Chapter 2 - Crazy GS850 Ride from Victoria to Toronto

[Guest]

Hey everyone,
You may recall Chapter 1 from back in June. Bought a swell looking 850 and flew out thinking hey, what could go wrong if I just pick it up and ride it back to Toronto.
So two breakdowns, charging problems, overheating-carb-like issues... made it eventually about 300km into the British Columbia mountains, and finally had to bail, had it towed back to Vancouver sent to a shop and flew back home to Toronto. (This was after 3 or 4 days chasing the electrical issue, fed-exing a new stator.. realizing eventually it was not a bad stator, but a stator, roter mismatch... the 79 is apparently pretty unique re the stator)

Well I'm back working in Victoria for a couple of weeks, picked up the bike. Long story short it still has some funky charging issues, but mostly it seems to charge.

Big thanks to AZR for spending 4 hours or so with me and the bike yesterday fixing a bunch of tuning issues and a big one (totally wrong size intake boots which were really loose and too short to even reach over the carb intakes fully). Don't ask why the shop didn't jump at that.

Anyway it's running a lot better thanks to Rob and I'm feeling pretty hopeful about the next effort to head east, which will be in 4 days time. I'm still bringing along the car battery just to be safe. That's what's hooked up to it now. Problem number 20 or so was that the battery in the bike doesn't get over 12.3 Volts no matter how long it's on a charger. So need a new one.

This bike had new larger jets installed, a new air filter and a 4 into 1 Vance and Hines. So I'm still a bit nervous about the mixture and things running too hot. But the plugs looked pretty good after a ride after Rob's tuning work on it.

So, more on my progress later.

Cheers,
Robert

[robertbarr]

Long story short it still has some funky charging issues, but mostly it seems to charge.

That sounds like an adequate reason to trust it on a 4449km jaunt! 2,765 miles, for those of us south of the border.

I'm still bringing along the car battery just to be safe. That's what's hooked up to it now. Problem number 20 or so was that the battery in the bike doesn't get over 12.3 Volts no matter how long it's on a charger.

Well, sure. What could possibly go wrong here?

Keep us informed! I wish you a ton of luck, and I hope you don't need it, but... I'll also offer a nomination for the 2014 Intrepid Venturer award.

[nejeff]

Sounds like you now own the most expensive GS850 ever. Good luck on the next leg of the journey

[wymple]

" Problem number 20 or so was that the battery in the bike doesn't get over 12.3 Volts no matter how long it's on a charger. So need a new one."

12.3 across the battery should be OK if the bikes not running.

[azr]

All is good Robert, what could possibly go wrong??



Pretty sure all will be good but keep us posted. Good luck on on the rest of this adventure you're on.

[BigD_83]

I bought one of these last year after a failing/failed R/R incident on a road trip...a little more portable than a car battery:

http://www.amazon.com/Antigravity-Batteries-Micro-Start-XP-3-Multi-Function/dp/B00GT2FUB2/ref=sr_1_3?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1407814942&sr=1-3

[trevor]

All the best Rob...you had the best gs mechanic I know of to help you so I'm sure all will be fine. Too bad I missed you this time, unless you can do a little ride this week.
PS how about giving us the name of that "shop" in Vancouver so we know who not to take a bike to.

[RobertGS]

Yah sorry I missed you too Trevor. The shop is Windbell in North Van. I really don't want to trash them. They probably do great work for many riders. Just didn't seem to get it done for me. But then I've been around this site long enough to know how rare it is to find a shop that does a great job on these old bikes. So my expectations weren't that high to begin with. hey at least they stored my bike for a couple of months.

[azr]

I'm pretty sure Robert will fill everyone in on his journey the first chance he gets but since I know some of you are wondering how things are going...... Robert brought the bike over to my place last Sunday and we went through a few things. #1; the wrong airbox boots were installed luckily I had a new set in the shed. The bike now has the original stator put back in it so we tested things and they were testing 'pretty good', not perfect but good enough, figured it might be from a 34 yr old stator. Made some major changes to the mixture screws and it 'seemed' like it was running fairly well. A few days later brought the ol' girl back into the drive way and ripped her apart as it wasn't running near close enough for his 4500 km trip...



