Quality

[tommy]

The leads are very long, 10 feet at a guess (I cant tell without de-tangling them). I mount it on the front of my (south facing) garage with a shelf bracket so it faces upwards. Just had a look at it and it's an "Oxford battery solariser" definatly worth buying in my opinion. It has plug and play connectors on it, so you could always leave it on your fuel tank / seat when the bikes not in use if mounting is an issue

[Dusty]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/12V-VOLT-CAR-BATT ... 240%3A1318

I bought one of these for keeping a leisure battery topped up but I've never used it on the bike battery. I don't know how waterproof it would be but I suppose it could be wrapped in polythene.

[k1w1boy]

My 2 cents. For those like me who cant use an optimiser (My garage is 50 yards from the house - no power) buy a solar charger. I think oxford makes it. It works a charm keeping the battery topped up. I can now not toutch the bike for a month and will still start without resetting the dash etc. Worth every penny (about 20 quid)
Bought it couple of weeks ago after passing driving test (the cars much warmer and drier than the 'prilla)

Yus, very interesting. Will have to take a look for one. Hopefully the relay will sort things but I'd still like to have something like the solar panel as a back up

[Nooj]

We have the Oxford panel in the car, it sits on the dash when it's parked and I stuff it down between the seat and the door when driving. There's enough wire to run it under the dash, through the bulkhead and along to the battery under the bonnet.

I have a cunning plan to light the conservatory with some LEDs run from a small bike battery which will be topped up with similar solar panel. If I can get that to work I'll do the same with the garden lights with a bigger panel and battery and a 240v inverter.

[Kenif]

It's the Oxford Solariser. Costs about 20 quid. The only down side to it is, you can't extend the cable if needed. It doesn't produce enough power to cope with the added resistance (sold one at work recently and had to find all this stuff out )

[k1w1boy]

....D-Rider: did you order your relay from Scooter Assassins (catchy name )? If so, how long did you wait for delivery? Read the feedback AFTER I placed my order and am worried, holiday season not withstanding, I'll be waiting 2 weeks for delivery

[D-Rider]

....D-Rider: did you order your relay from Scooter Assassins (catchy name )? If so, how long did you wait for delivery? Read the feedback AFTER I placed my order and am worried, holiday season not withstanding, I'll be waiting 2 weeks for delivery

I'm still using my original relay - when it played up I "restored" it.

The Scooter Assassins one is often recommended by Olivier (Go-modem-go) on the AF1 forum. He's a knowledgeable chap so I've no qualms about pointing people in the same direction.
Sorry if you thought I mentioned them because I had used them.

If you are worried and want to try to recover your existing relay, you could do what I did.

1) Disconnect the lead between the relay and the starter motor either at the relay or at the starter motor (at the starter motor is probably easiest .... but please make sure the conductor cant touch anything conductive while it is disconnected or you will short out your electrics when you move on to the next stage)

2) Repeatedly press the starter button to bash the relay contacts together. I guess doing this about 20 times or so would be OK but no harm in doing more. This bashes the oxide off the contacts.You should hear it click every time you press the button.

3) Reconnect the wire to the starter motor.

Hopefully this sorts you out.
Did mine over a year ago and it's been fine ... though I think it might need doing again soon.

Still worth fitting a more reliable relay in the long run (not that I have got round to this yet)

Hope this helps.

[joecrx]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/12V-VOLT-CAR-BATT ... 240%3A1318

I bought one of these for keeping a leisure battery topped up but I've never used it on the bike battery. I don't know how waterproof it would be but I suppose it could be wrapped in polythene.

i had one of these a while back , damaged my battery on the bike and boat , i was told i should of fitted some sort of rectifier , maplens sell them on the shelf next to the solar pannels , stops overcharging,

[mangocrazy]

I bought one of these from Maplins to keep the battery on my car in France topped up. I situated the panel as close to a dormer (roof) window as I could but it still didn't do a very good job and I needed to charge the battery before using it. I suspect that the charge rate is too low for a car and too high for a bike.

Since then a friend has given me another one of these (exactly the same model) as he found it wouldn't charge his car battery properly either. I've done a bit of cutting and shutting and have basically 'doubled-up' on the configuration, by running two in parallel. I've left this charging the car battery over winter in France (the bike is on an Optimate). Hopefully I won't return in April to find my car battery fried...

