BT1100 and rain

[Tik]

My dear friends, first I would like to thank you all that are fighting to keep this forum alive, the bike is half fun without it.
I'm now with my BT at 12.000, works better than ever.
One question:
Everytime it's raining hard on the bike, it's hard to start it and, if starts, only one cylinder is working. I know the water gets into a place with high voltage towards sparkling plug but I just cannot imagine what can be done to avoid this. Does this happen to others? Some tip to avoid this happen?
Thanks alot. T.

[John w]

Hi Tik,

I still check out this forum often - but sadly not many others from the UK visit it.
I am not a technical person but logic suggests that you should swap the plug leads over. Then, if the problem moves to the other cylinder, you will know it's a faulty lead that is the problem.

Hope this is helpful?

Best wishes,

John w

[Tik]

Hi John,
I was afraid you changed your bike and left the forum;

When the bike is dry, everything is ok, so I should do the test in wet conditions but then I'm usually not in the mood to do that; I shall try that if the leads are long enough to make the switch.

[Mick P]

Hi Tik

Does this happen when or after you ride the bike or just every time it rains hard?

Have you tried spraying the leads with a water repellent in the UK it would be WD40 or some other spray like that I don't know if you have WD40 where you live or what a similar spray would be called
The first thing I would check is the leads, plug caps, the plugs and the coils the thing that might tell you which one is playing about is the exhaust but the bike would have to start first of course it might be both cylinders playing about then it might be a wet connection or a switch there is a full check list in the workshop manual from page 304 I hope its only something as simple as the leads or plugs. Let us know how you get on

Best wishes Mick P

[Tik]

It happens while the bike is cold and it's raining on it - if I have the patience to wait until it dries out works perfectly again. I shall try with some water repellent, I have Fluid 101 from Kontakt-Chemie but I don't know if any kind of spray can resist at those high temperatures around the sparking plug.
I was thinking that some shape in the high voltage area is keeping the water there. I posted here to see if this happened to others, in that case no spray would solve this.
My solution to the problem was to use the 1150GS when the day looked cloudy.

[Mick P]

Not had any problems like that myself and I know me John W and Dave came back from this years 3rd international in very heavy rain with no problems, all I have had in the rain is the neutral light come on but that connection is under the bike catching all the spray.
The ignition coils are under the tank and seat so I would like to think they are well sheltered so I would start with the leads or plugs its supposed to be rare for plugs to breakdown but it does happen, and of course its not a job best done in the rain.

Good luck and keep us posted

Mick P

[Tik]

Thanks alot for your answers, I'll try to figure out what happens;
Meanwhile I was almost one week in Aarau & Zurich, there I played with FZ6 Fazer and XJR 1300 and I'm once again happy I had chosen the Bulldog. Both the above are fine, especially the Fazer wich is a pleasure to drive in tight places but the revs of the engines was driving me nuts. In order to get some speed the engines were yelling like *, at lower revs the engines were powerless. Especially Fazer was like two bikes in one, the Fazer below 5000 rpm, slower than my scooter and the Fazer above, a race bike.