In the jungle

It's the headline on the BBC news now.

Eye witness report by Jonathan Head.

Pretty grim reading.

There are circumstances when the engine is running when a battery is still necessary.

For example. Engine at idle (therefore low alternator output), lights on, wipers on, air con on with blower on max, music on, heated rear window on (unlikely in Thailand I know) etc. In those circs with some vehicles the alternator will not be supplying enough current to meet the requirement and the battery supplies the balance.

But getting back to the OPs problem a little more I am pretty sure the root cause is a slipping alternator belt.

But if the mech got the tension on that one wrong better check them all as the ac belt tension is harder to get right so he probably got that one wrong too.

Re your point Battery... Various Diodes and Thyristors need an imput before it will start ,this is quiet a hi smack.The System run through is hardly noticeable till the battery is 2 years old. Leave all the things on you mentioned ITG and watch them run through the control unit pre check.Try it at night and see. Interesting. This is Honda so may not apply to all.

Really?

Maybe you should talk to a qualified auto electrical engineer.

The laws of physics apply even to Honda.

And shiny and new in a factory is best case scenario and it is all downhill from there.

There are circumstances when the engine is running when a battery is still necessary.

For example. Engine at idle (therefore low alternator output), lights on, wipers on, air con on with blower on max, music on, heated rear window on (unlikely in Thailand I know) etc. In those circs with some vehicles the alternator will not be supplying enough current to meet the requirement and the battery supplies the balance.

But getting back to the OPs problem a little more I am pretty sure the root cause is a slipping alternator belt.

But if the mech got the tension on that one wrong better check them all as the ac belt tension is harder to get right so he probably got that one wrong too.

From the description and price of the part replaced my guess is that it was the air con compressor clutch. An electro magnetic device that engages and disengages the compressor.

The compressor clutch will be belt driven and other parts such as the alternator may be driven off the same belt or possibly off another belt that he had to remove to get to the air con compressor belt.

I am not familiar with the City so I cannot be more precise than that.

The air con compressor places a significant load on the engine and if the tension is even a little bit below spec the belt will slip. Once it slips the belt is junk. Too tight is also a problem as it can trash air con clutch bearings, alternator bearings and other belt driven parts.

My starting point would be to look at the condition and tension of all external belts driven off the end of the crank and also check that the battery terminals are secure as the air con man may well have disconnected one or both of them.

Main dealers often have factory tools to measure the tension of the belts. In the alternative experience works but by that I don't mean Somchai the ac guy.

It is first hand experience.

I owned a 795 and initially rode it on Bangkok trips. After a while I used another bike for BKK because of the heat.

My bike had the stock exhaust with catalytic converters.

Does your 796 have a different exhaust? The reason I ask is that my feeling is that it may be the stock cats that are the source of much of the problem.

I have a BIL with one of these contraptions nailed to a 100 cc Wave.

He routinely puts in excess of 500 kg of palm on it.

I am confident in that figure as I have seen the weigh bridge chits.

I rode it once on a private track for about 20 metres. I thought it was a death trap. Never again.

On an air cooled Monster your nuts are going to fry if you ride it in town.

You will look cool but you are unlikely to have any more children.

Maybe I should clarify that.

The Monster is particularly bad because:

1. It is air cooled

2. The engine configuration places the rear cylinder head right between your thighs

3. The under seat exhaust places places the silencers and catalysts under your butt.

On an air cooled Monster your nuts are going to fry if you ride it in town.

You will look cool but you are unlikely to have any more children.

My list is not for those insecure in their masculinity. They're kinda small.

1. 1969 Honda C50. 9,300 miles.

Still has the original brake shoes and air filter. By that I mean the very ones it came with in the 1960s. Most of the light bulbs, cables and much else are also the stuff it was supplied with. Engine has never been touched other than a new spark plug.

Because I am a bit of a rebel at heart sometimes I get my head down and let the full 4.8 horsepower rip. On a long straight with the wind behind me I may see 60 kmh (indicated).

2. Honda Dream, 2001.

174,300 km on the engine and it has never had anything other than routine maintenance. Runs just fine. Doesn't burn oil or leak. Everybody rides this bike. Our workers, sisters, cousins, aunts. Probably the best value motor vehicle I have ever bought.

3. Honda Wave 110i, 2012

Not dissimilar to the dream but with a decades development. Demonstrates how to do engine mapping right.

4. Honda VFR 400 NC30, 1990.

One of the best bikes Honda ever made IMO. Even if it did not work I would be happy to park it in my living room and just look at it.

The fact that I owned this 25 year old bike at the same time as a Ducati Monster 795 was what convinced me to sell the Ducati. Other than the brakes the Ducati was in every aspect inferior to the Honda.

It is a pain in the ass if you use it irregularly as Thai fuel messes up the four carburettors but other than that it is pretty bullet proof. I fix the carbs myself but it takes a day. I would not trust anyone else to do it.

RPM limit is 15,000 and it has been doing that reliably for the last 25 years.

the 15kg must be those elephants of the stock pipes. This one looks much better!

