Tech Talk

Do you have a biking related problem that no one else has an answer for?

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Tech Talk : ANSWERS

Alarming stuff

I have a bright yellow Triumph 650 Daytona and I love it to bits, however it has one niggling fault that I can’t cure and neither can my local dealer so far. At some petrol stations it refuses to start, this only happens once in a blue moon but it is always at petrol stations out of my town, so it’s hard, if not impossible, to replicate. When the bike does it the alarm refuses to let the bike start so I end up stuck on the forecourt for a few minutes until eventually the alarm gives up its fight and away we go again. Do you have any ideas what this might be as so far all I have spoken to are dumbfounded.
Michael Sweetman, Harlow Essex

When I first sampled this model it was part of a group test of the leading supersport bikes and we did the shoot at Oliver’s Mount in Scarborough. On the way up to the shoot the Triumph did what you describe when I stopped to fill up and then again later in the day when parked outside a café at the racetrack. The cause the second time was a large telephone transmitter outside the café. Once the bike was moved away from this structure it didn’t happen again. I can only assume the petrol station I had been at when it happened the first time must have had a telephone aerial built into its structure, as many do have, and it was the radio waves from this that was affecting the on board alarm. As such I presume there is little that can be done other than move the bike away from any such devices and it should work as normal again.

Oil be seeing you

Why can’t I use car oil in my Honda Pan European. I do a lot of mileage each year, around 30k, and try to change the oil every 2000 miles, this starts to add up as you can imagine. I see car oil is way cheaper than the specialist bike lube so why can’t I use this instead? The savings would add up in no time at all, surely my bike doesn’t have anything a top of the range car doesn’t, except the power.
Geoff Standing, Southport

The main difference between the two oils is the tasks they have to carry out. A car engine is made up of different sections so the pistons, crankshaft and cams all run in one specification of lubricant while the gearbox and transmission have their own oil to run in. In most bikes these tasks are carried out by the same oil so it has to be a much more complex mix of lubricants to handle the relatively light work of the engine while also taking on the heavy loads within the gearbox while not being too slippery so as to affect the clutch adversely. Bike oil has a lot more work to do so the expense is somewhat justified.

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