Jealous Lover?

[adamod_imp]

My 2017 has been out no less than once a week (average ride is 100 miles, odometer is 7k) since buying brand new 2 years ago. The last three weeks CB has sat in the garage unused. Today I jumped on turned the key and found a dead battery. Charged it, started it and the engine sounded like Patti and Selma after singing We Love To Smoke. Water spewed from the pipes. CEL came on and revving beyond 6k was not possible. Turned it off and left it alone. 20 minutes later it; started immediately, sounded great, no CEL, revving was at my command. Then, took it out for 80 miles with no complications.
What happened?
What did I do wrong/right?
Does this beast need to be turned/ridden everyday to stay happy?
Do I have a jealous lover on my hands?

 

[Cormanus]

Welcome to the forum, adamod. Have you?

I’m not surprised the battery was flat; it could well be 4 years old by now. The rest of it sounds odd to me. I’ve left mine sitting around for more than 3 weeks on more than one occasion with no negative results. Some members lay their bikes up for months over winter with no ill effects.

 

[alprider]

btw.

by cold oil and engine....revs 6000 and more ? is this a must ? i drive first any minutes..

what means CEL ?

 

[tod.branko_imp]

CEL means Check Engine Light.

Many modern vehicles get little electric gremlins after the battery has been tampered with or changed or disconnected/reconnected, that's why you'll see very often that workshops will swap batteries with engine running.
The ECU reset and started back normally. You could take it to an OBD, and give the bike a once-over coils, plugs, compression test etc.
Though if it was running normally afterwards, chances are everything is ok

Good luck!

'14 CB1100 STD 5 speed

 

[pdedse]

My 2017 has been out no less than once a week (average ride is 100 miles, odometer is 7k) since buying brand new 2 years ago. The last three weeks CB has sat in the garage unused. Today I jumped on turned the key and found a dead battery. Charged it, started it and the engine sounded like Patti and Selma after singing We Love To Smoke. Water spewed from the pipes. CEL came on and revving beyond 6k was not possible. Turned it off and left it alone. 20 minutes later it; started immediately, sounded great, no CEL, revving was at my command. Then, took it out for 80 miles with no complications.
What happened?
What did I do wrong/right?
Does this beast need to be turned/ridden everyday to stay happy?
Do I have a jealous lover on my hands?

You bought the bike.

My 2017 has been out no less than once a week (average ride is 100 miles, odometer is 7k) since buying brand new 2 years ago. The last three weeks CB has sat in the garage unused. Today I jumped on turned the key and found a dead battery. Charged it, started it and the engine sounded like Patti and Selma after singing We Love To Smoke. Water spewed from the pipes. CEL came on and revving beyond 6k was not possible. Turned it off and left it alone. 20 minutes later it; started immediately, sounded great, no CEL, revving was at my command. Then, took it out for 80 miles with no complications.
What happened?
What did I do wrong/right?
Does this beast need to be turned/ridden everyday to stay happy?
Do I have a jealous lover on my hands?

=

My 2017 has been out no less than once a week (average ride is 100 miles, odometer is 7k) since buying brand new 2 years ago. The last three weeks CB has sat in the garage unused. Today I jumped on turned the key and found a dead battery. Charged it, started it and the engine sounded like Patti and Selma after singing We Love To Smoke. Water spewed from the pipes. CEL came on and revving beyond 6k was not possible. Turned it off and left it alone. 20 minutes later it; started immediately, sounded great, no CEL, revving was at my command. Then, took it out for 80 miles with no complications.
What happened?
What did I do wrong/right?
Does this beast need to be turned/ridden everyday to stay happy?
Do I have a jealous lover on my hands?

You answered your "wrong" question with another question of your own. Everyday, no, but mine seems to prefer not sitting for extended periods. Others will chime in and tell you they let theirs sit for long periods with no startup issues.

My 2017 has been out no less than once a week (average ride is 100 miles, odometer is 7k) since buying brand new 2 years ago. The last three weeks CB has sat in the garage unused. Today I jumped on turned the key and found a dead battery. Charged it, started it and the engine sounded like Patti and Selma after singing We Love To Smoke. Water spewed from the pipes. CEL came on and revving beyond 6k was not possible. Turned it off and left it alone. 20 minutes later it; started immediately, sounded great, no CEL, revving was at my command. Then, took it out for 80 miles with no complications.
What happened?
What did I do wrong/right?
Does this beast need to be turned/ridden everyday to stay happy?
Do I have a jealous lover on my hands?

Yes.

OK, seriously...I have noticed on two occasions (the past couple of winters) with my '17ex that after letting it sit for 3+ weeks, it kind of sputtered on initial start-up, died, then would not start. Both times it was in the middle of winter with temperatures in the low 30s. I waited an hour or two and then the next time bike started no problems, ran fine just as always. This winter I'm half expecting it to do the same. My battery is on a tender when garaged, so it wasn't the battery as bike started later without issues and no problems with subsequent startups. I am still on the original battery. I should add: my bike has sat for 7 weeks and started right up, but temps were in the low 50s...so it doesn't always exhibit "bad behavior" just from sitting.

I think cold temps and bike sitting does something to mine...what, I have no idea.

 

[zirconxi_imp]

Mine also hard to start when left sitting for more than a week. It would take more than 1 or 2 crank before the bike will start running. But once running its fine. And if I keep the bike up and running every day, she will run without any problem.