Yup, pretty much all of it- going from stainless-steel and ceramic pontoon-sized duals to a full titanium system (with a weight of just over 4kg including the header and can) made a huge difference.

That must be a contender for the worlds most hideous butt ugly stock bike silencer.

Sorry but I just wish, number plate can go on my back...

You have excellent taste in bikes.

Addressing the OP my guess is a big liquid cooled Japanese in line four would give you the best engine lifespan assuming it is properly maintained.

They are very well designed and engineered and so powerful that you would find it difficult to subject it to much consistent stress given the constraints of Thai road conditions.

Someone mentioned a Ducati Monster. I would put money on that engine not making 100,000 km here. Complex maintenance on an air cooled engine with fundamental design flaws that can trace its lineage back to the 1970s? No chance that will go the distance. The modern four valves are worse and much more expensive from a maintenance stand point. Better engineered perhaps but I have grave doubts about the ability of people here to maintain them.

Harleys? Whenever you see Harley guys round here there is always a chase pickup following them with some spanner monkeys and bits in the back. There is a reason for that. They look really baaad in their leathers and patches but they can't actually go very far or very fast between stops at the coffee shop. One guy with a broken stock clutch showed me the parts and the engineering was pure comedy.

So get a Jap 4. You can argue they lack character but I would rather have that than sit at the side of the road broken down.

And given this is Thailand I guess that boils down to a CBR or a big K.

Just looked at B&Q's website. I assume I cannot post a link here. Easy to find.

The charger I mentioned is GBP 19.64 (about THB 1000).

Photograph and information on the website.

I have two CTEK chargers. Bought in the UK.

Despite being expensive they have both been unreliable. With both of them the problem is the same. The 'mode' button (see photo in bealus' post above) works intermittently. They will, eventually, switch on but you may have to press the button fifty times to a achieve that result.

I also have two much cheaper chargers from B&Q (a DIY chain in the UK). These are their own brand manufactured by Torq in China. From memory around THB 500 each. They have been reliable, have a max output of two amps and they work well. I seem to recall there were three different models with different output currents. I chose the smallest.

I wonder if this guy has enough brains to realise how out of his depth he is as PM and just how big a mistake he has made?

Agreed. Different day, same BS. What exactly has this buffoon achieved in 7+ months?

A bike path and a floating market.

and a new song

And the twelve commandments.

You know. Love your country and all the 'good' people and don't commit the sin of thinking.

Thank you for writing and publishing your inspirational story.

Hey, I'm a billionaire, I can do that. Well in Dong at least.

I have long thought that the huge 'adventure' bikes are a bit silly in this sort of environment. Whatever whizzo gadgets they may have cannot compensate for the adverse effects of the weight once the going gets tough. And somehow I doubt the local bike shops are going to be plugging their laptop into your ECU to do some diagnostics.

Maybe a Wave with knobblies would be the weapon of choice.

"Needs of the public would be considered a priority,"

Needs of the public is the priority!

I had a 795 for a bit over a year and the more I rode it the more I disliked it.

1. Cheap and nasty mirrors

2. Cheap and nasty suspension

3. Stupidly tall gearing

4. Mediocre engine mapping

5. Plastic fuel tank that deforms if you use gasohol

6. Shoddy dealer servicing and attitude (Thonglor)

I was so glad to see the back of the thing.

Sure Ducati make some good bikes but the 795 is not one of them.

That said the Focus is no Golf.

Back in Blighty I bought a Mk II Golf with just over 100,000 miles on it. Ex company car. It looked like new.

I put more than another 100,000 trouble free miles on it and it still looked like new.

Had to sell as my wife could not be insured on the Golf.

When I looked at a Ford Focus a few years back the dealer told me it was manufactured in the Phillipines.

To echo what others have said you cannot judge the quality of the Focus by this one car whose history is unknown.

Properly maintained I would expect just about any modern car from a reputable manufacturer to go on and on. It is not going to self destruct at 150,000 km.

My guess is that their target market is owners of Thai manufactured bikes outside Thailand.

Perhaps worth considering if you own a Grom in the USA or an Innova in Europe.

I tried their parts search out on Honda part numbers and got a one in three hit rate. On the one part number where I got a result they were not competitive. US$54 for a headlamp bulb (including post). No way!

Missed that.

And BTW, 40.88% does not constitute "most".

They mis-state it all the time in these "polls".

BTW, bearing in mind that 40.88% was a higher percentage than all the other answers, it does constitute "most".

Wrong.

54.56% either said they would or that they would consider it depending upon the circumstances.

If you do not have experience working on bikes and the right tools removing the lock falls into the difficult category.

Problems with putting the bike on its side?

To a degree this depends on how far over you have to lean the bike to transport it. Try and keep it as near to upright as you can.

I was going to go into more detail but after re-reading your earlier posts I doubt you want to get into draining the fuel tank and removing a battery from under a locked seat to transport the bike.

The other option is to replace the lock. The new lock will come with new keys.

I did this for a friend with a Honda LS125 and, from memory, the new lock was about THB 900.

Not a hard job to do. The lock may be fixed to the bike with 'tamper proof' screws but they are easily defeated.

Is there a seat lock and does it use the same key?