My CB500X Adventure

[NevadaWolf]

Still tracking down the gremlin.

Removed the FuzeBlock and wired everything to the battery.

Phone still kept cycling on and off while plugged into the right dash USB, GPS remained steady on plugged into the left dash USB. Switched cables, GPS (now in right) begins cycling between external and internal power. Hypothesis - right USB is goofy.

Phone now plugged into the left USB. 10 ish minutes later, began cycling on and off again. Hypothesis - left USB also goofy?? Wait...

Plugged both GPS and Phone into Handlebar USBs. GPS remained steady on with external power, phone cycled on and off. New hypothesis - phone port is also goofy.

Still working on it...

[Alex]

If it's now just battery ---> usb port converter ---> cord to phone, and the phone is cycling on and off; there are really two options, right? Either the USB port converter itself is poorly designed (or manufactured), or the electrical system on the bike is causing weird fluctuations (bad stator? bad reg/rec?). One way to separate the two is to run it without the bike even being on. That way it's really just getting clean simple power from the battery. If it doesn't pop on and off then, but starts misbehaving when the bike is running, there might be more issues than just the USB converter itself.

[NevadaWolf]

It only acts up while I'm riding. Sitting in the garage with or without the bike running, it's been stable. That's why I think I have it solved -- until I go riding next.

And then it's not consistent. I haven't been able to determine if it's road condition (seems fine on dirt, fails on pavement), speed (seems fine at slow speeds, fails on the highway), or what?

I have one more variable on the wire for the USB plug, I added a quick disconnect since it's mounted to the front of the bike which can be completely removed. So, going to remove the quick disconnect, repair the wire, and see if that keeps a test light I'll plug in happy.

If there was something wrong with the bike itself, wouldn't I be seeing symptoms elsewhere? Like the lights, dash, or voltmeter?

This seems isolated to the USB ports I've added, unless I'm missing something. The grips and Gerbing both work as expected when wired to the battery and sitting still or moving.

[omnivore]

RallyRaid has a great dualsport package for that bike

[Alex]

Originally Posted by NevadaWolf

If there was something wrong with the bike itself, wouldn't I be seeing symptoms elsewhere? Like the lights, dash, or voltmeter?

Maybe, maybe not. Some phones are extremely finicky about the voltage being perfect before allowing a charge. Some are finicky about electrical noise. Same with some GPS units. The lights and dash on the bike are likely way more resilient. You're right, I would suspect something to be visible on the voltmeter if that was fluctuating more wildly, but maybe not.

Originally Posted by NevadaWolf

This seems isolated to the USB ports I've added, unless I'm missing something. The grips and Gerbing both work as expected when wired to the battery and sitting still or moving.

The grips and the Gerbing don't care a whit about any electrical weirdness. They would work fine (at least without turning off), at half the voltage, double the voltage, half the current, double the current, etc. They are simple resistive loads.

[sharky nrk]

Originally Posted by Alex

Maybe, maybe not. Some phones are extremely finicky about the voltage being perfect before allowing a charge. Some are finicky about electrical noise. Same with some GPS units. The lights and dash on the bike are likely way more resilient. You're right, I would suspect something to be visible on the voltmeter if that was fluctuating more wildly, but maybe not.

This is a great point. I have phone and charger combos that won't work and all the phones and chargers are the same brand even lol.

[NevadaWolf]

Going to double check tonight, but I'm leaning more towards something wrong with the Burnsmoto USBs since the Chinese USBs seemed to have worked last night.

Cables are:
A new power cord that originally went with a spare power bank to the phone - no issues charging normally.
The original computer cable for the DeLorme GPS that has been on the Ninja for three years - no issues charging.

The Ninja has two Burnsmoto ports that I've used for three years, both the GPS and Phone are able to charge normally using those ports - which is why I bought them again.

This is what I've done so far:

Removed the quick disconnect from the Burnsmoto wires and soldered it back together, creating one continuous wire each for pos and neg.
Put spade connectors are the end of the wires and screwed it directly onto the battery.
Each test I only had one thing wired to the battery. All wires go straight from the battery to the ports with no extra in line fuse in between. Visually, I see no kinks, breaks, or bends in any of the wires, nor have I run them through any pinch points.

