wow been a while between drinks for this thread
Thought I would bung up an interesting story about the 6fiddy.......today I took it out on 1 of its 3 or 4 annual rides, today being the local MRA Blanket Run. A group of us from the local VJMC got together for coffee/breakfast this morning before the ride....
The last time the 650 was going was about September last year for the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride. As usual, it just gets parked after each ride, then dusted off, battery gets a charge - and away we go, maybe 6/8/10 months later for the next ride.....
The old ZX12R battery that had been fitted to this bike - finally bit the dust - so a few nights ago I fitted up the new lithium battery (also from the ZX12R) which has done duty in the 12, the Gronk and Swabio's ZX6R. The 650 fired up fine and sounded good......this battery has been used on all 3 bikes without any issues whatsoever...
This morning - 650 started just fine - rode up to the garage and topped up fuel - then on the way into town, the bike carried on a bit, popping and banging through the exhaust - sounded like an electrical issue ?? It seemed to clear itself up and I finished the ride to the cafe....
Got into the cafe and was sitting there with a couple of other punters having a java - when all of a sudden old mate says 'Heh Dave your bike is on fire !!!' FMD there was smoke pouring out from behind the sidecover...........I knew what it was straight away.
The lithium battery had shat itself and a small hole in the side had appeared where smoke was being pushed out - hole maybe 2mm across ??? The smell was fucking rancid. I took the battery leads off, and pulled the battery out - it was pretty hot and smoke still belting out the small hole.....parked the battery on the footpath away from all the bikes to let itself cool down a bit
A mate lent me his 750 Ducati to rip out to Fyshwick and get another battery. AGM on special for $88, not so bad. When I got back we fitted up the new battery, a few more punters had turned up for breakfast and one of them had a multimeter - so once the new battery was in, we kicked over the bike and there it was - 15-16v on idle up to 17v when revved out to 4k !!!
Lithium batteries don't like being overcharged. Looks like at some point the regulator on the 650 has gone kaput. I finished the blanket run with no other problems, then came home and replaced that regulator with another one out of stock - charging voltage is now a lot more stable at 13.5-14.5v no matter what the revs are. So the new battery won't get boiled dry (although none of the old lead-acid batteries I have used in this bike previously did either ?? weird)......and hopefully the AGM battery should get me through a few seasons.....
So there you go. Watch those charging systems in your old bikes if you are going to use a lithium battery.........
Apart from that - the little 6fiddy ran really well with the new battery installed, it is a fun little bike to ride and I really should do the right thing and give it a decent paint job.......
Yeah I like Kawasakis.
