Get this...I bought my W two years ago with 1,700 miles on it. Today I changed the original factory Yuasa battery at 20,000! The bike sat for over a year with a flat battery. I trickled it back to life and rode it 18,000 miles. I know for a fact that the original battery lasted 10 years. Obviously I chose a Yuasa replacement. OBTW I use a Battery Tender but seldom. Barry
A battery tender makes a huge difference in the life span of a battery. :eek1 All of my bikes have the conections on them.
+1, I'm still on the original battery on my '01. I start it every week or 2 to move the gas in the carbs during the winter when it sits. This particular bike is too nice to subject to winter salt, etc., here in NY.
hi all, glad to be here. first post to this thread. i just bought a 2000 w650 with 10425 miles on it. almost in pristine condition. only a few small almost un-noticeable imperfections. i am stoooooked this bike is ME.... i was born, raised and weened on old triumphs, bsa, and nortons. have had it for one week now and not been able to ride it....snowed in.... very strange for this time of the year around here. snow almost gone now..... driveway , one quarter mile long all up hill for 200 feet, grrrrrr anyway i have 14 bikes and i really like the looks of this one best. from what i have read here i will love riding it as well. i think i have a few bikes for sale now. hahaha i must be the only strange one in the group. i read where almost all of you install lower bars or drag bars etc: well.... i need to have bars at least two inches higher and another 1 inch or so back. did the same on my v-strom and my dr-650. used police riding bars from flanders and rox risers. my 93 wing is about the only one i haven't had to modify. been looking for some time now for a w650 and finally found one. my lady friend has a honda cx 500, 1982 that i just bought for her with only 7000 miles on it in show room condition. she is very happy with it so we will have a couple of unique rides. soon as i can figure out how to post pics with photobucket i'll post a few. but then you all have seen stock w650's coming out your ears. nothin different with mine. cyclepth ps, i read every post here, phewwwwww :huh pss, people ask me why i have 14 motorcycles.... i tell them, because i sold one. hahahahaha
Cyclepath- anyone with two TW's and a W650 is OK in my book. I think I need to replace my regulator on my W650. My battery is only two years old and won't hold a charge. My lights flicker and speedometer needle jumps while I ride. The bike also runs rough. Does this sound like a regulator problem? Is there a way to test the regulator before I spend $100+ to replace it? Thanks.
anyone that thinks i'm ok is ok in my book. hahaha jeep...... do you have a way to test the battery? if it will not hold a charge then maybe it is just a battery problem. do you have a battery tender you use whan it's just going to sit for a few weeks? is the battery able to turn the engine over when you use the electric starter? i just ordered the factory service manual and this bike is new to me so i don't know if it runs without a battery or one is needed. my dr650 and both tw200's do not need the battery to run but my wing does need the battery to run. after i get the manual i will be able to tell you more. can you get the bike started? if so use a volt meter and check to see what voltage you have getting to the battery. black lead from volt meter to neg. terminal and red lead to the positive terminal. check this right at the battery. if your voltage readng is above 15 volts then it is possable you have bad battery or one that is really in need of a good slow charge to bring it back up to where it should be and then recheck voltage. the battery should have a good charge in it before you do this check to be accurate. there are some good lithium batteries out there for bikes now. a little spendy but they are a little smaller with much more cranking amps and said to last a good 10 years. much lighter to, around 2 or 3 lbs. they do not need a battery tender or a charge for over a year if left sitting. let me know what you find out about your battery. cyclepath
Thanks for your quick response. I just stumbled on the W650 Service Manual online: http://www.slideshare.net/guest36f2092/w650-service-manual The charging system info. starts on page 356. The steps to test the regulator include connecting three 12-volt batteries. I'll start with the battery. I bought the battery in Spring of 2009. I put it on a tender all last winter. It started acting up last summer and by Fall a full charge wasn't enough to start the W. I'm sick of the old lead/acid batteries and was thinking they should have a better solution by now. I'll check into the Lithium batteries. I just don't want to destroy another battery if the charging system is bad.
hi jeep..... sounds to me more like a bad battery. if after you get it charged completely you could find someone to do a load test on it that would tell you for sure. here is the web site for the lithium batts. http://www.shoraipower.com/ it will be the next battery i get for whatever bike needs it first. you can also buy AGM batteries. "absorbed glass matt" you put the acid in and it's absorbed buy the glass matt so no liquid remains. like the lithium it can be mounted at any angle you want. even up-sidedown. cost is just slightly less then the lithium. got my driveway cleaned up a bit today so might be able to get the bike out tomorrow for a short ride if it isn't pouring down rain. how ya like your yamer hammer tw200? cyclepath
Something like this happened to my bike too. My lights would blink and the motor would miss a little but then it would just go away and everything would be fine the rest of the ride. :huh I looked all over for the source of the problem. It turned out to be a loose battery terminal. Vibrated loose.
rider929, very good point. that's something i forgot to mention. i have had that happen to me as well. sometimes we forget to check the simplest things first, thinking the worst has happened. we must all be fatalists. cyclepath
I usually try to start with the simple things. I did find a loose battery terminal last year and thought that would solve the problem. It didn't. I love my TW. I just bought a new o-ring chain and sprockets that I need to install. It's the perfect low-overhead dual-purpose bike. It's filling the void left by my CJ-7 until I can afford another Jeep.