[D-Rider]

....D-Rider: did you order your relay from Scooter Assassins (catchy name )? If so, how long did you wait for delivery? Read the feedback AFTER I placed my order and am worried, holiday season not withstanding, I'll be waiting 2 weeks for delivery

I'm still using my original relay - when it played up I "restored" it.

The Scooter Assassins one is often recommended by Olivier (Go-modem-go) on the AF1 forum. He's a knowledgeable chap so I've no qualms about pointing people in the same direction.
Sorry if you thought I mentioned them because I had used them.

If you are worried and want to try to recover your existing relay, you could do what I did.

1) Disconnect the lead between the relay and the starter motor either at the relay or at the starter motor (at the starter motor is probably easiest .... but please make sure the conductor cant touch anything conductive while it is disconnected or you will short out your electrics when you move on to the next stage)

2) Repeatedly press the starter button to bash the relay contacts together. I guess doing this about 20 times or so would be OK but no harm in doing more. This bashes the oxide off the contacts.You should hear it click every time you press the button.

3) Reconnect the wire to the starter motor.

Hopefully this sorts you out.
Did mine over a year ago and it's been fine ... though I think it might need doing again soon.

Still worth fitting a more reliable relay in the long run (not that I have got round to this yet)

Hope this helps.

Oh why oh why oh why did I post this up this morning.

Pressed the starter button to go to the footie this afternoon and the F-ing relay contacts welded themselves together (the opposite problem) and drained the battery before I could disconnect it.
So my relay is deceased and I too can join the queue for a replacement.

Ended up going to the footie 2-up on my son's CB125 with my other son on his scooter.
Just as well we had emergency backup I guess.

[Samray]

I think we need pics d-r.

[Kwackerz]

....D-Rider: did you order your relay from Scooter Assassins (catchy name )? If so, how long did you wait for delivery? Read the feedback AFTER I placed my order and am worried, holiday season not withstanding, I'll be waiting 2 weeks for delivery

I'm still using my original relay - when it played up I "restored" it.

The Scooter Assassins one is often recommended by Olivier (Go-modem-go) on the AF1 forum. He's a knowledgeable chap so I've no qualms about pointing people in the same direction.
Sorry if you thought I mentioned them because I had used them.

If you are worried and want to try to recover your existing relay, you could do what I did.

1) Disconnect the lead between the relay and the starter motor either at the relay or at the starter motor (at the starter motor is probably easiest .... but please make sure the conductor cant touch anything conductive while it is disconnected or you will short out your electrics when you move on to the next stage)

2) Repeatedly press the starter button to bash the relay contacts together. I guess doing this about 20 times or so would be OK but no harm in doing more. This bashes the oxide off the contacts.You should hear it click every time you press the button.

3) Reconnect the wire to the starter motor.

Hopefully this sorts you out.
Did mine over a year ago and it's been fine ... though I think it might need doing again soon.

Still worth fitting a more reliable relay in the long run (not that I have got round to this yet)

Hope this helps.

Oh why oh why oh why did I post this up this morning.

Pressed the starter button to go to the footie this afternoon and the F-ing relay contacts welded themselves together (the opposite problem) and drained the battery before I could disconnect it.
So my relay is deceased and I too can join the queue for a replacement.

Ended up going to the footie 2-up on my son's CB125 with my other son on his scooter.
Just as well we had emergency backup I guess.

The Scooter Assassins one is often recommended by Olivier (Go-modem-go) on the AF1 forum.....

[D-Rider]

The Scooter Assassins one is often recommended by Olivier (Go-modem-go) on the AF1 forum.....

Oh feck-off !







(I've got one on order .......)

[Falcomille]

I bought one of these from Maplins to keep the battery on my car in France topped up. I situated the panel as close to a dormer (roof) window as I could but it still didn't do a very good job and I needed to charge the battery before using it. I suspect that the charge rate is too low for a car and too high for a bike.

Since then a friend has given me another one of these (exactly the same model) as he found it wouldn't charge his car battery properly either. I've done a bit of cutting and shutting and have basically 'doubled-up' on the configuration, by running two in parallel. I've left this charging the car battery over winter in France (the bike is on an Optimate). Hopefully I won't return in April to find my car battery fried...

With snow on the cards for this week, it'll probably be frozen.

[mangocrazy]

Snow? In the S of F? Blimey... Snow in that part of the world is a major event. I'm sure all the old guys in the local bar could tell you the year and month when the last snow fell there...