Wee Jaunt & Youtube

Scottish guy , Wee Jaunt owning a Himalayan used to post videos on youtube about the upgrades made to his RE preparing for a 'world' tour (search bar here shows one mention)

Anyhow he appears to have stopped posting so wondered if he is now touring or something else?

Any folk any knowledge?

And as if by magic the shopkeeper appeared

Wee Jaunt is back......

I wonder if he knows about the battery drain that all the BS4 bikes have through the Gear Position Sensor?
Also - I wonder if he tried removing the corrosion on his old regulator at the earth bolt/wire? Sometimes that is all it takes to reduce the charge current, and his old RR was certainly a bit manky.

I watched him a bit, not quite the Guru I thought at first.

nablats said:

I watched him a bit, not quite the Guru I thought at first.

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I thought that he is just a bloke who bought a Himmi, shared his experience of mounting accessories, tried troubleshooting problems, did a few rides and made some videos about them.

I know that on YouTube even self proclaimed experts make erroneous proclamations, but they usually have a nugget or two that I didn’t know before, so I still win.

Sorry mate I didn’t mean to sound preachy.

Andyb said:

I wonder if he knows about the battery drain that all the BS4 bikes have through the Gear Position Sensor?
Also - I wonder if he tried removing the corrosion on his old regulator at the earth bolt/wire? Sometimes that is all it takes to reduce the charge current, and his old RR was certainly a bit manky.

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Yep, and dry connections in the connector block are common too, as you might be pushing a good few amps through it .
Feeding the output from the RR into the harness/ fuse block on the way to the battery doesnt help either - good RR replacement kits have a direct lead to battery and a circuit breaker.
And a cool running Mosfet type RR which helps stop the connectors drying out.
Most AGM batteries are NFU by the time they reach 11.9 volts, and most motorcycle charging systems are not designed to charge a flat battery - usual manual instructions are - only attempt to start with a fully charged known to be good battery, and Ignoring this is the usual reason for charging system failures. Like that guy is experiencing!
AGM batteries with 260 CCA instead of the stock 130 are not hard to find, and will still have 12.6V + after standing around 3 months.
So first advice might be get a decent battery , put serrated washers on the terminals and make certain it is wedged in tight.
And if you are going to replace the RR get a big Mosfet with a continuous rating higher than your peak generator output with revised direct to the battery wiring and a circuit breaker.
And the kit to connect the gear sensor to a switched circuit, as the Mosfet probably wont have a extra connector for it.
FWIW the old weak generator and RR on my 2017 bike still work fine and even without revised gear position wiring the bike bursts into life after standing 3 months, with a my AGM battery..
FWIW RRs were one of the few things that failed on Honda's, so most Honda forums/ owners will have similar advice!

Roy Gavin said:

FWIW the old weak generator and RR on my 2017 bike still work fine and even without revised gear position wiring the bike bursts into life after standing 3 months, with a my AGM battery..

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The original gear position sensor for the original carbureted bikes didn’t appear to have the power wires that tap into the R/R circuit like it does on the Euro4 FI model so didn’t have the same drain issue. I suspect they tapped in at the R/R to avoid a new wiring harness which they fixed with the Euro5 version. You might check, but I suspect your carb model has the older style gear position sensor like the original Indian bikes.

This was discussed at length- there is a whole thread on this discharge on Euro 4 bikes.

RE supplied the cable set to fix this over a year ago. Yup my 2021 euro 4 Himmi had this battery discharge problem, due to the gear position sensor…. so my dealer installed the RE supplied cable under warranty.

No problem since - still on original battery, I started bike after two months - had enough power to start bike.

tom_d said:

The original gear position sensor for the original carbureted bikes didn’t appear to have the power wires that tap into the R/R circuit like it does on the Euro4 FI model so didn’t have the same drain issue. I suspect they tapped in at the R/R to avoid a new wiring harness which they fixed with the Euro5 version. You might check, but I suspect your carb model has the older style gear position sensor like the original Indian bikes.

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Yep , the extra terminal on my RR is a second earth, not a power take off .
Still goes in to the swirch/instrument circuit, but in to the earth line.