My VFR has failed me!

My poor, neglected bike has had it's revenge! I have a lovely red 1996 Honda VFR750 which has pretty much not skipped a beat in 72000km. I bought it at about 18000km and it has only used a few headlight bulbs, very few tyres and a chain and sprockets to speak of. I was reading just this week about how wonderful the VFR is as a used bike, but watch out for the regulator/rectifier because they are notorious for failing. They actually listed a website with some good ideas to prevent it happening which I was going to look at one day soon. See http://www.one-ring.net/vfrfaq/reg-rect.html Not soon enough apparently!

After coasting to a stop with everything dead I immediately suspected a fuse. Years ago I called my mechanic out to a roadside breakdown on my BMW K100RS only to discover it was just a fuse. Once I found the fuse it was in fact blown. Honda has wisely installed spare fuses so I put the spare in (It's hard to get at) and it blew immediately, without even switching on. Well, that was the last 30amp fuse so I used the last bar of battery on my mobile to phone my mechanic (the same one as before) who told me it was the regulator/rectifier. I just had to unplug it and drive on - but not too far because the battery would not be charging. All sweet until I get the bill for the new bit! I might try to use the fixes on that website too.

I wonder if the bike was a bit fickle because I have not been riding it much lately on account of I am teaching my boy to drive. I hadn't ridden it for about 2 weeks so that might have something to do with it. Only a couple of months and he should be able to get his license so back to the bike as much as possible!

Teaching someone to drive is a subject in itself and maybe source for another post soon!