...and today I bump started it for the 3rd time with zero power and rode off.
But tonight was different, no dash and the turn signals were nominal at best...switching between high and low beam brought the dash alive but not functional...the dash finally came alive 2 miles from home to tell me for about 5 seconds I was doing an indicated 77mph.
Pretty certain the stock battery has gasped it's last breath.
Time for a battery, oil and coolant change, and to install the kick starter...

 

Hey I've veen meanin to ask ya, are you still on your stock cam chain? Im at ablut 19k miles and i'm curious at its replacement interval

 

Oh yeah, can we talk about dynabeads?
But seriously, my battery owes me nothing.
Other than the battery, she's still a Timex.
My local hardware store still stocks a wind-up Timex.
In other news, I'm trying to get a friend to part with an R70? (it's buried under his house, well, it's buried under a pile of crap under his front porch)...still not sure of the model or year, but it is original and complete and was just parked. Like I have the time or money right now...but I will in a bit.
And yes, still the stock cam chain, but have had the KCCT for 20,000 of the 32.
I should measure it, now that you mention it. Damn! Well, at least I can fix the oil leak while I'm in there...

 

And I just got this helmet...after ordering a different style and size that didn't fit...the one I originally wanted came back into stock.

 

O'neal makes a quality helmet, i have the piston one.

I've had the came chain for 11k out of my 19k hopefully it holds up for another 20k lol. Interesting, I'm also on the stock battery but my bike is two years older, not a problem yet

 

I have 30,000 miles on my 650 and still going fine. Also with what I've learned over the past several years now I can tell you if your OEM tensioner has held up or you're running one of my manual units the chain should last as long as your engine.

That is one of the things about a HyVo style chain - long life as long as it's kept within reasonable adjustment. There are Concours and other bikes running the same size chain with over 100,000 miles on them. The only time they trash out is when the OEM fails and it flails and snaps around. I've known of other KLX650 riders who end up replacing chains (2 in the 650) every 10,000 because they're still running the junk tensioner and the chains beat around ruining them and sometimes the sliders too. In two cases I've had riders who bought tensioners have the chain break because the tensioners don't keep the slack under control.

By the way, got the lights yesterday. I would be in for 2 or 4 more if you get something together. Let me know if you do something.

 

So as I was riding home with no dash, I experienced a high rpm miss. Was it at 6500rpm? Maybe around there or a bit above (no dash = no real idea) but was definitely like is described in the "Ground Mod" thread. Maybe there is something to the mod, I've never needed it, my issue was fuel, but with a bad battery in the mix maybe it makes a difference.
Will it damage anything to ride the bike with a dead battery? I don't need to now (it's home), was just wondering if I did any damage to anything else...
Now to grab the cage and go get a battery.

 

This is what I was seeing when running.
http://vid1359.photobucket.com/album...ps1787b8c8.mp4

 

Huh...that's weird. Did you say you tried a new battery? Perhaps it's the voltage regulator (is that the name of the part?) the thing under the plastics with fins on it, looks square i think

 

No that was the old battery. I just charged and installed the new one, back to normal.