The Honch
Active Member
I've had the bike for one week and only put 120 miles on it when the electrical gremlin struck. I received my K9 last Wednesday, rode it that day and then I had to go on the road for work till the following Tuesday. Anyway Tuesday after work my Wife and I thought we'd go for a ride before some bad weather comes rolling in. At the half way point of our ride, I noticed I lost my RPM gauge and then about 2 miles from home we hit a pot hole and the bike died. Luckily I was able to coast off the road into a parking lot. Of course I had no tools on me and the only thing the bike would do is light up the speedometer. I ended up calling some friends who showed up with a trailer. After we got the bike in position I straddled the bike while on the trailer until my friends strapped it down. Unbelievably, as I was lifting my leg off the bike one of the ratchet straps broke loose and just as the bike was about 2 inches from smashing the tank onto the iron cross bar on the side of the trailer, I was able to stop the bike (pure adrenaline). Amazingly I wasn't hurt, as I was holding quite a bit of weight at an awkward angle. The bike unfortunately did suffer a little damage. The strap hook ripped my turn signal cable off and put a very small dig on the forks aluminum cross member. I can tell you, I was not relaxed until the bike made it back to my house safe and sound. That night, I couldn't sleep for shit , as all I could think about was this expensive/awesome bike I just bought and doesn't even start. On days off I normally sleep till 8:30,but not this particular morning. I was up at 7AM and by 7:30 I was in my garage armed with coffee and my laptop with my browser set to BigDogBiker. And I'm happy to say I was able to get the Dog running again in a few hours.:2thumbs: I actually had two problems. I had corrosion on my master solenoid relay (plus it wasn't seated properly) and the battery was bad. Initially I took the battery to AutoZone and they said it tested as good, so I just bought a battery tender. The battery had a voltage of 12.5 V, which I seen some people on here say that's not gonna cut it for these 117" motors. Anyway, after about 10 minutes on the tender the indicator is saying the battery is fully charged. I try to fire the K9 up and all it does is click. I immediately go back to AutoZone and get a new battery. I check it, and it's sitting at 12.5V just like my old one. Instead of letting it charge for awhile (I have no patience) I figure I'll fire it up. It was rough, but the new battery got it rocking and my baby was purring like a kitten again.
And now that my new battery was sitting on the charger all night, it fires right up no problem. I just wanted to say, this site was instrumental in helping me troubleshoot my chopper and even though I wasn't looking for it, it was a good learning experience :2thumbs:
And now that my new battery was sitting on the charger all night, it fires right up no problem. I just wanted to say, this site was instrumental in helping me troubleshoot my chopper and even though I wasn't looking for it, it was a good learning experience :2thumbs:
Go Curtis
:2thumbs:
