Quote:
Originally Posted by The Atomic Ass
The Ninja's battery is old, more than I'm willing to pay for, and the alternator does not put out enough to run my vest.
|
AA,
Your statements about battery size and alternator output deficiencies sparked a memory for me. Quite a number of years ago I used to ride a Yamaha RD250 as my work transportation and had the same problem with not enough juice to run my heated garments. My solution was to mount a group 24 auxillary battery in a box strapped to the rear luggage carrier that I kept charged while at home. If you got a big enough battery, it might just last for the round trip commute. Mine was about 6 miles each way, in Wisconsin, mid-winter! It would oftern get to minus 20F with blowing snow. Even with the heated garments, I never was totally comfortable, despite having a windshield. You learn to take it easy when driving on ice.I never tipped over except once when I had a green light but noticed too late that a policeman had his hand out telling me to stop. I slid, fell over then slid right up to his feet! He just looked down at me and shook his head! I got up, cranked the bike back to life, and took off.
This next suggestion may or may not be for you. I removed my field windings from the alternator of the bike and rewound it with heavier gauge coated wire to same number of windings. It took up a little extra room and I made a wood insert for the alternator cover and used longer screws along with sealing it with silicone. It helped quite a bit and although I never measured the output, with the additional load of heated garments, my head light didn't seem to dim as much after the two mods I mentioned.
tinkerbill