Imploded Battery Blues: A sad night with a BMW F650 Dakar

Took the Dakar out for a ride in the PacNorthWet on Friday . Sun came out and it was beautiful. I stopped by a river (Snolqualmie) to see how the fishing was. Went to start the bike and everything lit up and then died. No power whatsoever.. I checked all the fuses and they were good.

I called BMW and they said my battery probably imploded. Short story...bike was dead. I ditched the bike at a farm, after pushing it nearly a mile. I then hiked about five miles in the dark to a small town (Carnation) finally got in touch with a friend and they offered to come get me ... It was late now. It was foggy and cold, so I hung out in a library. They closed and kicked me out. I hung around outside the library waiting to be picked up. In any event got, home and it began to poor buckets. Just in time.

 

See the video summary.

Long walk Back to Civilization

The long walk ahead

Ghostly fields of fog

A scene no bike lover likes to see - The long ride home

I got up at 6 am the next morning and got the bike. It was still raining.

Once at home, I checked f650.com and got an AGM battery, per the majority of the opinion over on the forum, from O'Reillys auto parts. The parts store did a load test on teh old battery, and sure enough there was a short in. I installed the new battery, fired up the bike and away I went to ride some Forrest service roads up to the snow. No problems.

I have never had a battery implode like this. I may have tried to start the bike with the heated grips on high and the PIAA lights were on. Not sure what really happened, but in my research, it seems that people have had similar probelms with bike and car batteries.

A new battery and a shake down run out to Snolqualmie Falls

The Old Mill (Twin Peaks Fame)

Cool beans to see this

 The Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Co. (later the Weyerhaeuser Mill) was constructed in 1917 and was the second all-electric mill operation in the country. From 1989 to 1992 it doubled as the Packard Sawmill in Twin Peaks. Just two months after it was filmed for the pilot, the mill was partially dismantled and downsized.

Another pose

Snoqualmie River Looking West

A forest service road the runs out and into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Shortly before I encountered snow and had to turn around.

Until next time....