Nova Scotia Mike

Thanks for all the feedback folks. A little more related info... I've been running two bikes for the last few years, the XX and a DRZ. I have and mainly use a Harley branded Battery Tender Jr. that trickle charges @ ~0.75a with an auto feature. I don't log when I charge the batteries over the winters but I try to charge each one at a time for a week or two then swap to the other. Both are AGM, XX is YUASA, DRZ is generic no name. As mentioned my XX battery would charge to the point the tenders light would turn green, as expected. The DRZ battery was charging to the green light point during the winter but more recently (the last 1-2 charges?) it would not, the charger light would remain solid orange. It's finally getting nice out (yesterday was the first day of the year I wore shorts) so I, like everyone else, am in get-bikes-on-road mode. I gave both a full couple days on the charger this week and tried to fire them up. XX - dash lights come on like normal but starter did not turn the engine over at all. No click, no nothing. DRZ - starter jabs turned over the engine a bit but it was weak limp dick turns and only a few. I figure I've got two dead batteries at that point and on Tuesday, I call the shop and ask them to prepare two new ones for me. [As a sidenote, YUASA runs ~$140 here and no name generic ~$60-80. What brands off batteries do you guys run? Does it matter? Both seem to have the same 1 year warrenty] While on the phone, the shop owner, Barry, notices that my DRZ battery is not even a year old and thus would be covered under warranty if it's actually dead. He asks me about my home charging situation as asks me to bring it in for them to assess/try charging, I drop it off to them 5 minutes before close on Tuesday. I went into the shop yesterday morning to see how it went and he tells me it's fine after a charge there in the shop and hands it back to me. I can only presume they have some top shelf charging set up. We talk about the XX battery and my charger and Barry says I should bring the suspect XX battery in to him too for them to check out/charge similarly. I agree. I know it's likely 4-5 years old. I put the DRZ battery back in the bike at home yesterday afternoon and it works like new. It turns that engine over quickly and strongly, with the strength of an unexpected boner that a 15 year old would be desperately trying to hide in class. It is at this point that I remember my drunken charging fuck up ... errr my friend's .... and I start a wondering about possible damage. I plan to drop XX battery off to Barry this week to see if they can resurrect it or sell me a new one. In the meantime I was aiming to check on anything that might have occurred during the drunken mishap. I do have 2 other chargers. One is a manual 1 amp with no auto feature. I.e., it's not a set it and forget it. Looks like they don't even sell manual ones anymore, but it's this one. You have to watch the time it's on and disconnect after x-hours. The other I have is an older one I stole from my dad years ago. It's a big honker for car batteries and has a 2amp setting as the lowest option so I have been reluctant to use it on tiny bike batteries but it is variable and has auto/maintenance. I think it is an older version of this one. It does have a jump start type setting but I think it says it's like 80 amps or something. I'm going to check fuses on the XX and will aim to take the battery into Barry this week but if any of you have any other suggestions in the meantime, it's appreciated.

Asking for a friend 😎 Man, this is a tough one to fess up to. Let's say I have a friend who in a drunken mishap over the winter accidentally put the Battery Tender Jr charger leads on the wrong battery poles (battery in bike, 2000 XX) and plugged the fucking charger into the wall. The bass-ackwards charger/battery made a funky humming noise immediately which the drunken idiot noticed after a short time, like less than a minute. They then unplugged the charger from the wall. Damage done? What to check now? Battery was then removed from bike and put on trickle charge (properly) a few times over the winter. Battery Tender Jr. would then charge it until the green light came on, like normal. Fast forward to now and the battery will not turn the engine over. Battery is likely 4-5 years old. Dead battery? Blown fuse? Something more serious fried during drunken idiocy? Any and all help appreciated.

I don’t want anymore discs in our house either. But I’m always interested in what people are selling if nothing more than imaginary tire kicking. what’s your eBay handle?

Dibs on the 6.

