Well, it's not the battery...

[northsidegz]

My 2000 GZ seems to not want to start after a very short ride (i.e. less than 5 minutes or about 1 mile). Like if I take it for a quick ride to the grocery store. Or even if I go get fuel in the morning before riding into work. I've had to bump start it 3 times in the past month or so. Longer rides have no problem. It definitely seems to be a short ride thing.

I took the battery in to Batteries Plus and they said the battery was perfect. So, I guess it's something else. One of the times it happened, I increased the idle speed and that seemed to take care of the problem for a while, but then I was getting worried about having the idle speed too high, so I lowered it a bit again (not like a low rumble, I realize this little bike revs high normally, but I don't have a means to measure the RPMs).

Any thoughts on what the problem might be?

And any recommendation on how I can properly measure the RPMs since I tinkered with the idle speed adjustment already once? Right now, I only have my ears to measure RPMs. :skeptical:

Thanks in advance.

[jonathan180iq]

Do you have exceedingly long warm-up times and does it take a long time to get the bike started?
Do you let the bike idle a lot?

To charge this little battery, you have to get the revs up a bit and you need to ride for more than little jaunts. It can take a lot of juice to turn the bike over on a cold morning and it's possible that with repeated short jaunts, you just aren't giving the battery time to fully recharge. The reason that you can go on long trips without a problem is because the stator (Also called the GEWTMIR) has plenty of time to charge the battery back up.

If the bike was cutting out randomly, or simply dying while at idle, I would suggest something else. But that doesn't seem to be the case, since you can complete the ride. But then you have problems starting the bike again after it has stopped.

I would recommend a permanently attached battery tender, if short trips are going to be common practice for you. It's good for the battery and you'll be certain not the have this problem one morning when you are already running late for work

Also, are you certain that you got the right battery for the bike? Even with short trips, this does seem pretty puny.

[northsidegz]

Thanks for the reply!

My normal usage for the bike is to-and-from work. 18 miles each way at 60-65mph. I do this anywhere from 3 to 5 times a week. It doesn't seem to take a long-time to warm-up, no. But this is the first bike I've ever owned, so I don't have anything to compare it to. I don't let it idle a lot. I start it, it warms up, and then I ride it about a minute after starting it. It does not cut out randomly or die while idling. Actually, I take that back. Once it did die while idling (and, coincidentally enough, was also about 10 hours after it had died on me on a short trip earlier that morning), but I made a random assumption that I had the idle adjustment too low. When I increased the idle that evening, the problem of it dying at idle (which, again, only happened once) seemed to go away.

However, the "short trip" issue seems kind of random. It can happen on an evening that I rode it back-and-forth to work earlier that day. Or it can happen on a day that I haven't ridden the bike for 3 days prior.

I made a somewhat similar post (tagging it onto an already existing discussion) and someone here recommended cleaning the killswitch. But the exterior of the killswitch was already clean and when I opened it up it was perfectly clean inside as well. So I don't think it's a killswitch issue.

I am not certain I have the right battery for this bike, no. I bought the bike used off of Craigslist. I'll take a look and see what I have.

[alantf]

One more thing.........have you checked for loose connections at the battery etc?

[jonathan180iq]

Check the battery's amps and other little data numbers & we'll see. Sometimes when people replace them, they grab something cheap and/or too weak to save a dollar or two.

These things are finicky about the battery. You may have something as simple as a wiggly-loose connection. If you don't have solid electrical contacts, then all the juice that needs to flow can't flow, if that makes sense.

Gunk and varnish do develop under the kill switch, but your issues seems more intermittent, which would tend to make me think it's more likely just a loose connection somewhere. ...Either that or you have a stator that's staring to go bad, which is not common on this bike.

How many miles on the machine?

[northsidegz]

6,000 miles on it so far. I've put 1,500 of them on it since August 2011. Which means the prior owner(s) didn't ride it much for the first 11 years (by comparison, I guess).

Interestingly enough, I did have the problem of a loose connection in 2011. One of the screws connecting the wiring to the battery was no good (threads were bad or something). I stored the bike at a bike shop over the winter and they put a better screw in. Connections to the battery seem tight now. I've checked multiple times. But I guess I could have some connection loose somewhere else.

[Kcarvajal]

I wonder if its the spark plug. Do you know when it was replaced? I had problems starting my bike one time and as always, Jonathan to the rescue. (thanks again man). Turns out it was just the plug.

One other thing, your kick stand shuts the engine off if you're in gear. I'd check the wire underneath to make sure it's secure.

Lastly, the wire on your clutch lever. There are two wires to it that you just slide on. Make sure those are also secured and didn't come lose for whatever reason.

I don't know, just throwing things out there that could affect starting the bike.

Keep us posted.

Ken

[northsidegz]

Thanks again for the replies!

Sadly (or stupidly) I didn't take the time to check what kind of battery I have. But will get to it!

Here's the story so far:
Rode the bike back-and-forth to work (18 miles each way) yesterday, no problem. Started it up this morning just fine. But knowing that I needed gas and it's a very short ride to the station, I intentionally drove it around the neighborhood for about 5 or 6 minutes. I even stopped off to look at a CBR somebody had for sale in their front yard. And by "stopped", I mean, I put the bike in neutral, parked it while it was running, walked in their yard and looked at the CBR for about 30 seconds, then went back to my bike. Put the kickstand up and put it in 1st and it died!!!

Ugh. I figured keeping it running and in neutral would keep me from having an issue. I tried bump starting it. No luck after 3 attempts (guess I'm still kind of new to this bump starting thing). On a whim, I put it back in neutral to see if it would start and IT DID! :popcorn:

I rode it 3 blocks to the gas station. Shut if off. Filled it up. Went to start it. Nothing. This time, however, I did manage to bump start it on the second try and rode it 18 miles into the office with no problem at that point.

So, that's the status so far. :??:

[northsidegz]

oh, not sure about the spark plug. Thought for sure I had them change that over the winter (where I had it stored), but I'll take a look at that as well. Thanks for the recommendation to check that as well!

[alantf]

Originally Posted by northsidegz

Put the kickstand up and put it in 1st and it died!!!

This would seem pretty conclusively to point to a faulty sidestand relay. A not uncommon fault on the GZ. Next step is to find the relay (above the sidestand) and check/clean it. :2tup: