Triumph Tiger 955i: checking your motorcycle alternator and replacing a regulator rectifier

I tested the Tiger's alternator today. This is found under the round cover on the bottom left side of the bike.  I've lined up a MOFSET regulator/rectifier for the Tiger after some concise and clear advice from PSPB's FB forum where you always get clear advice instead of a bunch of internet mouth-breathers jumping in with what they don't know.

The Triumph OEM reg-rectifier isn't available and costs nearly $400 while also being an inefficient silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) shunt type reg-rectifier.  The one coming is a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) based unit that is both faster and more efficient both thermally and in terms of providing steady voltage to the battery.  

With a new reg-rectifier coming, I took the advice on PSPB's FB forum and tested the alternator.  To make sure you're getting clean AC power you test the three wires going into the alternator for resistance (they should all show similar resistance between them).  The result was a steady 0.5ohms across all the connectors, which bodes well.

The final test is to make sure nothing is showing infinite resistance to ground on the bike.  Once again the alternator in the bike showed good wiring with no infinite resistance to ground on any of the wires:

The next step will be to wire up the new reg-rectifier when it gets here (should be early next week) and then see how things go.  The one I was able to find is wired for my specific Triumph (though Triumphs and Ducatis from the era both seemed to share the same unit).  With the new reg-rectifier wired up I should be good to go with the Tiger again and hopefully the (new over the winter) battery isn't having to carry the bike like it was and I won't have the stalling issues that have been plaguing me.

UPDATE

The reg-rectifier came in from Amazon right quick and I just installed it.  Having just brimmed the tank I didn't want to get the 24 litre monster off again to install it, and installing it with the tank in is tricky, but I managed it.

The kit came with replacement connectors, which is good because the ones on the bike disintegrated when I took them apart.  I was liberal with the dielectric grease and it all went together well.

I fired up the bike and it's now producing a very steady 13.9v and when I rev the engine nothing changes (before it would drop to barely 12.1v suggesting that while the motor was spinning above idle the battery wasn't being charged.  I didn't run the bike hot as I was in the garage with an impending thunderstorm going on outside but the readings I got suggest the strange electrics are resolved.

If you're experiencing regulator rectifier issues usually shown through an overcharging or undercharging (as was my case) battery, look up MOSFET type reg/rectifiers for your model of bike and save yourself a lot of time and money trying to chase down OEM replacements that simply don't exist.

The plan is still on to get the Tiger to 100,000kms by the time it turns 20 years old in 2023.

I wish Blogger weren't so stingy with headers or I'd alternate between the Tiger TMD logo and the new Concours TMD logo as I now have two functional and quite different bikes on the road.

Loud Pipes and Stunting Isn't a Reflection on the Vast Majority of Motorcyclists

Matt Galloway is the long-time CBC host with seventy-three thousand followers on Twitter and hundreds of thousands of listeners on CBC each day coast to coast to coast in Canada.  He tweeted out tonight about the stunting and loud pipes echoing around downtown Toronto on this heat wave Sunday evening.

The police have obviously been given direction to not pressure vehicular traffic during the COVID19 pandemic but this direction has led to a small minority of riders and drivers abusing the situation in a city where no one can leave.

Why anyone would abuse this situation?  It's a good question but one that motorcyclists in particular seem to have trouble answering.  I read a lot of British bike magazines and there is a lot of push back against anti-social riding there too during the pandemic.  When everyone is under the pressure of staying stationary, riding around like an asshole isn't a nice thing to do.

We live in a small town of less than ten thousand and yet I'm frequently unable to carry a conversation when the loud-pipe crew rolls by.  I don't find this safe (loud pipes save lives!) or even considerate or reasonable.  What it is is selfish and usually the result of someone with a massive inferiority complex making a statement about themselves.

What's particularly frustrating about Matt's tweet is that the kickback from the police will make life difficult for everyone on two wheels while also casting our sport in a negative light which will eventually result in even less people participating in our hobby at a time when less and less young people are bothering to get driving/riding licenses.

This isn't going to end well for anyone on two wheels.  Grow up people and try and think about something other than your own gnawing inferiority complex.

3d Scanning a Motorcycle

 Using a Structure Sensor I 3d scanned a 2010 Kawasaki Concours14 and cleaned it up in Meshmixer:

Kawasaki Concours14 3d Scan by timking17 on Sketchfab

The Structure Sensor is an old generation 1 device and isn't as high resolution as I'd like, but it gives you a general sense of shape and proportions.  Meshmixer is free from Autodesk and does a good job of fixing up voids and missing bits in the scan.

This is the model in case you'd like to mess around with it.

Structure.io came out with a higher resolution second generation model that they offer a discount on if you send in your old one.  It might be time to trade up.  My dream is eventually to get a 3d scanner that is accurate enough to scan and reproduce old motorcycle fairings that are out of production in order to produce millimetre accurate OEM replicas to keep old bikes on the road with new plastics via 3d printing accurate reproductions.

The next step would be to scan a customer's fairings and offer customized options based on 3d modelling.  It would be relatively easy to reproduce high quality copies of fairings with some interesting variations in design.  Alternate cooling, MotoGP style wings and even craziness like a motorcycle fairing redesigned with dragon scales of made out of feathers are well within the realm of 3d modelling/3dprinting.

The customized fairing/3d printing direction hasn't been explored yet.  Accurate 3d modelling would also allow a micro-manufacturing concern to reproduce the old plastic bits that are wearing out on bikes from holders and brackets to dash pieces.  Because they're 3d modelled, this would eventually build a library of out-of-production parts that could keep a wide variety of bikes on the road.

I've been dreaming about this kind of digital forge/micromanufacturing company since 2015:  http://tkmotorcyclediaries.blogspot.com/2015/11/iihtm-digital-workshop.html

Disney's Big Hero Six garage is part of the inspiration:

Chasing Intermittent Tiger Stalling: Checking Motorcycle Electrical Systems

I'm starting to think the stalling issues I'm experiencing on my Triumph Tiger might be an electrical issue.  The onboard computer isn't giving me any error codes, but when I rev it the lights on dash dim a bit, which shouldn't happen.

Motorcycle electrical systems are, like many aspects of motorcycling, a simplified and often more high maintenance version of what you see in a car where the extra space and size means you can make things modular, more self contained and cheaper to rebuild.

Instead of packing everything into an alternator running off the engine via a belt, motorcycles break things up to minimize drag on their smaller engines (belt driven systems suck a log of energy out of a small motor).  A bike will typically put a generator inside the motor on the engine crank so if the motor is turning over the generator is using magnets to generate electricity from the spinning motion.  This produces alternate current but, like cars, bikes generally use direct 12v current, so they need something to change the AC to DC.

Regulator/Rectifiers not only switch your power generation from alternating to direct current but they also regulate it so your battery is receiving a steady 14.5 volts on charge.  A failing reg/rec can overcharge or undercharge your battery.

The flakiness of my situation (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't) suggests that this is a connection issue.  Before I start replacing parts I'm going to chase down all the connections, Dremel them clean and refasten everything properly.  If I'm still getting stalls and weird light dimming I'll test components one by one until I've isolated the flakey bit.

I teach computer technology as my day job and a flakey power supply (which also converts wall AC to in-computer DC) can produce some very unusual and difficult to track problems in a computer.  This feels like that.

There is nothing magic about how electricity works, but many people are really jumpy about it.  I've found that a rigorous, step-by-step analysis will usually uncover even the flakiest of electrical failures.  It will again here too.

RESOURCES

Analysing engine stalling in powersports motors 

How to know if your regulator/rectifier is failing

How a motorcycle electrical system works

Various motorcycle charging systems (full wave/half wave)

MOSFET regulator upgrade

The regulator/rectifier (#7) at the top is under the seat next to the battery.  I'm going to remove, clean and reinstall that.  

The big parts on a bike's charging system are astonishingly expensive!  Replacing an alternator with a quality rebuilt parts will cost you about $170CAD.  To do the rotor, stator and regulator/rectifier on the Tiger would cost me the better part of two grand Canadian!  Some of that might be old-Triumph price gouging, but it's ironic that all the online explanations describe motorcycle charging systems as built down to a price when it's clearly built up to one... on a mountain.  But there are options...

How To Buy Used but Quality Motorcycle Gear Online

The last couple of weeks I've been keeping myself busy looking for motorcycle gear in the second hand market.  If you've never looked before, there is an astonishing amount of kit out there being sold at a fraction of its new price, if you're willing to be patient and picky.

What prompted the first purchase was seeing a Teknic jacket that was a size down from my current one which is a bit too big.  Teknic has ceased to exist so jackets like these are fading away.  I like 'em because they come with my initials printed on them and they're usually pretty disco.  I also find them very functional in a wide variety of temperatures and comfortable to use.

This grey camo/red one appeared on Kijiji for sale in King City, just north of Toronto.  The GTA isn't where I'd usually choose to ride but the jacket seemed in good shape and he was only asking fifty bucks for it.

We met in the ride-share drop off at the 400 and the jacket was indeed in great shape - the seller's brother bought it, used it for a month and then it sat in a closet for several years.  The zips were all in like-new shape and the jacket was unmarked in any way.  The only issue was it didn't come with the liner but since I already have a TK jacket I can just use that one.

Those parking lots always creep me out a bit.  They feel like places that have fallen into the cracks with empty cars slowly melting in the sun and zombie apocalypse levels of human activity.  It always makes me wonder how many of those cars have undiscovered bodies in them.

The ride back across Caledon was nice.  Lots of bikes out enjoying the spring, deep blue skies and scudding clouds; Harley riders arranging tow trucks for their bikes broken down on the side of the road, the usual sort of thing.

A lot of my riding wardrobe is adventure bike based but that look doesn't really suit the slick, shinkansen that is the Concours.  Much of what I own is very tiger-themed (ie: ORANGE) too.  Last week I was poking around on Facebook Marketplace, Facebook's attempt to take out Kijiji, when I saw a blue leather jacket for sale just up the road in Alma.

I finally got out to see it yesterday and it's a perfect fit.  I had a Joe Rocket jacket (new) for my first bike jacket and it cost me over $200 and was their cheapest textile model.  This leather one was their top of the line jacket from a few years back.  The guy selling it had a serious bike accident some years back and never rode again so his kit sat in a closet gathering dust.  This happens an awful lot.  Don't rush out to buy brand new kit if you can be patient.  Keeping an eye on the classifieds can net you some excellent, low mileage kit for a fraction of the cost.

New this model was nearly seven hundred bucks.  It's a complicated bit of clothing with modular forearm panels and elbow pads, a back protector and quality leather construction.  In less summery weather you can zip in waterproof outer pieces into the side panels/underarms and padded liner to make it cold-weather ready.  For the summer you can zip out the armpit panels and you turn it into a mesh/leather jacket with really good ventilation.

It cleaned up nicely (mainly just getting rid of dust) with some leather treatment.  The adjustability of this thing makes it fit very well.  My other Joe Rocket was from their 'new rider' end of their line so I'd assumed that all their kit is built down to a price but this thing is special.

The owner was asking $150 for it and with every zipper like new, the liners all in excellent shape and not a mark on it (it isn't even really broken in), I paid him what he was asking.  For less than the price of the mesh summer jacket I got on sale I've picked up two very low mileage, quality jackets.

If you're looking for motorcycle gear and especially if you aren't in a rush, spend some time keeping an eye on the used market and you might luck into just what you're looking in like-new condition for a fraction of the cost.

PLACES TO LOOK FOR USED MOTO-GEAR

Facebook Marketplace:  https://www.facebook.com/marketplace

Lets you look by geographic location or further afield if you want.  Because it's linked to people's verified Facebook accounts you tend to get fast responses and less nonsense.  Since pretty much everyone is on FB you also get stuff for sale from people who are professional used sellers (like on Kijiji).

Kijiji:  https://www.kijiji.ca/

One of the earliest online marketplaces.  Users who have been on there for a long time know what they're doing but you run a higher chance of dealing with flakes hiding behind pseudonyms on there.  Be more cautious if that's the case.

eBay:  https://www.ebay.ca/  

Can be good if you're looking for very specific things but then you end up dealing with people from far away and the subsequent dodginess and import headaches.  Some people swear by it but I find it more trouble than it's worth.

Your Local Olde Fashioned Newspaper Classifieds:  https://classifieds.wellingtonadvertiser.com/index.cfm  (you'll need to look your's up)

If you're not looking for anything specific but might consider a surprise, you'd be amazed how often things pop up in your local newspaper that non-digital types have put up for sale.  I've found astonishingly cheap project bikes in local papers that luddites are happy to sell for less if it means they don't have to use a computer to do it.