During a ride, the voltmeter varies between 13.8 and 14.1.

Test A: Burnsmoto Left USB
Plugged in an LED light meant as a keyboard light for a laptop.
Rode from Fallon to Lahontan (20 miles) approximately 25 minutes.
Result: Light remained steady on entire trip.

Test A.2: Burnsmoto Left USB
Plugged in DeLorme GPS
Rode back from Lahontan 7 miles towards Fallon
Result: Sitting in the parking lot at Lahontan, the GPS remained steady on external power. As soon as I pulled the bike up from the kickstand, it began cycling between external and internal power. Continued fluctuating during ride.

Test A.3: Burnsmoto Left USB
Plugged light back in
Rode remaining distance to Fallon
Result: Light flickered on and off, sometimes just a quick "brown out", other times completely off for awhile, then back on. Continued fluctuating until I got back to the house, parked the bike and leaned it onto the kickstand, then the light stayed on. Remained steady on as I pushed the bike up onto the work table and remained steady as I removed my gear. Manually turned it off.

Test B: Chinese USBs (it's a dual port, top is 1A, bottom is 2.1A)
Plugged LED light into top port.
Rode from Fallon to Lahontan
Light remained steady - except quick flash that I think was the vibration causing the power button to bump against the windscreen and briefly turned it off and a second flutter that I think was caused by the plug from the light coming loose out of the Chinese port. Moving the light and pushing it back into the port solved both.

Test B.2: Chinese USBs
Plugged in DeLorme GPS into top port.
Rode back from Lahontan towards Fallon - 10 miles
Result: DeLorme remained steady on external power

Test B.3: Chinese USBs
Plugged in phone into top port.
Rode back to Lahontan from Fallon - 10 miles
Result: Phone cycled on and off a few times. Tried pushing the plug into the Chinese port to tighten up the connection and also tried pushing the plug into the phone port since that was loose as well. Still cycled.

Test B.4: Chinese USBs
Plugged in light into top port and GPS into bottom port.
Rode back from Lahontan to Fallon - 20 miles
Both the light and the GPS remained steady on the entire ride.

Test C: Burnsmoto right USB
Plugged in an LED light.
Rode from Fallon to Lahontan (20 miles) approximately 25 minutes.
Result: remained steady on.

Test C.2: Burnsmoto right USB
Plugged in DeLorme GPS
Rode back from Lahontan 7 miles towards Fallon
Result: Cycled between external and internal power.

Test C.3: Burnsmoto right USB
Plugged in light again
Rode back from 3 miles towards Fallon
Result: Light remained steady on.

Test C.4: Burnsmoto right USB
Plugged in DeLorme GPS again
Rode back remaining 10 miles to home.
Result: GPS continued cycling through internal and external power. Got back to the garage and sat holding the bike upright (still cycled), leaned the bike over (still cycled), and turned the bike off (still cycled).

I'm getting ready to give up on this.

Tonight's test will be the Chinese USBs and I'll sit in the garage with the light and GPS on while the bike is off, then with the bike on, then going for a ride to see if I can get the same cycling effect as shown by the Burnsmoto USBs.

[Alex]

Any change that you can see on an LED is orders of magnitude greater than would affect a phone charging circuit. If you can see the LED cycle at all, there are some significant issues right there that need to be diagnosed before going any further.

[NevadaWolf]

I tried just leaving the GPS on while hooked up to the right Burnsmoto - after a few minutes just sitting there with the bike off, it began cycling on/off.

Disconnected the Burnsmoto one and hooked up the Chinese one. Rode for an hour and a half on smooth and rough roads and neither the GPS nor light cycled. Braved plugging my phone in.

Over an hour ride home, mostly on rough washboard road from heck, and neither the GPS nor phone cycled. The phone even got enough power that it fully recharged.

It's not the bike!

Going to remove the Burnsmoto USBs and get in touch with the guy to see if he can identify the problem and repair/replace these. I do love his products, they work awesome on the Ninja.

Thanks for the ideas on things to check and ways to check them.

[headshrink]

Welcome to the CB500 family, and glad you like it.

