Winter Exercise

[Jim Stoltz]

Tried to exercise the generator today - it wouldn't stay running. It wasn't getting any fuel. 

Figured I'd start the 454 up to give it a little exercise, too. Battery was dead despite the Trik-L-Charge. Ugh. I have the Trik-L-Charge hooked up with the alligator clips rather than hard-wired. It was blinking the green light, which is when it thinks there's no charge current from the house batteries. Loos alligator clip.

I jumped the rig with my truck and as it was warming up I figured what the heck - I'll just take it out for some fuel. The gauge doesn't work so it might be below 1/4 which is where the pickup for the generator is.

I unhooked the shore power, removed the wheel chocks, locked up the storage doors and set sail. I've never driven it in the "cold" (cold being mid-high 30s) but the cab heat did remarkably well.

I put 20 gallons in it and hit the generator button - it fired right up. I'm glad the generator works but not happy that it was out of fuel. Rough estimate would be that it's getting 4-5 MPG based on my fuel logs (again, gauge doesn't work).

All in all it was cool to get it out for some exercise. Scrape the rust off the brake rotors, get the fluids moving around. There was some water pooled on the roof from melting snow. It found its way inside as I drove despite my roof-sealing efforts this past summer. Adding that to the to-do list.....

[Jim Stoltz]

Mine's a '95 Nighthawk. It's one of the few mechanical things that I bought that didn't really need any work. I haven't done a thing to it since I got it in '09 other than replace the fiberglass in the V&H pipe. It fires up every Spring without any complaints (with no battery tender and on old gas).

[Rich Thomas]

Nice, I had a 650 night hawk; loved it.traded it for a Wheel Horse tractor and all the goodies. It came down to what was needed more and I hate jiggers.

[Jim Stoltz]

My girlfriend stores her Thunderbird 900 here. I'm responsible for "exercising" it. I love that thing. The 3-cylinder has a sound all its own and has gobs of torque. Best part is the 6-speed. The Nighthawk really could use another gear on the highway.

[Rich Thomas]

That's a common complaint. My XR 650 L would be a perfect day tripper with an other gear; or a better ratio in the 5 it has. I'm hoping to hang it off the Palace for commuting at some point

( when my body is able to ride it) LOL

[Jim Stoltz]

Yep. I replaced the chain and sprocket last year because it was looking like it was due. I inadvertently got a bigger sprocket in the back which made it even worse. I don't do a lot of highway driving anyway so I left it alone.

I'd like to find a way to hang it off of my rig, too. It's not terribly heavy but I don't have a receiver on the back - just a permanently-mounted hitch. I don't want to have to lug a trailer around, but it would be great to have the bike(s) while camping.