Well it seems it was a short honeymoon with my new-to-me 2006 ST1300A-6 that has 45k on it and a clean pass in February with the MOT. Today, my bike broke down, and it did so so comprehensively I was worried I'd need a crane to get it onto the flat bed breakdown truck. It has me greatly puzzled and not a little worried. It might also have been signalled by some misbehaving a couple of weeks ago.
The initial symptom was as though the brakes were binding, but like, really really binding. Today I was rolling along at 30 or 40mph and the engine braking was much higher than usual: when I let go of the throttle, the bike slowed down very abruptly. I presume, and actually I'm pretty sure, it will have been doing it while on the throttle too, but the engine has enough power and torque to mask some of that. But in the space of a mile or so, it got worse and worse and when I slowed for a junction and dropped to 1st gear, the engine cut out. I could barely get the bike to move once I'd reselected 1st gear. It needed a lot of throttle and a lot of slipping of the clutch to get the bike moving at all, and the noise was awful, a sort of loud clattery noise, and it felt like I was riding through treacle. It took four or five goes of throttle-shuffle-stall-restart to move it a couple of metres at a time, and in the end it was all I could do to get it off the road. Then the engine cut out, and the bike was stuck in 1st gear and wouldn't go into neutral. Even with the clutch pulled in I could barely move the bike, and it took me, plus the less-than-friendly owner of the driveway I was now blocking, to get the bike clear to await the breakdown truck.
With a lot of huffing and blowing and hoiking the bike fore and aft I managed eventually to get it back into neutral. Once on the centre stand, the front wheel spun freely, so it wasn't the front brake binding. And the back wheel spun freely too, so it wasn't the back brake.
What gives? It feels like it's not the clutch that's at fault, but something in the final drive perhaps. I'm concerned the UJ has died an early death, or something has jammed something deep inside the gearbox. Because gosh darn it, the thing really wasn't for moving at all. I had the horrifying thought that perhaps the engine had drained half its oil, but the oil warning light was fine and the engine temperature seemed normal (though I've noticed the fan tends to run a lot of the time in town).
The misbehaving a fortnight ago was that I'd done about 50 miles no problem at all, some motorway riding, quite a bit of smaller roads and traffic. I stopped and parked for a few minutes, and I could hardly push the bike backwards out of the space. I thought first the slope of the ground was just enough to make it difficult, but it really looked level. Then I thought it must be the brakes that were binding, but if they were, they seemed to loosen off after a mile or two.
The bike is now at the Honda garage in town, but it'll be several days before they can investigate and diagnose the damage to my purse. The bike's been - I presume - fairly faultless up until now. It's had a tendency to bog down at idle before it's warmed up, and the revs drop from 1000 to 500 then a bit more and the engine stalls. It's done that a few times and I was going to tinker with the idle adjustment. And though I've yet to fill the tank from empty, the fuel consumption so far has seemed a bit on the high side. Edit: I just remembered that the bike has a tendency, too, to jolt forwards when engaging 1st when the engine's cold. My Africa Twin does it, and my old VFR did it too, though neither perhaps quite as much as the Pan. This afternoon though it really jolted when I was leaving work. Goodness knows it probably broke something.
All of these shenanigans meant that I wasn't able to get to the vet in time to pick up the meds my cat needs.
The initial symptom was as though the brakes were binding, but like, really really binding. Today I was rolling along at 30 or 40mph and the engine braking was much higher than usual: when I let go of the throttle, the bike slowed down very abruptly. I presume, and actually I'm pretty sure, it will have been doing it while on the throttle too, but the engine has enough power and torque to mask some of that. But in the space of a mile or so, it got worse and worse and when I slowed for a junction and dropped to 1st gear, the engine cut out. I could barely get the bike to move once I'd reselected 1st gear. It needed a lot of throttle and a lot of slipping of the clutch to get the bike moving at all, and the noise was awful, a sort of loud clattery noise, and it felt like I was riding through treacle. It took four or five goes of throttle-shuffle-stall-restart to move it a couple of metres at a time, and in the end it was all I could do to get it off the road. Then the engine cut out, and the bike was stuck in 1st gear and wouldn't go into neutral. Even with the clutch pulled in I could barely move the bike, and it took me, plus the less-than-friendly owner of the driveway I was now blocking, to get the bike clear to await the breakdown truck.
With a lot of huffing and blowing and hoiking the bike fore and aft I managed eventually to get it back into neutral. Once on the centre stand, the front wheel spun freely, so it wasn't the front brake binding. And the back wheel spun freely too, so it wasn't the back brake.
What gives? It feels like it's not the clutch that's at fault, but something in the final drive perhaps. I'm concerned the UJ has died an early death, or something has jammed something deep inside the gearbox. Because gosh darn it, the thing really wasn't for moving at all. I had the horrifying thought that perhaps the engine had drained half its oil, but the oil warning light was fine and the engine temperature seemed normal (though I've noticed the fan tends to run a lot of the time in town).
The misbehaving a fortnight ago was that I'd done about 50 miles no problem at all, some motorway riding, quite a bit of smaller roads and traffic. I stopped and parked for a few minutes, and I could hardly push the bike backwards out of the space. I thought first the slope of the ground was just enough to make it difficult, but it really looked level. Then I thought it must be the brakes that were binding, but if they were, they seemed to loosen off after a mile or two.
The bike is now at the Honda garage in town, but it'll be several days before they can investigate and diagnose the damage to my purse. The bike's been - I presume - fairly faultless up until now. It's had a tendency to bog down at idle before it's warmed up, and the revs drop from 1000 to 500 then a bit more and the engine stalls. It's done that a few times and I was going to tinker with the idle adjustment. And though I've yet to fill the tank from empty, the fuel consumption so far has seemed a bit on the high side. Edit: I just remembered that the bike has a tendency, too, to jolt forwards when engaging 1st when the engine's cold. My Africa Twin does it, and my old VFR did it too, though neither perhaps quite as much as the Pan. This afternoon though it really jolted when I was leaving work. Goodness knows it probably broke something.
All of these shenanigans meant that I wasn't able to get to the vet in time to pick up the meds my cat needs.
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