So, in our quest to give Gabriel's XLX350R lights, we went downtown
last saturday to look for the voltage regulator. Turned out that I, in
my ignorance, mixed up the bikes. His bike does not have three yellow.
It has one pink, one white and one yellow. He needs two different
parts, one is the regulator/rectifier and other is only regulator,
with one wire connected to the white wire and other directly to earth.
Also, I bought a new starter relay to try to solve the problem that
bike does not charge battery and also a new spark plug, just
because...
Gabriel's wife was bugging him a long time to take her on the trail.
But, as you know, women likes to have another of theirs around, she
convinced Gabriel - and myself - to take Gabriel's sister to the
trail, and that had to me me to take her... oh well... It is not
uncommon around here, during summer, a rider takes his wife/girlfriend
to a ride. It is easy this time of the year, there are lots of fruits
on the trail, the beaches are full, there's almost no chance of rain
and it's summer after all. I've taken girlfriends before, but never
someone that I barely knew... I am Gabriel friend for quite a few
years, but I never stoped to talk more than 10 minutes with his
sister.
Saturday we also tried to raise the needle on Gabriel's bike. He
replaced his much valuable mechanical carburetor for a vacuum carb
from the newer NX350 dual sport bike. Advantage it does not hang like
the old worn mechanical does, but who ever owned a bike with vacuum
carb know it is inferior. Gabriel arrived at my home with Eduardo (has
the newer NX350, but completelly adapted to off road), his wife, his
sister and a bike that barely ran. We removed the washer that was
under the needle and had to clean up the spark plug, it was covered in
black soot.
Gabriel's sister is nice to carry along. She weights about 52kg and I
weight 62kg. Combined weight is less than Eduardo (118kg).
It wasn't long to my bike start to miss and finally die. We removed
carb, thinking that was it. Removing a carb that does not fit on it's
place. I think it is easier to remove carb if we remove the engine
first... After cleaning, bike fired right up. A couple meters later,
missing again and died. I disassembled lots of wire connections and
looked and looked... The handlebar electric switches quit working... I
was ready to set the bike on fire with it's own gasoline, when I
decided to short circuit the starter relay and bike started! Great.
On the first obstacle, going out from the paved road and climbing a
hill. I was first. Bike missed a few times, threatened not climbing...
But did it. Just after crossing a river over the train track bridge,
bike died again. That's when I figured it out. The yellow/red wire
that goes to the starter relay was disconnecting. I connected again
and it disconnected itself again after about 20 minutes. Then I cut
the wire and twisted the wire directly to the starter relay connector.
No more trouble.
We met a group of people we more or less know. They were at zombie
woods, stopped, don't know why. One of the guys was with his wife too.
We merged our groups and headed to the grass hill, a nice climb, this
time of the year it is great because it is dry...
When I arrived, two guys were already up there. The rest of the group
were waiting. I had a passenger, but I had a good bike... I got up
there with no trouble. Rest of group followed. The second "step" of
the hill climb is more chanlenging, but everybody climbed up ok.
A rest stop to eat some chicken and clams and we were again on our
way. Eduardo had a crash, he went too fast over a mud puddle and hurt
his hip. Oh well... He was in a lot of pain. We decided to skip some
sections of the ride and return straight home. Then, Gabriel crashed,
alone, lucky his wife. Then he crashed again, this time with the wife,
who hit her knee on the ground and took quite a time to recover...
After arriving home, we went to a bar and drank a million bottles of
beer, with beef and pasta...
No pictures, I forgot to charge the batteries....
Well, Gabriel's
sister is not that hot, she definatelly needs a cheeseburger or four.
-- Tiago
FAQ
Search
Profile
Private Messages
Log in/Register/Password
