My bike has seldom failed me beyond a bad battery....but today...I go to take my friend (who had not ridden a motorcycle in about 30 years, until recently) for a late afternoon ride, he was going to ride on the freeway for his very first time heading over to Washington. He has been practicing a lot and was excited; he has been getting more and more confident around town. We go over the route, some expectations and signals if he has any issues (he has a 78 KZ650). I tell him to just follow me and I'll stay right at the speed limit.
I don't know if my bike got angry that we were under 70 MPH or what. We are moving along fine and then I thought I ran out of gas. It seemed early but no big deal reached down switched to reserve and continued on my way...oooops no...the bike dies a few moments after that. The tack is bouncin' all over the place. I pull over, it starts right back up we start to take off and it dies. After several tries and I realize as long as I kept the revs under 4000 it was fine, but if I revved the motor for a short length of time it would just die, I'd coast wait for the oil light and start if up again. Eventually, I was able to keep it under the revs. we got to where we were going and back home with no more issues. I did try to see if I had pinched the breather hose again. That was my first thought....but the tach would act all crazy right before it would die so I got back and checked the battery it was exactly at 12.8 when running and 12.6 with the key on. I suspect something electrical. Any ideas? Oh and most times when it restarted it backfired.
My friend, by the way said it was more of an adventure than he was expecting. He was just happy we made if there and back in one piece.
