 minutes for fuel at which point I checked on the rectifier, boy it sure gets hot I nearly burnt my hand on it, so I checked the rectifier on Geoff's bike and his was the same - bloody hot. It must be just how they are designed. I got home and it was time to give the bike a good wash ready for the snowy ride in a couple of weeks.


I decided to take off the tank bag cover from the tank to give the bike back its natural look. The painted tank looks a lot nicer than the plain red tank cover. I still had the 2 original stickers on the tank, I'd never removed them. In case your wondering that there's only one sticker that's because earlier in the day I removed the UNLEADED FUEL ONLY sticker. I'm in the process of removing the other sticker.


After washing the bike and a brief inspection I remembered that I'd seen this big scrape on the belly pan before so I thought I'd take a pic. I've never crashed this bike(touch wood) so this can only have happened whilst riding along and being cranked over in a bend. Its a bit scary what could have happened.






10 comments:

  1. Oooh a clean bike. Mine gets a washing about once a year. It seems to like a protective layer of dust and bugs.

    Nice scrape on the belly pan. Shall we call you Speed Racer?

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    1. Surely max gets more than one wash a year, or is it that Brad washs him for you and you only wash max once a year.

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  2. That belly pan scratch looks quite scary. Glad that you didn't go down after touching a bump (?) in the road with the underside of the bike...

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    1. My thoughts as well Sonja, I don't remember when it happened but im sure I would have noticed at the time.

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  3. New suspension..or a diet needed? ;)
    Have fun in the Snowys.

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    1. Maybe a little from colum A and a little from column B.

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  4. I've heard that Yamaha rectifiers are some of the best and have been retrofitted to other bikes for that reason. I wonder if you can relocate it to get more air to keep it cool.
    The scratched fairing on the other hand is somewhat disconcerting as I would think that your footpegs and swingarm bobbins would touch down first. Must've been a dip in the road or a crazed, rabid belt sander jumped out of nowhere and tagged you.

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    1. I thought about moving it but then the added problem would be the added risk of getting water on it, as it has exposed terminal wiring it's not really water proof so that would be another disater waiting to happen. I seen on some forums were people have mounted a little PC fan ontop of the rectifier for added air flow.

      Damn I didn't even see that belt sander coming.....lol

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  5. Steve,
    Good to hear that you're up and running again. Don't worry about the rectifier temperature, I left skin from my fingers on the Blackbird rec! That's the only way that excess voltage gets bled off - in the form of heat. Try strapping a bit of bread to it for a toasted snack when you're up in the Snowys (lucky bugger)!

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