The Official Tour Photos

Setting Off and Meeting Up With the Group

There were 4 of us going on the first section and we were meeting another 2 from the US in Landeck, Austria.  It was to be an early start as the train was booked for just after 7:00 am and we needed to complete about 450 miles from  Calais to Karlsruhe in Germany where we were booked into the Novotel.

 

I kept up with the crew and enjoyed the motorway blast.

The next day we set off for Landeck in Austria. We had booked into a motor cycle hotel there called the Hotel Enzian.

Windshield On and Final Test Drives Before the Trip

After the suspension servicing, I took the bike for another high speed spin.  And the wallowing was still there, although with the thicker fork oil, it was reduced.  I came back and added another 25cc of oil mixture to each fork leg and took off again.  This time the wallowing was almost gone.  Much better.

My touring windscreen arrived and went straight on:

It has an adjustable section with about 5 inches of up and down movement so you can tune it to your preference.

And the new thicker fork oil is staying inside the forks.  I did do the seal cleaning trick with a piece of plastic.

Getting Ready to Ride

Only 2 days to go now before I set off for my 2,500 mile trip to France, Germany, Austria, Italy and home.  I'm just hoping that I will not have any failures that will hold up the rest of the group on their modern BMWs.  So a few more things to do.  First off was to drain the fork oil and replace it.

I was surprised to discover varying amounts of oil in the 2 legs.  One side had 290 cc and the other had 325 cc. But one side has always appeared slightly oilier on the stanchion, which may account for it.  New seals are clearly needed.

Firstly I replaced the oil with standard 10W fork oil.  I took the bike for a ride and nearly ended up with a serious tank slapper.  The handing had deteriorated considerably.  With some helpful advice I decided to change out the 10W oil for a mix of 50/50 10W-40W and ATF.  

This is what this concoction looks like:

I made absolutely sure the correct amount was in each leg.  It doesn't taste very good:

I also checked the springs against some others I had and they look good.  Still up to length:

I then also swopped over the rear suspension with a newly refurbished set of air shocks off a latter model GS1100G.

Mods For Long Distance Ride

I'm off to Italy on this little baby in September for a 2,500 mile round trip.  I want to make this machine as comfortable as possible.  So I got some rear sets (to make the riding position more comfortable) and some bar end weights (to stop the handlebar vibrations) and I added a fuel filter to stop the rusting tank gumming up the carbs again.

 

 In the good old days Rassk rear-sets where the bees knees.  Without reading any current reviews I ordered a set directly from Sweden.  Have to say the quality is very disappointing and the fitting was terrible.  Bit of a hash up really.  No proper instructions and all sorts of palava getting them set up.  But at least they put the pegs back enough to make a more comfortable riding position especially as the bars are quite straight.

 

The bar end weights were a delight.  It turned out that one of them was also engineered to be a cruise control as well.  I never knew that when I bought it.

And a cheapo Chineses fuel filter to keep the rust out of my lovely carbs.

Next up is a windshield and another set of exhaust pipes and headers.  Quieter ones without leaks.

Wiring Damage

And here is the wiring that needs fixing.  How far up does the damage go?

 It's the Black and White wire that ends up with a lug fixing on one of the battery box bolts.

New Meter Readings

With the new rectifier and some extra grounds installed, I re-tested the voltage of the battery under different conditions:

My results are:

1).  Key off: 12.78v
2).  Key on:  12.18v (headlamp on)  12.32v (headlamp off)
3).  At idle:   13.2v (at 1,100 rpm)
4).  At 2,500 rpm:  13.83v
5).  At 4,500 rpm:  14.05v
6).  Key Off:  12.90v

These readings are all within prescribed ranges.  And I therefore certify the bike as fixed for now.

I now need to look further into the wiring which shows some wires as burnt.

New Rectifier Installed

So I ordered an new pattern part rectifier/regulator and this one arrived:

 Made by Electrosport.  It has all the correct wires and connectors so it is plug and play.  And now we know where those flow diagrams on GS Resources come from.

