Hey, I m a new member. Been riding cbrs for many years. Glad to join the community.
So I need some guidance troubleshooting...
Bike had trouble w a cold start
which never happens. I ride year round. Then after an hour and a half ride she just died out of the blue. Gave ignition a couple tries. Had electronics on the dash light at first, but pressing the start button did nothing. Not even clicking as with a dead battery. Then after 2 tries she died completely. No electronics, no nothing. Checked all the obvious things. Battery is 100%. Main fuse looks good. No obvious poorly connected wiring/harnesses. New stator. I'm about out of ideas. Any thoughts?

 

Stator has nothing to do with starting. Its only function is to recharge battery and power bike’s electronics once engine is running.


Do these tests:

1. Measure battery voltage with everything OFF. volts=??

2. Measure battery voltage with key ON, volts = ? ??

3. Measure battery voltage with start button pressed, volts = ??

4. jumpstart bike with auto battery that can start car just fine. Leave car OFF, we are just borrowing its battery. Wiggle jumper-cable clamps on both sides to ensure good connection. Does bike start with jumpstarting?

 

Thank you for the reply. I'll have to get a multimeter to get the exact voltage. But I hooked the battery up to a charger til it was fully charged and still not a thing came on. I wonder if I can use the charger green/red light indicator to see if the voltage changes when key is on and when start button is pressed. If that makes sense. I was advised against jumping it with a car battery. But I'm curious now.

 

Batteries are batteries - you can use a 12v motorcycle battery, a 12v car battery, or a 12v submarine battery - it doesn't matter. Most likely your battery is bad. Eliminate that first.

 

As mentioned, power-source just provides power to spin starter. Bike & starter has no idea where this power is coming from. You can connect 5x moto batteries in parallel and starter won't be able to tell what it's connected to. Same with auto battery. Warning is, "don't run car while jumpstarting bike". The danger is high-output of auto alternator will fry RR when it tries to regulate by dumping to ground (many car alternators are 65amps+, more than double bike's).

So... we are just borrowing known-good battery as troubleshooting step. To be safe, remove battery from car and carry it over to bike before connecting jumper cables. Double check polarity +/- on cable-ends before connecting. Many, many times, desperation sets in and car gets turned on "maybe what if...". Then >POOF< your RR's dead. Now you've got dead battery AND RR to replace.

 

That makes sense. Thanks for the info. I haven't got the multimeter over here yet. But the charger says the battery is 100%. I don't think the battery is the issue. I'm guessing/hoping it's a loose connection or something simple. I will know more tomorrow hopefully. I'm going to take off the left fairing and check other fuses. Also I should mention that the headlights both died the day before the bike died completely. I'm assuming that may be related.

 

Does your charger give a voltage readout? Without numbers, it's useless.
Well, you can leave charger connected to battery then crank engine.
Bet it shows battery "not charged" when it's required to output power.

Also review these related threads. Make note of tests and measured numbers.

https://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=335199 - 13.6v vs 2v
https://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=74813
https://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=61661 - charging from 10.7v to 14.87v fixed
https://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=113945
https://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=368961
https://www.motorcycleforum.com/thre...9/#post-634109
https://www.motorcycleforum.com/thre...attery.122626/ - 14.21v
https://www.motorcycleforum.com/thre...8/#post-485100
https://www.mvagusta.net/threads/bik...voltage.41789/

 

Is it possible the ground wire not in solid contact with the frame could cause this? Someone mentioned it. I checked and on first inspection the wires were tight making good contact. So I brushed it off. After hours still coming up with nothing I took a closer look and the piece that the wires are grounded on has been punched out! All the way through. I poked it in and the piece was completely loose(like a jenga piece). It must have happened when it was dropped at low speed a while back. The frame slider and fork spindle barely allowed plastic to touch. So that seems strange.
Was thinking using some jb weld?

 

Post photos of this damage.

Never ever use JB weld for anything! Well, maybe thin plastic that has lots of overlapping surface-area. If you want to join metal, especially anything that conducts electricity, real welding is only proper operation.

To test if it’s ground wire issue, make additional ground to test. Connect 1 jumper between batt-neg terminal and other end to big bare bolt on engine/frame. Then try starter.

This is 5-min fix with meter measurements…

 

Yeah, I've been waiting for a pal w a multimeter who "knows what he's doing" to come by. I'm wondering if it would be possible to weld that.
Let me see if I can get some decent pics.
Thanks for the advice!