Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater
The starter is dead. Long live the starter!
This weekend was a WMRRA race weekend, and Jesse was in full force, turning in a 2:13.9 lap as his best (that's better than his previous best). I was also there, to film things, as has been my wont since he started racing.
Of course, to film something properly, you really need the proper gear: camera, tripod, etc. For a day-long event, it also makes sense to bring suitable refreshment: a small cooler with drinks and refrigerables; other, less frigophyllic foods; reasonable quantities of water. One also needs certain other supplies to protect from excessive sunlight exposure: hat, sunscreen, umbrella, what have you.
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that it's a big wad of stuff, and it's more than really fits on a solo motorcycle. Enter the sidecar rig. Perfect!
So I rode the sidecar rig down on Saturday, and filmed my heart out. It was great. As is usual these days, the bike's starter was slow, a gentle prodding reminder that I needed to pull it soon and see what all I could fix up.
On Sunday morning, I loaded up the sidecar again. Hat, cooler, water bottle, bag, camera, tripod. Certainly not a full load, but really more than I wanted to try carrying on a bike. I rolled the rig out and locked up the garage.
I turned the key, pulled on the choke lever (ah, that new choke lever is so much better than the old one, thought I), and hit the starter button. Ck! LLLrrrrrrRRRRrrrrr. Hmm. That's not right.
I hit it again, greeted by the same slow, pained groan. Uh-oh, looks like my battery really is dying. Crap!
I opened the garage back up and grabbed the battery charger, which also has the handy 50A "engine start" feature. Tried again, pumping 50 fat amps into the battery. Ck! LLLlrrrrrRRRrrrrr.... rrr... Silence. Uh-oh. I tried again, just to be sure that what I thought had happened had really happened. Ck! mmmmmmmm. Oh.
Yep, the starter is gone. Rest in peace, old starter. Most likely, it welded itself together after 23ish years of use gradually loosened everything up, increasing internal resistance until it was pulling way too much current, heating up, and eventually destroying itself.
So, I'm now on a quest to find a replacement starter, since I suspect the one I have isn't rebuildable. Ick. At least it croaked at home, instead of down at Pacific Raceways. Thanks for small favors, little starter.
Posted at 13:28 permanent link category: /motorcycle
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater