Like popcorn

[Valkorado]

The way Ruby's popping fuses.

Had a BigBF horn system installed.  Couple days ago I was riding by the lake and came upon a group of sheep chowing down on the grasses by the road.  I was gonna blow 'em away from the road, so to speak.  NO JOY when I pressed the horn button and heard nothing.

Thinking it was a fuse, I switched out the 15a inline fuse and tried again.  POP!  Looked over wiring, nothing obvious.  Tried a 20a.  Pow, with a visible spark in the fuse.  25a, no go.  Should I try 30?  Sure, why not?  POP!

The garage queen Silver Bullet also has a Big BF horn.  Come to think of it that one was installed by the man himself in Spearfish.  I looked at that setup, similar except it was rigged with the positive power coming off the big fusible fuse.  I've never had any problem with that setup.

So, now I'm thinking I'll duplicate that and try the fusible link for Ruby's horns.  Anyone else seen horns or accessories running directly from that big fuse?  Any reason I shouldn't give it a try?

[hubcapsc]

Everything on my bike runs through a single fuse box (breaker box really)
that is made hot by a relay hooked to the accessory wire behind the side
panel. I hate the idea of splicing in at arbitrary places.

When my bike was popping various fuses, I studied the wiring diagram
in the manual and traced down all the places that circuit went. I found
a shorted out place where I'd pinched a wire with my windshield bracket.

So... I'd guess that if your stuff was wired fine before, it is still fine, and
maybe you need to look for a short somewhere.



-Mike

PS - I saw on the innernet that hwy 50 has lots of construction between
Gunnison and Montrose. Do you hear stuff about that?

-Mike

[..]

Everything on my bike runs through a single fuse box (breaker box really)
that is made hot by a relay hooked to the accessory wire behind the side
panel. I hate the idea of splicing in at arbitrary places.

When my bike was popping various fuses, I studied the wiring diagram
in the manual and traced down all the places that circuit went. I found
a shorted out place where I'd pinched a wire with my windshield bracket.

So... I'd guess that if your stuff was wired fine before, it is still fine, and
maybe you need to look for a short somewhere.



-Mike

PS - I saw on the innernet that hwy 50 has lots of construction between
Gunnison and Montrose. Do you hear stuff about that?

-Mike

For what it's worth Google Maps shows something happening west of the Hwy 92 junction with 50.

[..]

https://www.us50info.com/

https://www.codot.gov/projects/us-50-little-blue-creek-canyon


I'll be using 50 on my way home but coming down 92 to head east.

[hubcapsc]

92 looks great. Valkorado said that 149 was clear, he went down
to Lake City the other day.  Maybe I should put a route into
the BFGPS for that!

-Mike

[..]

92 looks great. Valkorado said that 149 was clear, he went down
to Lake City the other day.  Maybe I should put a route into
the BFGPS for that!

-Mike

Watch out for 2 BIG saddleback hogs south of Crawford on 92. They nearly killed me about 10 years AGO . 

[Valkorado]

Yeah major construction in just a few miles patch has really goobered things up 'tween Montrose and Gunni.  Of course traffic can divert via 92, but that just makes it thick and has trashed that road worse than it ever was.  Big semis on Hwy. 92 have even had some jackknifing issues too.  Most truck drivers are aware of this now and make other plans.  I'm figuring when the construction is over, they'll have some major repairs to do on 92, too.

Tip.  From 5:30pm Fridays to 8:30am Mondays they open up the highway for weekend traffic, but on weekdays they're only letting limited traffic through and you can expect a good long wait.

[Valkorado]

?.  If it's blowing inline fuses from power to the relay, could that indicate a bad relay?  I hate electrical stuff.

[Valkorado]

Yep.  It was a bad 5-way relay.

[Valkorado]

Bizarre!  Ruby's horn that blew my ears off in the garage didn't sound so loud on the road.  Sure enough, it's the stocker horn going, but the BigBF horns still aren't up.  Oh boy, more electrical tinkering ahead...  Still the stock horn is better than no horn at all like it was.  Slightly.  It's better than yelling, anyway.

And now back to the Silver Bullet.  She's no longer a garage queen!!!   I think.  I got to hear her sweet roaring growl again today.
Entailed going back underneath the ol' octopus.  K&L petcock.  Some new fuel lines.  Everything heading downward, fuel wise. Seems good.
But...

Her rear (truck) tar has a slow leak, and with some decent tread left I hope I can salvage it.  Sprayed some soapy water around the stem, not seeing any obvious bubbling.  No signs of a foreign object or puncture, but the tire did have a dose of Ride-On when installed.  Should I spray more soap water around the rim, or around whole tire?  Matters not much, I won't be able to fix it meself or wouldn't trust it if I did but I'm curious.  Never ridden a patch, and not sure I want to unless it's the only option to get back on the road.

One other great thing about that 8-ply Zeetex truck tar.  Over a month ago I was trying to move the Bullet after a long hibernation and she wouldn't budge.  I was surprised to see that tire was pretty much pancaked, but the bike was standing firm and solid on the kickstand.  Aired it back up.  The (steel) stem's nut seemed loose, and I tightened it back to a medium firm.

Anyway today she was not looking flat, but registered only 20 pounds.  I aired her back to 41.  

Man I wanna get her out bad she's my hot rod and a (not so) cheap thrill, but I'm not sure how fast that tire's goin' down.  BTW, this Zeetex LTT handles a LOT of pressure, so 41 is pretty low according to spec, believe it or not...

Edit:  Got the Bullet out into the 79° perfection.  Was good to see both tire pressures rising instead of the rear falling on the TPMS!  Bikes area heckuva lot more fun when they're running.  A few sputters on the low end, think I can work them out.  Running some ChemTool thru the tank manyana.

[0leman]

Valkorado, Glad to hear you got most of your problems solved.  Hopefully you can get your Z tire patched or whatever is causing the leak fixed.  Good riding season is here.

Been running the Z tire for a little over 6K miles.  Still look like it did when I installed it.  Yeah, 40-41 lbs. works for me. 

[Valkorado]

Valkorado, Glad to hear you got most of your problems solved.  Hopefully you can get your Z tire patched or whatever is causing the leak fixed.  Good riding season is here.

Been running the Z tire for a little over 6K miles.  Still look like it did when I installed it.  Yeah, 40-41 lbs. works for me. 

"Good riding season is here."

   And none too soon, it's been an "unsettled" spring for sure.

Yes.  It sure felt good getting out on the Silver Bullet again.  This riding season will be a bit different at $25+ bucks a tank, but I am so happy I didn't have to look into towing her to a $tealer.  Maybe the gas prices will keep me off the throttle so much.  Or not.