Since you can never trust what other people have done I tore apart the carbs.....



The PO had put 107.5's in #1&4 and 110's in 2&3 he's a two stroke guy so I'm guessing that's where that came from. Anyways, I wound up with #115's, changed the clip position and then the mixture screws as needed. Now running great! nest was the charging issues Robert kept experiencing....



Found that the stator wasn't directly wired the the Reg/Rec, fixed that and then single grounded everything. Tested everything and WHAMO perfect numbers! fixed a few other tidbits and he's off and running.




Robert left Victoria Friday late afternoon and as of 4pm today was in Grandforks, BC, so that's just over 600 kms and so far everything is running great other than some slight adjustments to the mixture screws. I told him once he's over the BC border he's not my problem anymore who here is in Alberta?????

[eil]

azr, you're a good guy! Thumbs up to you too!

Good luck on the trip, Robert!

[steve murdoch]

Rob, take a bow for going above and beyond in helping out a fellow GSer.

Good luck, Robert.

[Charlie G]

As far as I know there is nothing in Alberta but "Honda" guys.

[azr]

Thanks guys but it's nothing more than anyone of us would have done for a fellow GSer in need. I've got to mention as well that GSX1100E took some keen interest in how Roberts bike was coming along and was a big help on the jetting issues, thanks again 'GSX1100E', members helping members guys, it's what it's all about.

[azr]

Well he's made 1500kms so far and says the bike is running great, says he hasn't had a single issue. Night being spent in the mosquito ridden area of Dinosaur Park Alberta. Looks to be west of Calgary close to the Saskatchewan border.

[RobertGS]

Who knew you can be in the badlands of Dinasour Park Alberta and have wifi?!?!

Hi everyone. As Rob says, I've made 1500km so far. It's been a great ride, but first a bit about Rob. I can't really say enough, not only about the generosity of giving so much of his time off to help a stranger, but man that guy's a mechanic! The second time he took the bike (and left me his thousand with the key! crazy) I wasn't even with him because I was working. People kept asking if I was all set for my ride because I'd told them about it. And I said sort of, my bike is being worked on right now by a great mechanic. This was like right up to 2 hours prior to me supposedly leaving to catch a ferry. And they said, man you sound pretty calm about that, and I was. I just new Rob was going to sort it and the bike would be sitting in my driveway ready to go. Well there it was and it's running fantastic. So I just want to once more (and not for last time by a longshot) thank Rob for for saving my ass. I've put a lot of myself into making this trip happen, but it wasn't going to end pretty with the way the bike was. Thanks Rob.

First day was from Vancover (I overnighted there at a buddy's place) to Nelson. About 680km of great mountain riding (ok the last 400km is great) A few big summit climbs, lots of twistys. Classis BC mountain stuff. Camped at Kokanee Creak Provincial park. Up riding before 8am. Some excellent highlights on day 2. Coming out of the mountains and all of a sudden shooting out into Creston valley, big flat green. A huge shock, wild. Then there was seeing the nasty wall of rain just ahead of me and seeing it was only 3km to the next town and I'm thinking oh man you should pull off while it's dry and throw on the rain pants, and then thinking ahhh you can make it. I didn't make it. Rains hard in Alberta, just so you know. The mountains here are different. Huge weird shaped summits. And man the roads can be dead straight once you're out of the mountains. Did the last 100 km on 36 north just past Lethbridge. You just have to cruise at 140 because there's nothing and noone around. Fun.

Not exactly sure where my next night will be spent. Hitting the transcanada highway for the first time tomorrow, so I suspect I'll see how flat and straight roads can really be once I'm zooming across Saskatchewan. That 750km's yesterday was tough on me. I"m older than the last time I did this kind of ride. Maybe pair it back a bit but we'll see.

Ok, not sure when I'll have access again, but will update first chance I get.