Sorry about the rusty battery box.  This is my road runner and it needs to be on the road.  I have no time to sort it out.  I needed some longer bolts which I found laying around and it's ready to go back on the bike.

Just in case you doubt that I am bothered; here is the one for my nuts and bolts resto:This is what is should look like - right?

Putting it all back together I came across this abomination (click on image to enlarge):

 It looks like it has overheated at some point.

 Nasty piece of work.  And I see it is grounded on the rubber washer of the battery holder.  I have done tons or reading around this subject (rectifiers and wiring problems) on the forums and the technical manuals and it seems that the positioning of this wire was the manufacturers design.  Can't say it looks well grounded to me.  I will be installing some of the extra grounds that are recommended and removing the stator loop that goes to the headlight switch.

Rectifier / Regulator Testing For Dummies

I couldn't figure any of this out so I researched it on YouTube and this is the definitive video of how these bits of kit work and how to test them:

I set up my own test and tested the rectifier off my Dad's bike (which I assumed was OK since it was working 10 years ago) and my Road Runner bike which is not charging it's battery.  Both of these rectifiers has a red and black leads and 3 other leads which are the loads. (click to enlarge)

These tests proved that my Road Runner rectifier is toast.  On 2 of the phases there is no current flow in either direction.  This is consistent with these 2 diodes being burned out and thus breaking the circuit.  It is also possible for diodes to break down and allow a voltage drop in both directions.  That would be a fail too.

It also shows that there is a problem with one; the number 3 diode on my Dad's bike as the ground circuit no. 3 diode does not allow a circuit in either direction.

2 new rectifiers are needed.

A Run to Church and Charging Problems

It was a lovely day on Sunday.  Temperatures up to 16 or 17 deg C.  So the bike came out and we went for a spin in the lovely Kent (UK) countryside.  I always wanted to stop and look at the church at Godmersham so I thought I would pay my respects.

I was very lucky that this church was at the top of hill.  After driving for an hour and stopping for 10 minutes, I went to start the bike and ..........

SCREAM !!!

The battery was almost dead.  Oh no not the dreaded stator / regulator / rectifier problem.  All Suzuki GS bikes eventually succumb.

I managed to roll down the hill and start the bike before I hit the main road by putting it in 2nd gear and bumping it.  And furthermore, I managed to get the 5 miles home without it cutting out on me.

A huge feeling of dread engulfed me; I was going to have to read the Stator Papers.  This is a monumentally exhaustive set of papers about how the Suzuki stators (generators) work, why they fail and how to fix them.  Anything electrical gives me a headache.  This was not going to be very much fun. 

I started on the Stator Tests (click to enlarge):

All I could get on this set of tests was a steady 13.4 volts when engine off and the same when it ran - whatever revs it was at.  So I went onto section B of the Stator Tests:

 

I am not a proficient multi-meter user (much prefer the old ones with a gauge) so I get confused with settings, which holes to plug the leads in, which is + and which is - and the difference between a reading of 1 and a reading of -1.  I couldn't get any readings to work on this test so I immediately assumed the stator was toast.

I am privileged to own 2 Suzuki GS1100Gs so my reasoning went that I could at least switch stators or use the other one as a test rig.  So I took them both out of their motors.

The one on the right is original (I know because I have had the bike since new) and the one on the left looks like it has a different (replacement?) type of stator installed.

And I did all the tests again.  I started on the one I knew was good.

 And then tested the other one I suspected had failed.

Having not got readings like this whilst the suspect stator was on the bike, I was surprised to find that all the readings were around 0.9 which is well with the prescribed range 0.5 to 2 ohms.  Don't know why it wasn't looking like that when it was on the bike.  Perhaps I had the wrong multi-meter setting or I wasn't getting a good connection.

So now it looks like the stator is OK. I would still like to see the thing kick out some volts when it was running to completely convince me though.  Before I put it back in  I will move onto the regulator/rectifier.