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Thought about where to post this and decided the Touring Forum was a good spot, because touring riders often must deal with whatever comes their way.
So today kind of sucked, in general, with concerning events and challenges all day at work. Finally got out of the office around 6:30 in the fading light, and it was cool and nice, and the ride home promised to be relaxing and rejuvenating. Got on the bike, pulled out of the parking lot, and wham! Hit with a deluge of rain. Heavy, intense, thick rain with big drops and the roads struggling to drain. Fun stuff.
It had already been raining earlier in the day. (Of course, because I washed the motorcycle yesterday. Wash bike = make rain. Law of nature.) So, I figured the roads were clean and I could see okay and I was already totally soaked to the bottom of my socks. Might as well just ride home. It's only seven miles of near pitch black in a downpour. No biggy. Right?
After a few miles, the bike started running rich, slowing down, and wanting to quit. Twice the RPMs dropped, then came back. At about mile 6 it actually died. I pulled to the side of the road, put on the hazard lights, and restarted. It churned a little longer on the starter than is normal, then fired up. The remaining mile to the house was uneventful. Fortunately, my lovely wife not only had a nice dinner all prepared, but she had left the garage door open so that I would not have to sit in the deluge and fumble with the door opener. /love
This is a 2018 Heritage 114 with the exposed, oiled cotton air filter. There is a water sock on the filter to protect the engine. I imagine that the water was so thick during the downpour that there just wasn't enough air getting through to sustain combustion. I activated the engine in the garage and it fired right up, sounding perfectly normal. Blipping the throttle revealed the usual snappy response. I let it run for a minute to warm up, combust any remaining moisture in the bike, and help dry the bike.
The bike is almost new, with only a little more than 7k miles. It is stock all around. It has ridden through rain before without incident, though maybe not quite the near submersion that this ride entailed. This was like swimming. What little of the air wasn't displaced by raindrops was laden with mist.
Is this stalling thing something that indicates a problem, or just a sign that riding in really, really heavy rain is a dumb idea? Is the rain sock more for parking in rain and less for riding? This is something to which I didn't give much thought until tonight. The dealer said, "oh, yeah, here is a rain sock to keep water out." I said, "okay," put it on, and just left it there for the last six months. Would it be better to remove the rain sock prior to riding and trust the cotton filter to block enough water to avoid engine damage?
This is the first bike I have had with exposed air filter elements. What is the best practice? (Aside from pulling over under cover. I know that. But being so close to home... I just went for it.)
So today kind of sucked, in general, with concerning events and challenges all day at work. Finally got out of the office around 6:30 in the fading light, and it was cool and nice, and the ride home promised to be relaxing and rejuvenating. Got on the bike, pulled out of the parking lot, and wham! Hit with a deluge of rain. Heavy, intense, thick rain with big drops and the roads struggling to drain. Fun stuff.
It had already been raining earlier in the day. (Of course, because I washed the motorcycle yesterday. Wash bike = make rain. Law of nature.) So, I figured the roads were clean and I could see okay and I was already totally soaked to the bottom of my socks. Might as well just ride home. It's only seven miles of near pitch black in a downpour. No biggy. Right?
After a few miles, the bike started running rich, slowing down, and wanting to quit. Twice the RPMs dropped, then came back. At about mile 6 it actually died. I pulled to the side of the road, put on the hazard lights, and restarted. It churned a little longer on the starter than is normal, then fired up. The remaining mile to the house was uneventful. Fortunately, my lovely wife not only had a nice dinner all prepared, but she had left the garage door open so that I would not have to sit in the deluge and fumble with the door opener. /love
This is a 2018 Heritage 114 with the exposed, oiled cotton air filter. There is a water sock on the filter to protect the engine. I imagine that the water was so thick during the downpour that there just wasn't enough air getting through to sustain combustion. I activated the engine in the garage and it fired right up, sounding perfectly normal. Blipping the throttle revealed the usual snappy response. I let it run for a minute to warm up, combust any remaining moisture in the bike, and help dry the bike.
The bike is almost new, with only a little more than 7k miles. It is stock all around. It has ridden through rain before without incident, though maybe not quite the near submersion that this ride entailed. This was like swimming. What little of the air wasn't displaced by raindrops was laden with mist.
Is this stalling thing something that indicates a problem, or just a sign that riding in really, really heavy rain is a dumb idea? Is the rain sock more for parking in rain and less for riding? This is something to which I didn't give much thought until tonight. The dealer said, "oh, yeah, here is a rain sock to keep water out." I said, "okay," put it on, and just left it there for the last six months. Would it be better to remove the rain sock prior to riding and trust the cotton filter to block enough water to avoid engine damage?
This is the first bike I have had with exposed air filter elements. What is the best practice? (Aside from pulling over under cover. I know that. But being so close to home... I just went for it.)