Kawasaki Concours C14/GTR1400 TPMS (tire pressure measurement sensor)

Now that I've gotten this sidelined C14 closer to road-ready I'm seeing a tire pressure warning from the front tire.  Both tires are fairly new with good tread and they hold pressure well (both were still right on 42psi after 2 stationary weeks in wildly swinging spring Canadian temperatures), so this isn't a low tire pressure issue, it's a sensor battery issue.

COG has a very handy thread on it here.  The key take-aways here are:  TPMS appears to be very temperature sensitive and can get crusty when not used for some time as this spider nest covered bike has.  Once warmed up, TPMS can come back to life.  I only went around the block on the bike yesterday and it was only 8°C at the time, so not exactly 'warm'.  As one poster mentions, he's ridden for decades without TPMS so if it's not working it isn't the end of the world.  For me, the best advice here is how to turn off the panicky dash warnings that prevent you from seeing anything else:  

"a simple push and hold of the top button along with a push and release of the bottom button will light up a red warning light, and return the display function to normal when your TPMS battery is low. Also, BDF offers a simple plug in device which restores the range function and eliminates that annoying "LOW FUEL" flashing message."

It appears there are some UI (user interface) issues with how Kawasaki designed the C14 dashboard.  Having only ever owned bikes with analogue dash boards I'm finding this digital fussing kinda funny.  They may not be all fancy with multiple levels of information, but a well designed analogue set of clocks lasts forever, is easy to read and doesn't spaz out and distract you from riding.  Kawasaki really should have thought this through better.

TPMS in the Concours works through a radio sensor inside the tire that monitors tire pressure in real time.  I'd (foolishly) assumed this was somehow mounted in an accessible way around the air valve on the outside of the wheel but of course it isn't.

This handy home-mechanic goes through the process of getting into the tire in a gen-1 '08 Concours, finding the sensor and looking at the battery.  Kawasaki appears to have soldered the battery in (at least on '08s), which makes replacing the battery without replacing the whole unit tricky, but this guy gives it a go anyway.  Soldering onto a lithium batter is brave!  They like to explode when heated.

   

Here's the parts breakdown for the tire pressure sensor - you can see it bolts to the inside of the rim inside the tire so this is a maintenance-when-you're-changing-tires kinda thing.

This is the front pressure sensor part number: Kawasaki SENSOR,TPMS 315MHZ Part # 21176-0748.  

The rear tire pressure sensor is identical:
Kawasaki SENSOR,TPMS 315MHZ Part # 21176-0748

When someone asked how expensive they are to replace in that COG thread, someone else replied, "very."  They're out of stock on Amazon.  New ones are going for $300CAD a pop on eBay, so yes, very.

Partly because I won't miss what I've never had before and partly because I'm tight, I'll get this parked-too-long-Concours into motion and see if that doesn't wake everything up.  In the meantime I know how to turn off the panicky notifications that cripple the dash.  If the sensors don't come back online once warmed up and in regular use again, I'll consider sorting a new battery and/or unit when I do my first tire change on the bike.

Sense of Achievement! Concours C14 Windshield Fixed

I dug deep into the C14 Concours today and the windshield is solved! I followed the shop manual diagram, but it actually points at the wrong bolt to remove the windshield motor housing. There is a tricky bolt underneath, but otherwise the rest are on the front and the whole unit comes out.

The three bolts at the top that connect the instrument bezel and two lower bolts hold the whole assembly in.  You need to take the bolts out of the instrument bezel too, but you don't need to completely remove it or take the front body work off either.  With bolts removed and the binnacle loose, you can slide the whole unit partially out, remove the power plug in the back and slide it the rest of the way.

With it out on the bench I cleaned all the connectors and also loosed the motor out of its housing and cleaned it all out as well.  With the assembly out I could check the power coming and and both up and down were at battery voltage, so the relays, switch and back end of the circuit were all good.

Motor's on the left next to the big round thing.  With the contacts cleaned and the motor reseated I gave it a go and off it went...

While it was out I greased all the components - it's very quiet when it runs.  Nice, smooth action too.

***

With the front end solved and the fairing still off I figured I'd do an oil change.  The parts came in from FortNine in only a couple of days.  Mobil1 seems to have ceased to exist in the COVpocalyse, so I went with Motul for the first time.  Before I even put it in the bike I was impressed with the pop-out spouts built into each bottle.  WTH Mobil and Castol?

I didn't realize the 5100 was their mid-range oil but after seeing what came out of the bike I think I'll run this until the end of June as a cleanout and then switch to a fully synthetic oil.  Motul's full synthetic is pretty expensive and with Mobil1 no longer available I'm going to use Castol Power1 4T, which still seems to exist and is working well in the Tiger.

The filter wasn't coming off easily and even the oil opening plug was ceased shut, so I don't know the last time this thing got serviced.  The oil coming out was dirty but didn't have anything worrying like fuel or coolant in it, it was just very, very used.  Those are hard drive magnets on the end of the filter if you're curious.  They're super strong and keep any metallic detritus in the filter as the oil circulates. 

With the bike now back to spec and the basic maintenance taken care of it's time to get this thing on the road!  I'll sort out insurance this week and then figure out what's what with licensing with the 3rd wave running Ontario into the ground.

Tiger Tales: finding twists and turns in a straight line desert

I know I live in the wrong place when I ride 20 minutes out of my way to find two consecutive corners that let me lean the bike.  One day I'll escape the tedium of Southwestern Ontario and live somewhere with geography that delights rather than depresses.

In early April I rode for over an hour to get to River Road out of Horning's Mills.  That's a 60 minute ride to get 13 minutes of corners, except Ontario, in its wisdom, has decided to make the whole thing a 60km/hr zone now, so you're going so slowly you end up tipping over rather than enjoying the corners.

The other fun thing (besides the tedium of the geography) is that the roads are falling apart after another long Canadian winter. Between that, the lack of geography and ever increasing population pushing speed limits down to dribbling velocity, it's time to find some corners elsewhere on a trip, except there aren't any trips in year two of COVID.

I've still got a stupid grin on my face though because I'm back out on two wheels after nearly a hundred days of the weather trying to kill me.

45 minutes to the east are the Forks of the Credit, a 5km wiggle that follows the Credit River as it tumbles down the Niagara Escarpment.  You actually get a switchback out of it, but the proximity to Toronto means it's usually very busy, even though it wouldn't rate a second look in California or anywhere else with mountains.  I went on a mid-week day and managed a couple of clean runs in the mid-April sun.

Last weekend I headed south to near Campbellville, another 45 minute slog to get a couple of curves.  I don't usually head that way often because it's perilously close to the GTA, so you not only get tedious roads but also a lot of tedious people.  It took me a couple of tries to get a clean run at it, but even then you're waiting forever for the odd corner.

We live west and south of the Niagara Escarpment (yep, the same cliff Niagara Falls flows over an hour and a half south west of us), which winds around us and up north into Michigan.  It's one of the few geographical features that break up the monotony, but not by much.  After having ridden the Arizona mountains and Vancouver Island's spectacular scenery, it's difficult to take the tedium when you know other people live in places that make riding a thrill.

Not all Ontario is this dull.  As you head east you get into the lake of the woods and the Canadian Shield which offers some interesting riding options, though the road conditions are still rough.

Maybe one of these days I'll get a chance to head out Peterborough/Ottawa way and enjoy the curves the Shield and the lake of the woods offer.