 

[GoldOxide_imp]

Welcome to the Forum adamod.

Congrats on your CB1100 and it sounds like it just needed to be awoken. Beware, as Cormanus in a way remarks, prepare to replace the battery.

 

[Charlie Bravo_imp]

Modern bikes are full of electronic gremlins, as are cars. Whenever I have to disconnect a battery, I alligator-clip leads from a charger to the cables so there is always 12.7 volts on the system.

 

[j3gq_imp]

Modern bikes are full of electronic gremlins, as are cars. Whenever I have to disconnect a battery, I alligator-clip leads from a charger to the cables so there is always 12.7 volts on the system.

Total surprise. I connected and disconnected my battery many times, without any precautions, without any problems. This shouldn't be a problem ever, not for the ECU, not for the rest of the bike. Could it be that isn't about the battery, and all about sort-of-low / fluctuating voltages in the system, or spikes during boot depending on load ?

How would this come about ? grounding problems, corrosion, other ? I don't know, but certainly not because of the battery, no matter how little charged. MHO

 

[tod.branko_imp]

"When you disconnect the battery on any vehicle that has computerized engine controls (which is virtually every car and truck that has been built since 1981), the loss of voltage to the Powertrain Control Module (PCM) causes it to forget is adaptive memory settings in its Keep Alive Memory (KAM) chip. Adaptive memory contains the adjustments the PCM has learned over time for the fuel mixture, transmission shift points and other control functions. The Keep Alive memory also includes all the results for the diagnostic self-tests the PCM runs on itself, its sensors and emission control components, plus any fault codes that may have been set (including history codes and freeze frame data that may be needed for diagnosis"

This is a quote from a website article, if anyone would like to read the whole thing I'll leave a link

Battery Disconnect Problems

So yes, disconnecting or draining the battery can cause some electronic issues, and I have personally experienced some of them. On cars BMW would flash false codes, Subaru would lose the power windows auto mode. On bikes KTM would not turn off the ABS light, Triumph would idle very rough etc.

I guess if you haven't had any experience with this, you can consider yourself lucky

'14 CB1100 STD 5 speed

 

[j3gq_imp]

very lucky indeed
I don't know enough about the specific Honda design to judge whether any article written by an outsider is applicable here or not. The mentioned article provides for interesting read (thank you !), but it is too general to (let me) conclude whether or not Honda has done a shoddy design or not. What I do know from my line of work is that such problems can easily be avoided by proper design.

Finally, would you hazard a guess why the CB's UM does not mention such risks (p.62 for the 2017 model) ?

 

[tod.branko_imp]

very lucky indeed
I don't know enough about the specific Honda design to judge whether any article written by an outsider is applicable here or not. The mentioned article provides for interesting read (thank you !), but it is too general to (let me) conclude whether or not Honda has done a shoddy design or not. What I do know from my line of work is that such problems can easily be avoided by proper design.

Finally, would you hazard a guess why the CB's UM does not mention such risks (p.62 for the 2017 model) ?

I won't pretend to be an engineer of any sort, I can just share my own experiences and information I have read (quoting the source as you could see)
So why something is not mentioned somewhere would be a stretch for my imagination. I can tell you one thing though, nothing and no one is flawless and perfect, everyone is prone to oversights and mistakes, and Honda, as good as it is, is no different. I have owned at least 7 different Honda motorcycles, two of which I own currently, and I have ridden many more. My experience is that they all their quirks and flaws, so let's not idealize Honda and present it as some kind of an design and engineering champion.
In my opinion, Honda is what it is, when it comes to excellent track record or reliability, because of extremely highly developed manufacturing process and quality control, and keyword there is PRECISE. That is where Honda is superior, everything else is up for grabs

'14 CB1100 STD 5 speed

 

[Houtman_imp]

Having owned at least 15 Honda motor cycles and 3 Honda cars I can say that they are not perfect but more perfect than me as the owner but of course everybody already know this.

 

[j3gq_imp]

@all : batt. charging riddle / if one could not safely disconnect the CB's battery (as this thread suggests), and given that most chargers/minders warn you not to charge the battery without disconnecting first ... how do you charge your battery when needed ? Are you
- ignoring the charger manual, or
- are you all having ECU problems all the time ?

 

[tod.branko_imp]

@all : batt. charging riddle / if one could not safely disconnect the CB's battery (as this thread suggests), and given that most chargers/minders warn you not to charge the battery without disconnecting first ... how do you charge your battery when needed ? Are you
- ignoring the charger manual, or
- are you all having ECU problems all the time ?

Why so extreme? No. Definitely not all the time, but it's something that is possible to happen, and if you take precautions and know what to expect, you have the upper hand. Think of it as popping the blue pill, it's possible to experience blushing, tachycardia, headaches etc., most of the times you won't, but sometimes you will, and it's not the end of the world, just let the ECU reset itself and off you go

'14 CB1100 STD 5 speed

 

[GoldOxide_imp]

The vehicle's primary system is supposed to be already disconnected (i.e. ignition switch is completely off). Connect charger to the battery and then plug in the charger. This is the standard approach. Conversely on removal, unplug the charger, then disconnect the charger from the battery.

If one wishes to remove the battery from the vehicle to charge, that is reasonable too. Ensure the ignition switch is completely off before doing it as well as when restoring the battery to the vehicle.

None said is profound.