I'm back!

[zore]

 ;D
Last time I took my ride for a ... ride, I was toolen thru the gap doing a hard turn and the rear locked up.  It happend a second time at a slower speed, but again, turning.   It sounded to me like the starte engaged and cause the lock up.  I'm going to have a look at the starter clutch to see if that may be it, but anyone have any other ideas?

[Lucky]

Shouldn't be the actual starter. it's an overrunning clutch, so you can actually hit the start button while riding down the road & nothing will happen.  that's how i trip magnetic light sensors.

if it was anything with the starter clutch, et al, your engine would stop...

radical diagnostics:
take the rear brake shoes & springs out & see if it still happens. that eliminates the brakes as a cause. 
also, check to make sure you haven't lost the brake return spring behind the pedal mount. that happens... & it's hard to notice.  the weight of the pedal, or a boot brushing on it could activate the brakes..

[Flyby]

 :o I'd like to hear more about tripping magnetic light sensors- how the heck does that work?    :police: :o

[Brian Moffet]

Huge change in current flow through a very low part on the bike.  Also, you suddenly start rotating a fairly large ferrous mass, again low on the bike.

I can attest to the starter being able to run while the engine is running. Mine got stuck for 20 minutes (without me knowing other than an indication on the voltmeter ) on the way in to work.

Brian

[YellowJacket!]

:o I'd like to hear more about tripping magnetic light sensors- how the heck does that work?    :police: :o

I have two methods of doing so.
the first is to rest my foot on the centerstand lever and repeatedly raise nd lower the centerstand over the traffic light sensors in the pavement.  If that doesn't work - and it usually does, I go to method two;
The second method is to engage the starter - which reportedly creates a "magnetic field" that is supposed to trip the traffic light sensor.

David

[zore]

Ok, so why do I think it's something with the starter?   I heard something that distinctly sounded like an electric motor being spun at high speed against it's will both times that this happened.   And the last thing I touched on this bike before I went to the gap was to rebuild the starter.  I don't believe it was an electrical engagement.  I did yank the left side cover off but didn't notice anything that looked out of sorts.  Anything in particular I should be looking at?

[Rikugun]

Often, the last thing you touched is the culprit but it seems hard to believe that the starter and/or it's clutch caused the rear to lock up. I guess that's why Lucky was asking about the brakes? Have the marks on the starter body shifted as if it's been torqued?

Where you braking at the time it locked up? Did the rear wheel actually lock up and skid? Left turns only or right as well?

[Lucky]

If the rear wheel actually locked up, lets look at it logicly.  if we don't get anywhere with that, we'll look at more 'off the wall' possabilities.

--brakes would do it.
--weight transfer to the front could cause it
--problems anywhere between the clutch & rear wheel. (pulling in the clutch would not have any effect)
--problems between the starter/crank & thee clutch (pulling on the clutch WOULD fix it.)

it's highly unlikely the starter /starter clutch would cause it.  you'd have to have the engine locking up...  more likely for one of the reasons stated above. in addition you also may have a starter problem ...

[Extent]

If I'm right in thinking, for the rear tire to lock up one of the two situations must be happening.  Either A) the clutch is slipping or B) the engine is totally locked up.

If your engine wasn't locked up then the clutch had to have been slipping and something further down the chain was causing the lockup, I would first suspect the rear brakes as well. 

If the engine died (but wasn't physically locked up) and compression alone caused the tire to skid would there be enough power on the wheel to actually restart the engine?

I have seen the starter cause a rear lockup before but under very different circumstances.  We installed the sprag clutch of a buddies CCM backwards so that the starter was always engaged to the engine.  It lasted a day or two before the starter grenaded itsself and literally fused to the casing.  It happened in the middle of a turn (and at 2 AM :p ) but it happened because the now exploded starter was physically preventing the engine from turning, there's no way for it to have been an intermittent problem, and I don't see this situation ever happening on the V engine because of the way the starter clutch works.

[zore]

Now that you folks are jarring my memory (it's been 1.5years since I had this bike on the road)  Pulling in the clutch did stop it.  The engine did lock up if memory serves me.  I the key bit of this is that I remember the sound of an electric motor being spooled up to a very high speed. 

Rear brake wise,  I rarely use them.  The toe of my foot is generally on the peg as I dont like the feeling of my feet hitting pavement.  I generally don't use the rear brake.  It's something I picked up at track school and never got passed.  I did check the brake spring and it's on.

Unfortunatly, It only happend twice and always heavy in a turn and leaned.  I dont recall if it was only on lefts or rights or which way I was leaned.

Thanks for the input folks.

[Rikugun]

Sounds like it's not the rear brake or final drive - time to consider the "off the wall" possibilities. The memory of an electric motor spooling sound is intriguing but I have no guesses on that yet. Do you recall if there were other seemingly unrelated symptoms? hard to start, difficulty shifting? popping out of gear? new engine noises?

Given that it happens in a "heavy turn and leaned" it's fortunate you didn't crash. Are you wanting to put the bike back on the road after it's 1.5 year dormant period?

[zore]

Up until 2008, I was doing 20 to 30k a year and had been for near 15 years.  I had an incident with a deer in 2006 and another in 2008 and that pretty much was the end of riding.  It's just too dangerous adound here to commute on 2 wheels.  I have 2 bikes and both need some TLC.   I didn't do the gap trip this year but want to go one more time next year so I'm working on getting the bikes ready early.