| Author | Message | ||
     Pwnzor |
Well it finally happened yesterday. At 28,354 miles on the odometer, 1437hrs PST, in Seal Beach, California. Fueled up for a liesurely ride down PCH and I turned the key, guages did the sweep, I reset my trip meter and hit the starter. Turned over once, and all electrical power went on vacation. No lights, no horn, no clicking or anything. So I pushed the bike over to the air/water station to vacate the pump for others to use and got out my electric meter and checked all the fuses, relays, battery, etc. All checked out ok. Still nothing when I turn the key. My powers of deduction have determined it is most likely the voltage regulator. This is the first equipment failure I've had on this bike, so it didn't really make me very upset, since I was only a few miles from my mom's house and I have both Good Sam Club and AAA service. This is no big deal, right? I mean I'm in a safe place, close to a big garage with tools and I have two forms of towing coverage. Chapter 1 "good thing gone bad" I've been vocal in the past about Good Sam being better than AAA so I called them first. I got bounced around from operator to operator, and twice they thought I had a BMW!!!! So begin the process again and finally I get this (insert female expletive here) on the phone who asks me if I am outside my vehicle. Then she asks me if it's rear wheel drive. These are among the more intelligent questions she asked me. 35 minutes have now passed and I am being asked if my vehicle is a motorcycle. Finally they decide to tell me that the coverage will only allow me to be dropped off at the dealership of THEIR choice which is 3 miles away and if I want to go anywhere else I have to PAY the overage. This sent me into a fit. I demanded to speak to the supervisor. She then REFUSES to put a supervisor on the phone. During this exchange, she changed her interpretation of my coverage 3 separate times and eventually just didn't take care of me, a 16 year member. I told her I called them first because I didn't want to use AAA but now that was exactly what I intended to do. Chapter 2 "from bad to worse" I called AAA and the polite young lady on the other end very quickly and without a run-a-round, informed me that I no longer had motorcycle coverage. I said take a look at my policy, I have a rate based on FOUR vehicles, three of them being cars and the fourth being a Buell XB12R. She said yes I see that but the motorcycle is excluded. So I asked her how that happened, and she told me when I came in last year in person to pay my premiums and pick up my new plates FOR THE BIKE, that in the process somehow the bike got excluded when they wrote the new policy. So I said, "I've been paying for FOUR vehicles when I could have been paying for THREE???" She said, "yes that is the case exactly." At least the AAA phone call took less than 5 minutes. Now I'm standing there in a muted rage, I call my brother and he's there in 15 minutes with his pickup, ramp and straps for FREE. If I had known the services I paid for long in advance were going to both fail me I'd have called him in the first place and saved the frustration. I was just trying not to disturb anyone on a Sunday, you know how it is when you're relaxing on a Sunday you don't want to be bothered. But of course he rescues his big bro in a heartbeat. Moral of the story, take care of your siblings, especially little brothers. They are really the ones to rely on when the chips are down. I'll be ordering a voltage regulator from American Sport Bike for a hassle-free purchase. | ||
| Brineusaf |
Hmm... now you know how I felt a while back. But in all seriousness, that sucks. At least the brother was there to take care of you. I remember the thread about Good Sam insurance a while back as well. Well, get that damn regulator and get her road-worthy again... QUICK! | ||
| Glitch |
Will you be able to get some sort of refund from AAA? Man, what downer. | ||
| Ds_tiger |
Pwnzor- don't know if this will work for your ahem, Vespa FYI http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BUELL-XB-9R-XB9S-XB9R-FIREBOLT-VOLTAGE-REGULATOR- UNIT_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ35571QQihZ018QQitemZ280040573281QQrdZ1 | ||
| Thespive |
I am in HB, wish I couldda helped you out. --Sean | ||
| Blake |
The battery was okay? If the battery checked out okay, a faulty voltage regulator would not prevent the bike from starting. | ||
| Bumblebee |
Auto clubs generally don't work for motorcycles.  | ||
| Pwnzor |
Chapter 3 "Al to the rescue" Just got off the phone with Al at American Sport Bike. After describing my symptoms to him, he let me know it's not going to be the regulator at all, but more likely a broken wire in the ignition circuit. He took the time to go over the schematic in the Factory Manual with me, and explaining in detail how the regulator works with relation to the rest of the electrical system. I am confident that he is correct in his analysis, and of course he had experienced an almost exact duplicate to my situation in the past. In my experience, this level of service doesn't exist anywhere else. If everything goes as expected, my repair will cost me a few cents worth of wire, some solder and an hour or two of my time. Stay tuned for chapter 4. To those who offered information or assitance, thank you. As for AAA, I will probably get a credit toward future service. Good Sam has always been good for my RV, it's the motorcycles where the coverage is less inclusive it seems. They did in fact offer to tow me, but what burned me was that they wouldn't even cover the 5 miles to my mom's house, wanting to charge me an "overage". I'll always keep AAA because it means I don't have to go to the DMV for plates and tags and stuff. Worth every penny, motorcycle coverage or not. | ||
| New12r |
Check the ignition switch, I had a wire break loose inside the switch with the same symptoms, at about the same mileage. | ||
| Marijane0569 |
Pwnzor, AAA motorcycle/ RV is good for about 60 mi free ( although I have towed one bmw 100 mi). Sounds to me like the person who wrote your policy screwed up. AAA has always tried to be very polite and helpful ( some of the people that answer the phones might not be the sharpest tools in the shed but they are polite.) I know I drive for AAA here in BUELLton. "MJ" | ||
| Pwnzor |
