Photopage27

Hello Eurobodalla Ulyssians 21 May 2013

Just to fill in the details of my ride to and from Maryborough for the AGM and Rally.
By the time I got to Coonabarabran the motor was refusing to start. Just as I was explaining the problem to the

NRMA bloke the engine decided to cough into life - just. The battery was full but apparently not charging.

Next morning at Moree I managed to sweet talk a motorcycle shop into opening so I could buy a new battery. $110.
I disconnected the headlight at the fuse box and rode on to Kingaroy without further trouble. I bought a battery

charger and charged both the new and the old batteries overnight. Happily the bike liked this and started first pop

so I rode on to Maryborough and checked in at McNevins Motel. BY now the two NRMA blokes I had spoken to had

convinced me that the Suzuki SV650 and its clone, the Hyosung 650, had a defect in the rectifier-regulator.

I was convinced by several experts at Maryborough that there was no Hyosung dealer - that is until I saw a Hyosung

display at the Maryborough Mall.
I took the bike in to Ms Hyosung where a mechanic also agreed about the defect and said he would order a new

rectifier/regulator, but it would take 2 days to get it to Maryborough. I then found that taxi fares at Maryborough

were about the same as Sydney - $20 to get from the motel to the Showground.

Maryborough Motorcycles replaced the dud rectifier/regulator in time for me to ride in the Grand Parade. $286

for the rectifier/regulator and $200 labour.
It was then that an inebriated Ulyssian decided to try out my bike by sitting on it - and of course promptly dropped

the bike in McNevins Motel carpark. After we levered the bike off him he got up and went to bed. Totally pissed, he

was fast asleep `10 seconds later.

Next day his Branch President apparently had a few words with him which resulted in the now rather contrite Ulyssian

offering me two $50 notes to pay for the broken mirror and broken front brake lever. I patched up the broken bits

with a $5 Araldite 5 minute glue kit to get home. Donna at BikeWorx is still sourcing me a new mirror and handbrake lever.

That's not all! There's more! Somewhere between Goondiwindi and Moree on the way home I lost the complete package

of wallet, licence, money, cards, camera ( hence no pictures - Ed !) and mobile phone when the bag fell off the bike and

got run over by a few road trains and semis. I didn't notice until I got to Moree.

That's the first time and I hope the last that I ever find myself penniless and ID-less in a strange town miles from home.

Not much fun. I borrowed a mobile phone from a Kiwi Ulyssian who was riding to Perth, and the cleaning lady at the

motel loaned me $90 - all the cash she had.
I wish to advise that there are no St George Bank branches between Goondiwindi and Dubbo. I know - I tried to find one.

Next day at Dubbo a sympathetic teller arranged a cash advance to get me home.
The motel manager at Molong knocked on the door of my room to ask me to phone a neighbour at Long Beach as my wife

Norma had been rushed off to Batemans Bay hospital and was in the High Dependence Unit with a racing pulse and BP

over 200 - stroke zone.

I didn't get caught for speeding but I admit that I did rather hurry from Molong to Batemans Bay next day. We still

don't know if Norma had a small stroke or not, but she is still not very well and she has reacted badly to the medications

she has to take. As Mae West said Öld age ain't for sissies! and Norma is soldiering on regardless, but very slowly.

A woman phoned to say she had found my bag about 30 km on the Moree side of Boggabri. She posted back the remains.

I now have a 2mm thick Apple iPhone, and some of the money and cards, but as she explained the stuff was on both sides

of the highway and blowing around from the slipstream caused by semis, trucks and the occasional road train. No camera,

unfortunately, but RTA/RMS has replaced my licence and I now have a new credit card which is upsetting all the people

who used to take payments from the old card.

And yes I have sent the mobile phone back to Enzed, repaid the cleaning lady with a cheque for $180 - double the amount

she loaned me - and sent a swag of Scratchies off to the lady who posted the remains of my bag back to me.
It beats me that the same bike took me over 9,400 Km to and from Albany three rallies ago with zero problems - and it

towed the trailer too - but it couldn't go the 3,400 km trip to and from Maryborough without landing me in the sh!t on the

way up to Maryborough and then also on the way back. Hopefully it will behave itself on the Alice Springs run next year.
And to and from Port Augusta where I have booked in for a week-long Army reunion in August this year. And yes I will be

                                                                        taking the trailer on both these runs. If I had taken the trailer to Maryborough I wouldn't have lost the bag, would I. Duh!
                                                                        Oh well, that's what having an adventure is all about, ain't it.

Bye for now,
Evan Holt

Another snippet I gained from Maryborough: Hyosung 650s and Suzuki SV650s have problems with the rectifier/regulators.

Russ @ BikeWorx thinks there is an aftermarket rectifier/regulator which has larger cooling fins. The very short fins on

the standard bikes could make the unit prone to failure by overheating? Hmmm.
When I was at Maryborough the mechanic asked - by phone - if my bike was a fuel injected model or had carburettors.

I said carbies. He said "You're lucky". He said the Hyosung 650 fuel injected models have problems.
Now if the rectifier/regulators on these bikes are having problems, is it possible that the battery is not being fully charged

to the battery's maximum which in turn causes the electronics of the fuel injection system to get the wobblies? My favourite

                                                                        motorcycle mechanic @ Bikeworx thinks so!
                                                                        Maybe we should ask Spannerman! I'll bet Hyosung Melbourne knows all about it too!
                                                                        Evan Holt

2004 Eurobodalla Ulysses Branch