09-13-2014, 11:16 AM
(09-13-2014, 01:08 AM)The Spaceman_imp Wrote: I think the guy was terrified the bike would die on him, and that's why he kept going. Good for you to help either way.
"Pegging" a bike home is a technique we used many times back in the bad old days of AMF Harleys. The rider on the running bike puts his right foot on the left peg of the dead bike and eases forward till both are rolling. It's hard to get going, but a cinch once under way.
Another trick is to swap batteries from a running bike to a dead bike. We got my friend's XL home from Key West that way when his bike stopped charging. The battery would last 70-80 miles, then we'd pull the charged battery from my bike and put it in his. My FSX would keep running without a battery, but I'm sure that wouldn't work these days with FI systems.
Depends on the type of alternator and voltage regulator design. Some bikes run just fine without a battery, others not so much.
One of my old KZ750s hadn't been started for awhile and there was no battery installed. I thought I'd just jump it from my truck by attaching the cables to the bike's positive and negative cables. The bike started fine. When I removed the cables, I thought I detected the lights getting brighter. I gave it a quick rev and all the lights (head, tail and instrument) suddenly went super bright,,,,just before they all burnt out.
Turns out the regulator design used the battery to sense system voltage. With no battery, the regulator just sent all available electrons from the alternator into the system. That was an expensive lesson in electronics