Just got my W up and running today. First time I could get it out of the barn where I store it--so much snow piled up in front of the doors. The battery was not on a tender (no power in the barn), but it turned over. Not enough juice to start it though. One kick and it started right up, though it died because the idle was too low. A few adjustments to that and it purred like a kitten. Did a full inspection and inflated the tires and went for a short 50 mile ride to stretch its legs. Ran like a top. Don't think I'll ever get rid of this bike. I sold my Ducati over the winter and might sell the Harley to get a DS.
ok guys and gals. finally got out for my first ride on the w650. was pretty nice yesterday, high 40's. only got to do about 130 miles. so here is what i think so far for what it's worth. i have a series of twisties right out of my driveway that rival the dragon out east only much longer. at first i thought, geeeeez, if this is all the better this thing handles i'm sellin it well put a few miles on it and finally realized the tires were way under inflated. dooohhhh , well you know what they say about mechanics vehicles.... anyway after inflating them to the proper pressure went out again....ahhhhhhh, that's much better. hahahaha so here goes. i'll start from the front and work my way to te back. that front BS acloade has got to go..... the forks are a bit soft and dive a bit but that's easy to fix. being only 39 mm with a pretty spindly front axil, i think it could use a super brace. handle bars for me are a bit low and a little to far forward. they cause me to lean into the bars putting a bit to much pressure on my wrists and causes me to tilt my head back to see where i am going, stiff neck. 2 inches higher and about 2 inches back would work for me. i have a set of rox risers here i might try after i put some more time in the saddle. i have no problems with the seat it's pretty comfy for me but i think i'll move the hump back about two inches. i need a little less bend in the knees. i have a bit of a back problem from racing flattrack and motocross for a few years to many way back when so i need to be sitting straight up, like with a broom stick stuck up my arse all the way to my head. hahahaha the rear shocks are marginal and need to be replaced with some hagons or works. all in all these things are easy to remedy. i really like the way the engine runs and sounds and this bike takes me back to my ole triumph riding days. as far as performance goes. well i don't have anything to compare it to except my dr650 and a cx500. the w doesn't seem to be any faster but may have a higher top end. the little cx500 is way faster then the dr or the w. the dr handles the twisties a little better then the w but then it's 100 lbs liter and modern day technology. but that's not saying the w is bad. just different. the dr has no soul like the w or the cx. i spent a pretty penny gettng the dr set up just right with a custom seat, 450.00 bucks and some different bars and risers and a bunch of other farkels so it fits me good but i still feel like i;m sitting on top of it instead of in it. i have done nothing so far to the w650 and it feels better already. so i think it's a keeper. anybody want to buy a really nice 08, dr650, black, with a ton of farkels. cyclepath
Weather was starting to turn good so put the Wubya project up front. After 11 years, only one battery and virtually nothing else the pilot jets were boogered up. So decided to ace the air suction system, change jetting slightly, and ace the California Air Resources Board charcoal can. The can is actually tied to the air suck system so makes sense to do both. Also drilled out the air screw cap. After doing the same to our ZRX and KLR the project is much the same. For those wanting to give the Wubya a quick easy jetting fix no need to pay $75 to Dyno-Jet or others. Just buy 4 M4 stainless flat washers and insert under the stock needle. Works like a charm emulating a change of one clip notch down on an adjustable needle. This is for a stock air box and pipe. Anyway, the updates went off without a hitch. For those who haven't seen a W air box out of the bike it's quite a unique design. <a href="http://s721.photobucket.com/albums/ww217/folmonty/Kawasaki%20W650/?action=view&current=Today1005.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.advrider.com/advrider-photobucket-images/images/f/folmonty_Kawasaki%2520W650_Today1005.jpg" border="0" alt="Unique clam shell airbox"></a> Here's source of the trouble. Rough running, slow warm-up and mucho hesitation = pilot jet troubles <a href="http://s721.photobucket.com/albums/ww217/folmonty/Kawasaki%20W650/?action=view&current=today049.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.advrider.com/advrider-photobucket-images/images/f/folmonty_Kawasaki%2520W650_today049.jpg" border="0" alt="Pilot Jet"></a> Also installed a Super Brace on the forks - <a href="http://s721.photobucket.com/albums/ww217/folmonty/Kawasaki%20W650/?action=view&current=Today3005.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.advrider.com/advrider-photobucket-images/images/f/folmonty_Kawasaki%2520W650_Today3005.jpg" border="0" alt="Super Brace"></a> Look at this pile of crap we're fortunate enough to pay extra from here in Kalifornia. And the air box snorkel isn't even in the mix - <a href="http://s721.photobucket.com/albums/ww217/folmonty/Kawasaki%20W650/?action=view&current=today040.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.advrider.com/advrider-photobucket-images/images/f/folmonty_Kawasaki%2520W650_today040.jpg" border="0" alt="CA smog BS"></a> Anyway, she runs better than new with the jetting change and EPA crap removed. Highly recommended! <a href="http://s721.photobucket.com/albums/ww217/folmonty/Kawasaki%20W650/?action=view&current=Today1003.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.advrider.com/advrider-photobucket-images/images/f/folmonty_Kawasaki%2520W650_Today1003.jpg" border="0" alt="Needle valve with jetting shims"></a>
Picked up my W from winter storage today! Been sitting for 3 months (indoors) without a tender, carbs weren't drained prior to storage, no fuel stabilizer. Fired right up and ran as smooth as ever. Love this bike! Been missing riding it. This might be the season to breathe on the suspension a little bit.
Nice timing Jerk. That's exactly what I'm shopping for right now. Thinking of Hagon or Progressive front & rear. What's your thoughts on either of those? Don't think I'm going to do anything more than that + fork oil. How bout you?
Yesterday took mine out for the first time this season. Didn't take long to remember how much I like this bike. The love affair continues!
I have Progressive 412 shocks on the rear, and progressive rate springs on the front with Race Tech gold emulators installed by Evolution Suspension (in San Jose CA). Is a really different bike from stock, much more stable. Handled some of the goat trails up in the Santa Cruz Mtns with aplomb afterwards. Never tried the Hagons, lots of W650 people seem to like them though.