Nice to get a lay in ... with a visit to the Great Wall of China scheduled for mid-day...
And then back to the hotel to work on the bike... about 3 days prior, after a fuel stop, it just refused to start on the button. Couldn't see anything obvious, but by shorting the solenoid (starter relay), it would fire.
So in order not to hold the group up, I removed the side panel to give easy access to the relay, and carried a screwdriver to short the terminals, in my tank bag. It worked fine, but clearly had to be sorted, and today was the day.
Well after a lot of head scratching and tracing circuits, I was about to say "so Mr Honda, not so reliable now, eh", when I happened to notice the headlight was not on either. Hmmm, checked the fuse marked Headlight, and it had blown. Checked the bulb, which was one of those after-market "white-light" ones.... it had shorted out, causing the fuse to blow, and that was also the same fuse used for the starter.
New bulb, new fuse, and job done ... Yes, apologies Mr Honda, ...it was an "e-bay-made-in-china-special" that failed, not the bike, (but I have to say a better description on the fuse box would have helped).
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| They say you can see it from space - I could not see it from here ! |
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| Found it. |
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| Being stupid. |
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| And this was the walk back down. |
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| Looking back. |
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| Hard to see but there a man welding the steel posts half way up, with about 500 mts of extension cable, joined by twisting the wires together, and running back to this shed.... the voltage drop must have been pretty major. |
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| Oops, I only scratched the wall a bit and it crumbled in my hand ... bloody vandal, I know. |
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| Poser. |
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| And two of the lads decided to take a Microlight flight over the wall. |
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| Thats Max, up there. |
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| Down safely. |
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| Then onto this Tourist place. |
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| Renovated so much, it just looked new. |
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| Although this bit of wall is evidently original. |
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| Camel rides on offer. |
And then back to the hotel to work on the bike... about 3 days prior, after a fuel stop, it just refused to start on the button. Couldn't see anything obvious, but by shorting the solenoid (starter relay), it would fire.
So in order not to hold the group up, I removed the side panel to give easy access to the relay, and carried a screwdriver to short the terminals, in my tank bag. It worked fine, but clearly had to be sorted, and today was the day.
Well after a lot of head scratching and tracing circuits, I was about to say "so Mr Honda, not so reliable now, eh", when I happened to notice the headlight was not on either. Hmmm, checked the fuse marked Headlight, and it had blown. Checked the bulb, which was one of those after-market "white-light" ones.... it had shorted out, causing the fuse to blow, and that was also the same fuse used for the starter.
New bulb, new fuse, and job done ... Yes, apologies Mr Honda, ...it was an "e-bay-made-in-china-special" that failed, not the bike, (but I have to say a better description on the fuse box would have helped).