Thanks guys. As it's indicated as a "MF" battery I'd say it's agm. I did read the instructions that came with the battery and they said to charge at no more than a tenth of the battery capacity (capacity is 6.5Ah) so the tender jr seemed suitable. I thought the instructions said it would take several hours when in fact for me as indicated by the lights, the tender jr had appeared to have fully charged the brand new battery and switched to maintenance/trickle charge all in less than 2 hours. Seemed odd. Seemed too fast. You guys do have me feeling warmer and fuzzier about this. I still might dig through the trash to look at those instructions again. Thanks again

Hi, Just bought a new battery for my DRZ-400S as the old one was done. I was going by the shop and just grabbed one that was not charged up. They added the acid for me and away I went. It's a 12v 6.5Ah MF battery. Brand is "DS". I stuck it on the battery tender jr I have (full disclosure the charger is Harley brand, was a gift) and let it go. I think the jr charger charges at .7. I set a timer reminder to myself to check on it at the two hour mark to make sure it was not too hot, no weird lights on charger, etc and to my surprise, at the two hour mark it was showing fully charged. Is this normal? I figured it'd take at least 5-6 hours. Did I fuck it up? Should I be concerned?

A sure way to end up with monkeybutt

Well look at you two quick little wheeler dealers! I can live without it. I’ll just take my cut of the commission and I’ll be on my way.

I keep coming back to look at this ad. I don't think I've ever worn a large on my melon, always XL. I notice the other helmet you are selling is an XL. Does this one fit you? Is Nolan L like an XL from anyone else?

Size? I've been liking the smell of Old Spice "Bearglove" for the last two sticks.

Thread title had me thinking this was about Dave filling his cars. Never heard of Houdini product before, will keep an eye out for it. I like that a locksmithing product is named after an escape artist. I once bought some graphite powder lube for a sticky gas cap lock and accidentally dropped way too much in, what a mess. Key would not go into lock fully until I extracted the plug of powder at the bottom.

What action/changes were involved in the "dial down"? Was it hot or cold when these changes occurred?

When you can't get it to run, have you pulled the plug? Is it wet or dry?

Nice tool strap! Looks tidy and and well sorted for the age/miles. GLWS if you consider parting out I'd like to put dibs on your aftermarket rear shock. I don't think you mentioned above what shock you have on it.

Maybe it holds some additional fuel? He's talking 6 gallons in that write up. Actually maybe the risers are hollow and hold a gallon.

Wicked good, thanks. It's too fuckin nice out today so I'm going to ride with the pussy hairs. Will R/R the pads as per your suggestions soon. Thanks

Thanks hawk, good suggestions. Will keep my eyes open for z drivers. Sound handy for lots of tight jobs. Seems like I'll be removing caliper so getting at the pad pin & cover will not be tight and my silencer can stay where it is. Thanks all the same.

Thanks Slappy, sometimes the truth hurts. When you say pull caliper, do you mean remove completely from bike and clean it up on the bench? Or could this be done without too much headache while removed from caliper mount but caliper still attached to brake lines? From what I read on here before I started this thread was a lot of guys having issue with air in lines after bleeding, etc.

Hi, So there's maybe a pussy hair thickness of meat left on the rear pads on my bike. They don't make any foul sounds and seem to work pretty good, there's just hardly any pad left. I picked up some EBC HH's and put on my grubby clothes to swap them out when I realized that my seemingly fully extended pistons are really crudded up. I'm not wanting to push them crudded up pistons back into my caliper and risk fuckin up the seals and/or introducing crud to the system. What's the best way to clean such pistons? I sprayed with brake cleaner and scrubbed with an old toothbrush but have limited access (rear wheel still on, caliper still on bike). Any tricks to get pin cap and pin out without removing left exhaust silencer? I don't think I have any screw drivers small enough to get in there as is and was hoping to not have to remove silencer for risk of fucking up seals. thanks

Thanks lads, I'm really lichen these plant suggestions and will be sticking some in my nemesis.

Any suggestions? I hate mowing the fucking hills and would prefer some low maintenance semi attractive ( read semi very loosely) vegetation or otherwise. Obviously I'm in Nova Scotia so something with big enough balls to survive winter is required. Fuck mowing hills.

Is anyone still using this or are others using something else these days? I've always used an excel file then an app that went dead, but am now exploring other options to track/log maintenance schedule items. Oh, above link is dead but I think I found the same program here: http://touringmotorcyclists.com/tech_tips/download.html but M$ is warning me the .exe is scary.

As per the title, looking for some stock signals rear that I can hack and mod for use with wing rack. Let me know what you got, how much you looking for them. I have an American address things can be shipped to. Thanks

Hi, So in a moment of 3 beer haze stupidity I thought it would be a good idea to use metal polish on my gas cap cover, not realizing it was painted to appear to have metallic finish. I realize there is no turning back now and that I'll have to strip/polish the whole cap now. Do do I need to apply a clear coat or anything else when I'm done? I've never metal polished anything with a finish before. Thanks