| Author | Message | ||
     Fltwistygirl |
So, after a few weeks of not riding, we rolled the bikes out for what we hoped would be a drama free ride. The x fired right up, the xt not so much. Put it on the tender and tried starting, no dice. Finally broke out the spare battery and as Greg was swapping it out, discovered Micky or Minnie had a party with some birdseed under the seat. No visual damage to any wires and it initially fired up using the plan b battery. Greg rode it around the hood to make sure it was OK before turning it over to me and initially it ran fine. However it started losing power in third gear about a half mile from the house so I pulled off on a side street and it was running only on ome cylinder then proceeded to sputter and quit running. It restarted and We swapped bikes for the ride back home. He flogged it and it seemed fine. We won't probably do any troubleshooting till next weekend and he plans to give everything under the seat and airbox a once over. I have heard some rodents enjoy the flavor of the plastic that coats wires so I am hoping its nothing like that. I know this is not the first time rodents have taken up residency in vehicles so wanted to post this and find out if there is anything else to be on lookout for. Check condition of spark plug wires maybe? Meanwhile the birdseed has been relocated and traps have been set. Yuck! | ||
| Tempest766 |
My first fall renting the garage where I keep my bike the same thing happened. I popped the seat to find that sneaky little mouse-es had been chewing on my tail light connectors and generally partying under the seat. I put one of those little gel packs of D-Con poison under there and haven't seen any evidence of them since. A couple weeks ago I took the bike out and the fan was making a serious whiney racket. some large leaves got sucked into the fan scoop and were rubbing the fan blades. I'm still not sure how I'm gonna get them cleaned out without some disassembly. | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
Thanks for the d con packet idea. My former boss said Colorado could be mouse y. If we suspect we may not be riding for a bit maybe that could be a preemptive move. As a side note, when the ecm was relocated it was cushioned with an unused cotton cooking glove. The varmit chewed threw it. I hope the ecm was not involved with critter party time. | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
Oh and could u try to vacuum leaves out? | ||
| Tempest766 |
Hoping you'll take a nice long ride up Poudre Canyon and I can be there vicariously. I miss Colorado so much sometimes...used to live along I25, east of Boulder (Thornton). | ||
| Reepicheep |
Same thing happened to me. Minnie chewed up the tail light and bank angle sensor wiring. | ||
| Uly_man |
It is well known that rodents like the taste of the PVC on wires - bike, car and home. Do not forget to check the sub loom that runs over the rear cylinder head. | ||
| Big_island_rider |
Fltwistygirl, I believe you are in CO part time. Anyway, out at Denver Intl. Airport (DIA) many people would come back from a trip, go to their car in the parking lots try to start it and nothing. It seemed the rabbits out there had a taste for electrical wiring insulation. Happened to my a--hole boss and it cost him $1,500 to get it all fixed.  On an unrelated note, had a buddy store his Harley for the winter and in the spring he tried to start it. It was sputtering and acting weird so he gunned it and two mice, with their nests, came flying out of the exhaust pipes. Both hit the front end of his truck. One crawled away and the other twitched on the ground for a while. Now I do not like to see animals suffer but I will say when he told us that story, we all busted up laughing. | ||
| Uly_man |
What you need is a bike with a CAT in the exhaust? Grooooooooooon, lol. | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
Thanks for the feedback, folks. Its m/c storage season for some of us and this seems to be a bizarre yet another somewhat common issue. "Same thing happened to me. Minnie chewed up the tail light and bank angle sensor wiring." What a pain! Do you do anything to prevent it from happening again? "Hoping you'll take a nice long ride up Poudre Canyon and I can be there vicariously. I miss Colorado so much sometimes...used to live along I25, east of Boulder (Thornton)." Rist to Stove Prairie to Poudre is a favorite loop of our. I gopro-ed that trek a couple months back and hope to have my tech-savvy child help me dub a soundtrack over it and upload to youtube, maybe over Christmas (especially if the snow situation here remains lame). Then you can re-live that ride! If you don't mind asking, why did you leave? People complain about how populated it is becoming, but in comparison to Central FL, we have no complaints. If we get tired of people, we head to Wyoming. "Do not forget to check the sub loom that runs over the rear cylinder head." Will add it to the list. Thanks, and if you think of anything else, please post up. Should be another decent weekend coming up to pull the bikes out of garage. "I believe you are in CO part time." Yep, at least during the school year. "Anyway, out at Denver Intl. Airport (DIA) many people would come back from a trip, go to their car in the parking lots try to start it and nothing. It seemed the rabbits out there had a taste for electrical wiring insulation. Happened to my a--hole boss and it cost him $1,500 to get it all fixed." Not surprised. I'm not bothered by the population growth, and all the construction, but the wild life out here definitely have had to try