the Honda CBR250RR lives!

I got some help this weekend with my broken CBR250RR. Chiev was good enough to drop by and then go over to Adrian's place to scope out the bike. The first thing we did, aside from wheeling it out of the shed, was to take the seat off and have a go at the battery. With Chiev's multimeter at hand, we tested the voltage of the battery and found that it was down to a hopeless 5.5 volts. The battery is probably past it, so we pulled it out and swapped in a spare that Chiev brought along. It turns out the spare wasn't in good health either, as it had spent a full night recharging but could only manage 11.5 volts out of a normal 12.4 volts.

So we upped ourselves over to a1 Motorcycles in Ringwood and bought ourselves a new sealed battery. After grabbing some lunch (fresh home-made hamburgers!), we headed back to Adrians to setup the new battery. First we put the acid into the battery, and then we waited 30 minutes before we could use it.

After connecting the terminals to the battery, we switched on the ignition and got headlights and the 'idiot' lights on the instrument cluster. Pressing the starter button, the bike fired to life without any struggle. Needless to say, I was very happy. The quote that I got for a gearbox replacement is ~$1600! It's easier to replace the engine and gearbox as a unit, rather than fiddling with the delicate parts of the gearbox. Thankfully, after wheeling it onto the road and giving the bike a shakedown, there wasn't anything else wrong with the bike. Looks like my initial dismay over the suspected broken gearbox was completely off-the-mark.

We now suspect that the regulator that recharges the battery may be past it's life. So I'll test it out next weekend. After a full service and clean, I'll look to sell the bike.