Pressureangle

FWIW, Andrew and Randy took a ride South that I wasn't up to, and lament; it's my regular path in and out of the 'raid. Next year I may suggest, if the weather is as nice, lunch in Helen, GA.

I'll not be so lazy again as to ride even that short distance in short socks and vent tennies. I was naked and afraid. Mostly cold tho.

The Lodge is cloudless at the moment. 3:49pm Thursday.

Mine was running when I put it away...

Game On

Weather between Lavonia, GA and Tellico is complete shyte Thursday and Friday. Last straw, I'm out. I haven't cancelled the room at the Lodge yet, if anyone wants it speak up.

Yes, it's been since...started by State in 1967? That the US has required 'headlamp on' for motorcycles. But I don't know if or when Europe stopped using the 'city light'. My '97 Sport still has it, though the switchgear doesn't allow city lamp only. My thinking was that the system(s) are engineered for 80% daytime (city lamp) and 20% nighttime (headlamp) operation. Can't never know for sure, I suppose.

Let's review some basic theory, and in the context of how we ride. Heat is created by current (amps). Amps is a function of Voltage over Resistance. Sometimes it's not intuitive, that a *reduction* of voltage actually increases current, when resistance is very low and demand is high. For instance; You came home from a nice ride, but spent 20 minutes idling in traffic and residential streets (low charge output) You always ride with high beam on (additional demand) Next morning you let bike warm up before riding the same 20 slow minutes to your favorite rev zone You do this 3 weekends in a row. Euro bikes all have 'city lights' and it seems they're intended to be run as usual, with headlamps only at night. I'm guessing here, Euro posters please give some clarity. So it also seems that Euro electrical engineers produce marginal systems to operate at max capacity constantly. So if you create a low battery/high charge situation, (high demand) with short-trip low speed rides, and high headlamp demand, low rpm output voltage, you maximize the amperage current through the system. Consider that even if every connection is perfect, the system itself may not be up to the task, robust enough, to tolerate that as a permanent condition. I reviewed the electrical schematic, fuse sizes, and expected demand. It's very close. Assuming a 400 watt alternator, that calculates to 28.5 amps at 14 volts.| Drop the voltage one volt to 13, and the amperage goes up to 31.7. Now we see where we may be in trouble. So the moral here is, as I discovered on my own bike, that the higher the charging voltage the lower the amperage. Maximize your connections and also your riding habits, or use a battery tender to recover between rides.

Hm... tasty But you're a few hours farther than my start point in Lavonia, GA. I do have a proper tire machine available to me here, as well.

My rear tire is still in my living space. Two nails on the 1500 mile Dunlop. One, ok with plug. Guzzi content The second, 1.5 inches from the first. No bueno. Still may make it.

My ignition switch created a capacitor out of aged grease and debris, which *after some period of time* illuminated the dash and taillamp and drained the battery intermittently. Perhaps yours carries enough current to hold the headlight relay on. Consider cleaning it.

I still have to collect the bimmer from Michigan, via Rte. 66. May as well pass by Virginia on the way out, since there's nothing between Michigan and St. Louis I want to see again.

I may not make it this year- the past couple months have been... painful... Outside of the 'Alaska trip' in which we didn't make Alaska, but was awesome, I've been buried by BS. Representative of my status, I took my Mom's unused 2004 Yukon as a tow vehicle to collect my '04 busted crank pickup from San Antonio. 1300 miles from Michigan to Florida, rock solid. 300 miles from home towards TX, the fuel pump takes a crap. No biggie, but the shop ran me around the flagpole for 5 days before simply declining the job. So me and $750 went over to Harbor Freight and did it myself in the Tallahassee Best Western parking lot. Well, at least it made me feel like I was 19 again. Somehow that isn't particularly satisfying.

I was fleet manager at a mulch manufacturer. We had 3 big grinders, 1000HP Caterpillar V12s. They ran WOT 10 hours a day, idling at lunch. The grinders had an automatic feeder, stuffing logs in until it drug the motor down to 1800RPM, then reverse that backed the load out until the engine reached 2200RPM and start the cycle again. Literally throttle to the firewall the entire time. They usually lasted about 10k hours before rebuild; the problem was, if something broke it was *extremely* expensive. In 2004, the major overhaul kit alone was about $12k plus out of service for a month. Oil tests let us catch them before they ruined heads, or turbos, or cranks.

So...much...change... Will continue after SSR XX.