First proper rideout of the year and my gsx-r dies in the middle of no where.

[Paul the 6th]

Waited 4 months to take my new bike up the b1257 north of helmsley, Dani was away visiting her friend so no time limit to be back, weather was great, roads were dry and I even managed to adjust my suspension to "ahhh that's more like it" territory..

Then 5 mins up the road from helmsley the sodding bike lost power and I was stranded from 11:45 on saturday morning til the recovery truck turned up at 17:30...

that's my favorite corner just up there in the distance..

The bike had started stuttering about 5 mins after we left helmsley, then lost power altogether. Turning the ignition did cause the fuel injection to prime, and the solenoid on the starter circuit was clicking under the riders seat when the start button was pressed, but the starter motor wasn't turning over. No alarms or immobilisers fitted.

We borrowed some jump leads from the farm down the road and tried jumping it off my dads bmw 1150 (rs/gt/k - can't remember, looks like a big white police bike).. Nothing. Zero phone signal on o2 but luckily my dad was on vodafone with 4 bars. AA guy turned up after 90 minutes and it flattened his booster pack completely.

He reckoned a new battery would sort it so we raced off to thirsk (30 mins away) and returned just over an hour later with a new battery but minus £69.. Installed, still same issues as before, solenoid clicking, injection priming, no turning of the motor.

Tried with booster pack again (recharged over the last 2 hours of facking about). Still nothing. Tried hitting the starter motor with a socket extension whilst thumbing the start button. Nowt.

Tried bumping it off in 1st, 2nd and 3rd, all of which locked the rear wheel (even with 18.5 stone of me bouncing on it when letting the clutch out). Tried it in 6th and for about 2 seconds the engine fired up, then cut out again.

That was about 3:15 - the AA guy was very apologetic (top guy, same sense of humour as our little group, full on petrol head and into his mountain bikes) and called for recovery. I told my dad and my mate Ben to get themselves off since they were just wasting their own time and it would get dark soon. So off they went with their phone signal and their nice reliable bikes.. Time for a bit of soul searching. And dancing on the spot to keep warm. Then lying under a hedge to keep out of the wind..

Finally got recovered as per picture above.

Spoken to my mate Dave the auto electrician. He reckons starter circuit could have shorted out, in which case it would drain the battery quickly and cause the issues we've had above (even with a booster pack).

Failing that he reckons the starter motor could have jammed in the 'engaged' position in helmsley, in which case the engine was running and the starter was still going thus drawing a massive whack of power from the battery whilst riding along..

Then when we've been trying to start it the, the starter motor has now completely worn out..

Any other ideas as to what could have caused this? It's going into York Suzuki tomorrow..

Honestly thats the spit of what happen when the reg/rec fried on the SV.

Bummer about the day out I know you were desperate for a hoon. If I may say so though, a young mechanic called Chirs who hales from Yorkshire would be able to diagnose and with the exception of a parts catalouge be able to fix that for a lot less than a dealer.

[Paul the 6th]

well as soon as we stopped and I got my helmet off I was saying "reg rec reg rec reg rec" like something off the shining. The AA mechanic said the reg rec wouldn't stop it from firing with the booster pack etc. but the fact the battery was replaced and it's not fixed it suggests it could be something like that. Would busted reg/rec also stop it from bump starting?

PM'd YC a link to this thread. How much are reg/recs? Is it just a straight swap out?

The AA guys likely to know a bit more about it than I am but its the "unable to bump" bit which made me instantly jump to that assumption.

I've had one go on the curvy and on the DRZ, neither of those could be bumped or boosted and they toasted any battery put near them. I was fortunate to have spares in both situations which allowed me to test the swap before buying a part but as its all in the same ciruit Im sure you'd have had to investigate it at anyway.

Assuming its the same/similar set up as the SV its bolted the to frame and has 5 wires via 2 connectors leaving it. If you can find it remove it and disconnect it then thats all the labour involved the part is in the £50 region.
Do yourself a favour though and do the direct power from the rr to the battery when you replace it, its a little bit of wiring but its much more efficent way of wiring the bike up.

[Paul the 6th]

coolio, well the reg rec I *think* is in the nearside of the tail unit and it takes about 5 minutes to get the bodywork off. Still thinking of getting it down to York Suzuki for them to play around with, reasoning being that I've already junked £69 on a battery, I could happily buy in a reg/rec for another £50, replace that and if it still doesn't run then I'm no better off.

Atleast if the bike is in the workshop and they can call me and say "yeah it's xxxx part which needs replacing" at that point I can get the bike back from them (obviously a bit of labour cost incurred) and I can sort it myself for cheaper from there.. Kind of paying for them to diagnose it.

If it does turn out the starter or whatever is shagnatized then they can just crack on and get it done quicker than me. Still waiting on YC.

bad times.

I wasnt saying buying a new RR is the the way to go, you can diagnose and isolate the fault to find if it before needing to spend a penny but York Suzuki will charge for this work. That goes in an invoice, then they tell you its gonna be ££££ for xx and charge you again for swapping and rebuilding. You can do most this stuff yourself for nowt or with YC for his rate which will always be less than a dealers.

I'd be YC would be able to get you back on the road quicker as well.

Originally Posted by Paul the 6th

Still waiting on YC.

He's up to his eyeballs in van parts atm outside in the drizzle, will pass the message on when he's done

Bad luck on the bike front. I need a new reg rec too, bloody things! Although I apparently have a good choice of different model ones to shop for which I would assume is the case for you too.

[Paul the 6th]

Originally Posted by Owenski

I wasnt saying buying a new RR is the the way to go, you can diagnose and isolate the fault to find if it before needing to spend a penny but York Suzuki will charge for this work. That goes in an invoice, then they tell you its gonna be ££££ for xx and charge you again for swapping and rebuilding. You can do most this stuff yourself for nowt or with YC for his rate which will always be less than a dealers.

I'd be YC would be able to get you back on the road quicker as well.

How would I go about testing the reg/rec to see if it's bugggered? I can happily strip bits down etc.

There is a read me on here somewhere for checking the RR but there are loads of online walkthroughs for checking the charging circuit.
You'll need a multimeter and some methodical patience, for the sake of it I'd be removing as much as possible before taking it to a garage just so its less ot be charged for plus its the only way you can be certain its all properly copperslipped etc at rebuild.