One thing I've found with mine, and seen lots of talk about online, is oil consumption. It's a problem Honda won't acknowledge, but it's definitely a thing for a lot of 500s out there. I'm usually adding about 400ml every couple hundred miles. HOPEFULLY you won't have a problem, but you'll want to keep an eye on it.

If you do your own valve adjustments you'll love how much easier they are... once you actually get to the valve cover (that part is harder).

Suspension is one of the weakest parts for all the 500s, but I THINK the CB500x riders aren't as displeased as the CBR500r / or F model riders. In a nutshell, the stock springs are very, very weak. Mine was literally too weak to hold the bikes own weight without rider. Adding preload adjusters helped a ton! The other thing we like to do on these bikes is to add heavier fork oil. This helps control that crazy Pogo-stick of a ride. I'm still working out emulators and aftermarket springs on mine (Traxxion Dynamics drop-in damper kit), but if I had to do it again I'd probably keep it a little more simple with the suggestions I mentioned.

There's a dedicated forum at cbr50***********m, but it isn't even close to the community here.... so I expect we'll still see you around these parts for years to come.

These bikes feel super mellow compared to the Ninja, but I've found it's hard to go back once you adjust.

[verboten1]

Just an FYI, my FZ1 has 2 LED lights, a light bar, heated grips, gerbings dual controller, blue sea USB, and a lighter plug attached. It's been fine, it is wired up to date he battery with 12 ga wire.

[NevadaWolf]

Got a new USB from BurnsMoto. Installed it in a different spot to get my access panel back for the front lights. Rewired everything back to the FuzeBlock and it's kinda solved. I'm thinking it might be how the cord hangs from the phone and its just loose enough to disconnect itself. The GPS is still fluctuating on one of the original ports, the phone fluctuates randomly but wiggling the cord helps. Least it didn't die on me again today.

I dunno, but don't want to work on it anymore (for awhile anyway - will eventually come back to it).

Just did the 12k oil change a week or so ago so will check the oil level and see if it's excessively low. Thanks for that! The suspension I'm not familiar enough with yet to feel if its good/bad/whatever. It is what it is as far as I know. When I get better off road and learn to feel what the bike is telling me, I'll keep the advice in mind.

Yeah I signed up for cbr500riders and cb500x but much perfer my home here. So, just will get used to posting in the Ex forum.

[NevadaWolf]

Oh haven't updated in awhile.

Power still an issue even though I did get a brand new port from BurnsMoto. Still not really invested in solving it. I do know the battery is a bit weak since a week of sitting causes it to run dead (happened even before I started adding aux ports). Maybe when I get a new battery I'll take time to troubleshoot the issue. Current solution - keep real phone in pocket with everything turned off except the phone part, and use busted phone of same model as my dashboard music player.

Currently waiting on the swing arm supports for my Pitbull so that I can pull the wheels off to put on the new Shinko 705s I bought. My friend gave me a half used Metzler when I killed the Pirelli Scorpion Trail rear (?) and what we thought would last the life of the new Shinko Raven 009 front I put on instead only lasted about 3000 miles ish. So new tires all around and enough with the band-aids.

My 4Runner has developed an internal rod knock so been commuting on the bikes these last 2-3 weeks. First on the Honda until the rear tire died, now on the Ninja (which is why the battery is dead on the Honda again). So nothing exciting to report.

Next purchase is going to be an engine guard (possibly from Givi).

Next goal is going to be improve my slow speed handling. I've reached the point where I am happy with my "at speed" riding around the Sierras, just fast enough that I'm probably a B-group rider on familiar roads, and I feel like I'm as smooth as I want to be for normal everyday riding. Since off road requires slower riding and better handling skills, that's where I want to focus on next. The cop course is my first step to being a better on road rider, next I'll find an off road course to improve my dirt skills.

[sharky nrk]

I have the 705s on the Versys. They are a pretty decent tire for the money. I do think I will go back to a 90/10 in stock sizes on my next set though (Trail IIs or Anakee IIIs or something).

[AwDang]

Another for 705's
I have them on my Tiger. No complaints on road except some noise around 45mph. I avoid that speed.