to adapt. Regarding your boss, it sounds like it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy...lol. Theres been a big deal made about displacement of prairie dogs here in FOCO in construction areas. I think they are horse and cattle leg breaking vermin and wish the black footed ferret population would make a come back and make a meal of most of them. After talking to my connie-riding neighbor, it appears there are plenty of innovative wire-chewing and dog food eating "meeces" out there. Neighbor recommended a home-made reusable 5 gallon contraption using a soda can, water and peanut butter as bait. I like that idea because I am a huge fan of raptors, natures rodent controller and don't want to contribute to poisoning any of them if I can avoid it. Greg reminded me that sitting snowmobiles were a favorite of mice in the MN summers as well, something I'd forgotten about. | ||
| Tempest766 |
"If you don't mind asking, why did you leave?" Got caught in the dot-com bust of 2001. Suddenly found myself competing with 2000 other out of work computer geeks for a single job. Had to sell the house and move back to Pennsyltucky. In all fairness, I doubt I could live in the Denver metro area again: too many people, too much weirdness, turning too much like the left coast. Ft. Collins or Colo Springs are still options if a GOOD job opportunity ever comes up though...assumming they ever repeal that ridiculous magazine capacity law...but I digress. Would really like to see a good youtube of Stove Prairie and Poudre! Used to camp up that way A LOT. Didn't get the crowds that the I70 corridor got, but the snow stays later up that way  Crown Point road was a favorite way to access RMNP. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I did the same fix you did, I moved the birdseed. In my case, there were three little mice that momma had abandoned. The kids put them under the deck, where I expect the dogs found them shortly thereafter. I didn't go out of my way to execute them, but as I was repairing all the wiring I didn't shed a tear either. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Mice hate Bounce dryer sheets - and they smell better than mothballs  | ||
| Etennuly |
I would check those spark plugs. Chances are with the low voltage no start problem it may have got them wet fouled. What you describe about running and fouling out then running the crap out of it to get it back fits the symptom list. Yeah, silly rodents. I fired up my Jeep a couple of years ago, for the first time after sitting for a long time. It didn't start to well, popping back and such. Then there was a loud explosion as it blew about ten pounds of mouse nesting out of the tailpipe right into the bottom drawer of my big shop tool box. What a mess. | ||
| Steveford |
Funny, I thought that I was the only one who had mice under the seat. I think they bailed at around 75 MPH on the highway... | ||
| General_ulysses |
Think your seat pan problem is bad? Take a look at what they did to my airbox. Lil mofos set up their own "K&N Hotel." http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/708830.html | ||
| Luftkoph |
moth balls in pantyhose put in likely locations on the bike | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
Thanks for the preventative mouse suggestions. Once we are sure there's no mouse damage underneath the seat, we will implement at least one of the above methods to discourage them from hanging around the bikes. So, with all the craziness that comes with the holidays, and people fighting the upper respiratory crud thats been going around, we've not made time to address the running issues of the XT. We are hoping to carve out a little time for that today before the 8 - 14 inches of white stuff supposedly arrives bringing us a much wanted white Christmas. Meanwhile, we've been trapping mice, and hoping the local raptors have been enjoying the peanut butter infused rodents. The plan for today is to check to see if we have fouled plugs. Stay tuned and Merry Christmas! | ||
| Bienhoabob |
Here's what I use: http://www.caresecrets.com/cycle_shield Keeps the bike, moisture free, dust proof and rodent proof. I've had mine for a good ten years and it still does the job. | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
Thanks bienhoabob! We spent an hour clearing ice off the street in front of the driveway in anticipation of a ride tomorrow. It felt like spring today! Started the x and ran it til the fan came on. Gonna roll the xt out tomorrow, maybe the beemer too. Mr. Twisty has been crazy busy at work, the little man has been crazy busy with robotics and we all need some moto-therapy. I hope its a good day for the xt. | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
So the moto-gods (goddesses?) Smiled upon us today. The neighbors and their doggies were probably wondering what the crazy motorcycle neighbors were doing in the street with the scraper and broom, re arranging the packed down driven on ice for optimal melting, but we successfully cleared a path! And besides, we are in Colorado, I think people are accustomed to a certain level of crazy here! Anyway, Greg ran thru steps to clear fouled plugs, changed the xt battery back to the h.d. one fresh off charger, pulled the airbox cover and found no signs of micky or Minnie, adjusted the primary and fired her up. It ran strong so we took it for about a 25/minute loop in and around town. He rode it initially, then we swapped bikes. I noticed nothing unusual so we will continue to monitor and ride on the days we can. Hope we can get out for a spin tomorrow, today was a good day. |