Yeah, like I mentioned above, the girl at AAA was polite. The guy at the AAA office here in Ladera Ranch is the one who screwed up. How could he possibly imagine that, when renewing a policy for 3 cars and a bike that I somehow would not want towing coverage for the bike???? For Christs' sake, I got a new motorcycle plate at the same time so he couldn't possibly try to pretend that the bike wasn't part of the deal! I'll be reading him the riot act tomorrow, I had to work all day so I didn't get to handle it yet. I have the AAA Gold service which is good for 100 miles at no charge. Good Sam is who I'm really pissed at. That policy is expensive, and they've been great when I had to call them out on the RV. They really let me down this time, thankfully I was close to home. | ||
| Chainsaw |
I have the AAA Gold service which is good for 100 miles at no charge. I've got the AAA RV/Plus. Covers everything I have, including the bikes, with the 100 mile towing. Even covers vehicles I'm a passenger in. I guess the policies vary depending on the state of purchase. I've never had a problem. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Somehow the underwriter EXCLUDED the bike. That's what happened. My coverage is same as yours, used to be called "gold" now it's called "plus". But they only cover vehicles that you specifically write into the policy with them. Good Sam automatically covers ANY vehicle registered to your primary address whether they know about it or not. The problem was that they wanted to take it to a "service center" on their list, no further unless I wanted to pay extra mileage. Unlike AAA they contract with top-shelf carriers at premium rates. On a Sunday the extra 3 or 4 miles probably would have cost me around 80-100 bucks. I didn't want to leave my bike outside some place that was A) closed and B) never saw a Buell in their life. Heading up to mom's house in a few hours to fix the wire problem, will report back upon completion. | ||
| Marijane0569 |
Chainsaw, EVEN if you are not with the vehicle, BUT you own it or say it is your kid, g/f, etc... you can authorize service for that vehicle, then it gets serviced. Any other AAA questions ask me and I'll try to get y'all an answer. "MJ" | ||
| Bumblebee |
Many of the tow vehicles that AAA (in my case CSAA(California State Automobile Assn)contracts with are not equipped to handle a bike at all. AAA told me that they "Now could handle a motorcycle" couldn't when it came time for a tow. I told the polite AAA dispatcher it was a motorcycle but when the truck showed up two hours later the not so polite driver refused to take the job. Another call back to AAA and they said they's call back. They did. They informed me that they were not able to find a contractor willing to tow a bike. Yellow Cab worked. I called them, got a ride home, jumped in the pickup and got the bike. Really now?!  | ||
| Reepicheep |
Sniff the primary fluid as well. Could be a stator (youll know it if you smell it), voltage regulator, starter relay, or various other wiring bits. I posted some testing guides in the knowledge vault, and the manual does a good job as well. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Chapter 4 (OMG...WTF...Solved) Got the front end apart, ignition switch out and wiring harnesses apart. Circuits all checked out. So I'm thinking WTF?!?!?! Goddamn positive battery cable was just a little loose. Long story short, threw an extra washer in there, torqued it down, done deal. The bolt wasn't loose, it was all the way in, but not putting enough pressure on the end of the cable apparently. I did find several exposed sections of positively charged copper wire in the head tube area so I dummed them up with electrical tape and I'm all good. Total cost to me: $0.00 Amazing how something so seemingly insignificant can cause such a dramatic effect. Thanks again to Al at American Sport Bike and everyone who offered advice. | ||
| Tbowdre |
one word.... nice. i hate hearing about broken wire here worn wire there. | ||
| Corporatemonkey |
So the question I have it, which roadside care can you count on? I do not have the luxury of calling a family member for a truck. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Well I'm still a big supporter of Good Sam, regardless of the rantings above. They were ready and willing to tow me to the closest shop on their list. They have always sent me an outstanding truck and driver when I've called them in the past, nice shiny new flatbeds and drivers that haven't been awake for 4 days in a row. BUT, because I was so close to home, I wasn't going to put up with only being towed 3 miles and having to pay for the other 3. It was frustrating but if I had been in, say, Buellton or Seattle or whatever, I'd have been on the back of a Good Sam truck in about 30 minutes. Good Sam is great for any type of vehicle, and they gave me a $50 credit for the misunderstanding. I have always been happy with their service in the past, just this one time I got pissed because of the proximity to the house and I was actually asking them to do something that went outside the bounds of the contract. Good Sam Club | ||
| Blublak |
A while ago, while on a BRAG adventure in Boon NC, Bumblebuell had a minor get off. Her bike was rideable, but she wasn't able to do so, since she'd sprained fingers on one hand and both wrists when she hit the black top. Called BRAG (who offers roadside assistance) and after 20 minutes on the phone they said they'd send a truck.. In a 1/2 hour a flatbed tow truck was on site. We even lucked out since he was a rider and took extra special care in loading her bike. Then gave them both a lift back to the hotel. Service wasn't free, but it was reasonable and had to be done. The only questions they had was which Buell was down and did we need fire/rescue or anything of the sort. The longest part of the call was trying to explain where we were since we weren't in an area either of us knew. Oh and lastly.. the first person I talked too didn't even know there was an 'event' going on.. The next one in line seemed to know there was a Buell event going on and that may have prompted them to expedite.. No way of knowing for sure. My only experience with not being able to ride one of our Buells back to our starting point. | ||
| Marijane0569 |
Bumblebee, Thats a "naked" bike right? If so I should be able to tow it with my wrecker, if not, my flatbed. I have been taught to transport all kinds of vehicles, motorcycles are just one of them, and NO I'm NEVER up for 4 days in a row. I don't know why they said that they couldn't find some one. It took them two hours? shoot that aint right at all. "MJ" |
