I'm new! ...and I have a small question...

Hello SV650!

Friend of mine told me to come here - says its a sweet biker forum, so here I am.

I passed my DAS last week, went and bought a 1996 Suzuki Bandit 600S. Very sweet machine, loving it. Love filtering through the londinium traffic, gone are the days of sitting endlessly in a car on Hanger Lane. Sweet.

However today I had a wierd problem with the bike. I had just left Ascot and it was chucking it down, I joined the low visibility M3 heading north, off onto the M25 eastbound when I left the slip road the bike lost power in 6th gear and wouldnt get above 4000rpm. Speed was ebbing off rapidly so I left on the Chertsey exit and pulled into the layby there. When I pulled the clutch in at the roundabout the bike stalled. I fired her up and pulled into the layby she stalled again.

I had a good look around the bike, no obvious fluid leaks but I suspect she overheated (no temp guage on the bandit). I sat back puzzled and getting progressively wetter and waited for the bike to cool down. Did notice some small bubbles in the oil view window whatsit. After cooling down she fired straight back up and I nursed her home to Richmond stopping occasionally to let it cool just in case. Didnt experience the power loss again, even after a long-ish 10 mile ride up the A316.

I overfilled the oil a bit yesterday, but then burnt up the M3 from southampton with no problems - 170mile round trip yesterday and she was singing. I know shes oil cooled could the overfill be an issue to cause overheating? Ive used a small hand pump to remove some of the excess oil from the sump. Gonna have a ride later to see what gives.

Anyone have any thoughts on what this could be? Have I bought a duffer of a bike for my first?? *sob.

Anyway nice to meet you all, appreciate any comments.

Red

Hello, cant help you with your problem and I wont offer you any bad advice, was the bike soaking wet at the time?

Hi there nice to meet you!

Yeah the bike was drenched it was chucking it down. Ive just noticed that the rubber cap type things on the spark plugs are not secured in properly. Maybe some water got into a plug or something.

Of course having the mechanical mind of a small child doesnt help me with my novice diagnosis does it?

Red

It sound very much like you had a short due to the water. Search on Front cylinder on here the solution should be the same.

Its a Bandit, Nuff sed.....


But seriously i havent got a clue, sounds bit weird. Oh and welcome to the Madhouse

i had something like that happen with my old xj600 tried to overtake lorry on motorway lots of spray, speed decreased rapidly moved to hard shoulder and it stalled. Cut a long story short once had dried off started fine and went perfect all the rest of the way. Took to mechanic, i had a faulty high tension lead to start with look like previous owner had cut it then just sort of duck taped it back on, also water was sitting in spark plug holders. So new high tension lead and sprayed lots of water repellent job done no more problem in rain. Hope this is of some help

http://forums.sv650.org/showpost.php...8&postcount=18

This answer may help you.

Welcome, you're from round my way! Cool. I would say that it was probably was something to do with water, used to happen on my SV but never happened on my Bandit. Still, stranger things and all that.

just to offer another view if the bike had been stood a while before you bought it or if it was only used to short runs the engine can get condensation in, if you get a milky fatty looking substance in your oil this could be the fault a long run could cure it or at worst a good clean out.

Well, well thats interesting, perhaps she wasnt overheating at all. I'll pop those caps back on and grease em up. Thanks very much to all of you!

Red