One day one photo - 19: Welcome back to the fun Honda Monkey motorbike

Honda Monkey at Ditchling Beacon

This was the celebratory photo I took of my motorcycle at Ditchling Beacon earlier this month on my first ride down to Brighton. It was one of the few times recently when the Monkey started without any problems before things went downhill significantly and I had to do a few rounds with breakdown services and motorcycle mechanics. I'm glad that the problem is now fixed.

It's nice to be able to ride my Honda Monkey without worrying that it wasn't going to start. It's just great to be back with the fun Monkey, as opposed to the rather sickly monkey over the last couple of months.

Throughout last summer, through the winter and spring my motorbike had started without fail, and without the need for a trickle charger or jump leads. Then I had this dodgy period where the motorcycle just seemed to become more and more difficult to start. It totally failed to do so a few times, with the battery losing charge at an ever increasing rate. I became more familiar with the breakdown recovery service than I would have liked. The bike even failed to start on one occasion after I had left it parked for 2 hours during my orchestra rehearsal - despite having left it on trickle charge for the whole day before going out on it.

When it comes to that, things become quite stressful and you realise you can't take the bike anywhere. Also, it won't do for someone to just say "you need a new battery" or "it's the tracker that is draining your battery". 

Thankfully a good mechanic had the presence of mind to check out the underlying cause and pinpoint the problem to a faulty rectifier. So that has been replaced, as has the battery - with a good quality Yuasa one. So now I am a happy rider. 

I can't say how relieved I feel just to be able to start the engine and be greeted to the sound of the rumbling of a healthy engine. I imagine my Monkey is also very happy to have properly working innards too!

So I look forward to doing some more trips to interesting places before winter sets in.

One day one photo - 15: Motorbike problem rectified with a rectifier

Regulator rectifier - the solution to my Monkey woes 

This little component is called a regulator rectifier. Before today I had no idea what it was, but I think it may be the answer to the issues I have been having with my motorcycle - thanks to the people at FWR Motorcycles in Kennington, South London. I had been phoning around different outlets to see if they had in stock a good quality battery for my Honda Monkey - according to many it should have been the Yuasa YTZ5S. The guy took the time to get more details about the problems I'd been having and said that they would certainly be able to supply the battery, but they would make sure to check the bike over to see if there wasn't any underlying problem. It's true that a tracker drains the battery on a vehicle, but it doesn't drain it that much. Also if I kept on changing battery, it is hard to say that I keep being supplied with dud batteries. 

So I arranged to take the bike in to be looked at. Unsurprisingly, I was late arriving at the workshop because the bike wouldn't start - despite having been plugged into the trickle charger that morning. The only thing I could think to do was to start the bike while the trickle charger was plugged in! It gave a very tentative start, but at least the engine was running enough for me to be able to ride the Monkey the 7 miles to get to FWR. After checking the bike, within minutes they managed to pinpoint the problem. The Regulator rectifier was faulty. I don't know much about the mechanics of a bike, but this little device serves to stop the battery from being overcharged while the engine is running. Normally the voltage would be between 13 and 14 volts, and the regulator rectifier serves to keep it within those parameters. 

But if the rectifier goes the voltage goes up and up and just burns out the battery. So you end up with a weakened, even dead battery. Apparently, when the engine of the Monkey was running the voltage was going to 16V. That would explain why the battery was just getting flatter and flatter every time I was using it. 

I think that if I had gone to some other mechanics they would have just changed the battery, sent me on my way, and I would still be having Monkey issues that would just be so disruptive to my everyday schedule. So I really appreciate the guys at FWR identifying the underlying problem. Hopefully, life with my Monkey will be back to normal from now on.