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Is this a little over the top?
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 5:43 pm
by dougie
You know - perhaps silly, anal, paranoid?
After maybe $100, I now carry on board in the tail section -
A spare for each of the 3 relays,
spare VR,
spare ICU,
and I think I can get a Dynacoil in there.
All good used or new.
Re: Is this a little over the top?
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 5:49 pm
by Kurt in S.A.
VRs are a dime-a-dozen at some auto parts stores...could buy just about anywhere.
ICUs...might be pretty important.
Dynacoil? Usually they're pretty solid.
What about a starter relay? That's something that I carry as a spare.
Kurt in S.A.
Re: Is this a little over the top?
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:11 pm
by dougie
Kurt in S.A. wrote:What about a starter relay? That's something that I carry as a spare.
Kurt in S.A.
Yup. Got it.
Re: Is this a little over the top?
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:30 pm
by Garnet
I carry a complete spare crank trigger ignition system (including coil), as well as points back up for my Boyer. I also have a spare v/reg/rectifier for my unique permenant magnet alternator. I aslo need a special puller for the rotor of said alternator. Then there are a couple of spare Bosch relays, cuz the whole bike depends on them. Some spare bulbs and plugs, spare wires and a spare tube and a bunch of carb parts and some cables.
That's just the normal junk rolling around the bottom of one or both my panniers. If I go on a trip then there are the extra tools.
Keep in mind that this is my /2 conversion and nothing is normal or standard on it.
If any thing happens when I'm on the road, no-one is gunna know how to help me.
I could set up a roadside Airhead shop. My slogan could be "You won't believe it's the same bike when I'm done."
Re: Is this a little over the top?
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:37 pm
by dougie
Garnet - you need a bumper sticker -
"Have parts, will travel"
Re: Is this a little over the top?
Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 5:29 pm
by Rob Frankham
dougie wrote:You know - perhaps silly, anal, paranoid?
After maybe $100, I now carry on board in the tail section -
A spare for each of the 3 relays,
spare VR,
spare ICU,
and I think I can get a Dynacoil in there.
All good used or new.
All of these parts are generic auto parts, obtainable at any decent auto factors. Unless you're going to Outer Mongolia or the middle of the Sahara, just take a list of the part equivalence codes for a variety of manufacturers.
Rob
Re: Is this a little over the top?
Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 6:34 pm
by Ken in Oklahoma
Rob Frankham wrote:
All of these parts are generic auto parts, obtainable at any decent auto factors. Unless you're going to Outer Mongolia or the middle of the Sahara, just take a list of the part equivalence codes for a variety of manufacturers.
With the exception of the Ignition Control Unit, what you say is correct. However I'm more in alignment with Dougie in carrying the spares. When you break down on the road it's seldom close to an auto parts store (not meant as sarcasm). I'll try to make my point with a story.
A few years ago I was on a ride down Hells Canyon in Idaho/Oregon land. After oohing and aahing at the Hells Canyon Dam, my damned (sorry) '77 R100S wouldn't start. It was raining and so I wasn't inclined to do any troubleshooting. Luckily the parking lot was on an incline (everything's on an incline in Hells Canyon) so I thought I would try bump starting it. It worked and all was well--until the next time I shut the engine off, but I was going to be very careful where I did that.
Back at my Sister and Brother-in-law's farm, in the comfort of his shop, I discovered, or rather strongly suspected, that the problem was a starter relay. But the nearest auto parts store was a good 30 miles away, in what amounted to an overgrown farming community (which I doubted would have the requisite relay). So rather than go that route, my brother in law had a push button switch and so I ran +12V through the push button switch to the black wire going from the starter relay socket to the starter solenoid. It wasn't pretty or handy but I was good to go until I got close to a starter relay.
Of course it's pretty crowded where you live compared to parts of the American west. So my dividing line of what I choose to carry will likely be different. In the instance, if I had been carrying a spare starter relay I could have pulled the tank off, even in the rain, and swapped in the spare starter relay. And life would have been a bit easier.
I don't know what stuff you carry, and it's really beside the point. My line in the sand, so to speak, of the stuff I'm willing to carry weighed against the pain in the ass factor of needing it and not having it is simply in a different place than your line.
And now Dougie has got me to thinking that I might need to add a a couple more items to the stuff I carry with me on my bike.
Ken
Re: Is this a little over the top?
Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 6:44 pm
by dougie
Ken in Oklahoma wrote:And now Dougie has got me to thinking that I might need to add a a couple more items to the stuff I carry with me on my bike.

Ken
Bean can?
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Re: Is this a little over the top?
Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 7:00 pm
by dougie
Re: Is this a little over the top?
Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 11:56 pm
by Duane Ausherman
A list of part number replacements is great, but out here in the west it is a whole nother matter. On some roads the gas stations are so far apart that signs warn drivers. It is easy to be a few hours from a parts place.
Ever ride US 50? It is known (proudly) as the loneleist (sp) highway.