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Broke a CT125?! and YES you can tow one too! (sporty) [UPDATE]

op46

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Feb 2, 2021
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168
Location
a ridge overlooking Lake Guntersville, AL.
Was in TeLlico Plains Tenn. Monday riding and my OPMID went bat shit crazy. Started throwing max rpm symbol bars and flashing over rev two greens and red light on bottom. Engine seemed fine at the time .............. but............. Tuesday took off from camp ground with same symptoms and it then lost ability to sense what gear it was in ............. then............... engine started to cut out/stumble at high speed, not surge.... then 20 miles later it began to lose power.... then 5 miles after that it started to quit. Would start up and run but as soon as you would take off and accelerate it would quit again. Was as far from camp ground as possible being at bottom of our loop down to Hiwassee River and back and after numerous attempts to keep running it would not start again. Later back in campground it would start and quit. Yes Johnny you can tow a CT125 in the mountains but its a sporty course. Got to use crash bar to retain steering and try to keep rope off set with NO slack occurring. Putting on front rack gave no steering capability at all. Front brake gave up after 20 miles? Had to use rear. Front came back a little later. Was 98 degrees. Companion CT125 proved they are indeed a little red donkey as it pulled the broken one with a 220lb rider up and down Hwy 68 from the Ocoee river area. Yes it wasn't happy and over heat was flashing now and then but that was flashing any way all day going up hills due to heat. Now got to take bike to dealer and figure out what happened with broken one? Electronic problem? ECU me thinks and was progressive?

TowJob.jpeg
 

m in sc

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Feb 2, 2021
Messages
2,434
Location
Rockhill, SC
i'd suspect the gauge failed. try the stocker when you get home see if it cured it.

hwy 68 is an epic road, did it on the cb1100 in May. speaking of, some CB1100 owbers that tried swapping gauges had similar issues when attempting to swap gauges. wouldn't rev, no starts, etc.
 

SLO

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Nov 26, 2021
Messages
377
Location
meadowview virginia
Anybody got Elon Musks cell phone number? We can save the planet after we have some fun. That is why I get up in morning. WTF is he riding? It is about finding a way to get things done,not knowing everything. Hell, Donald is a moron, but knowing how to cut thru the BS is why he was Highly effective. Talk low,Talk SLO, and don't say to much! It is difficult to take the high road when your dealing with lowlifes. It does apply,and is relevant. I wonder how Uncle Voodoo is doing with his Door Dash gig on his Super Cub? I wanna RIDE.
 

op46

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Joined
Feb 2, 2021
Messages
168
Location
a ridge overlooking Lake Guntersville, AL.
Local Honda dealer is backlogged 16 weeks for maintenance. So took to a small mom and pop shop with good reputation in town. Said he didn't think it was the gauge as its just a digital readout and not active in system as far as he knows but wasn't sure about OPMID when I told him it wasn't the stock gauge. Bike was able to start up briefly after we unloaded from trailer as I was attempting to show him problems but stalled and said no more....?! He had not seen a CT125 in the shop before and was very interested in it. Said they would get to it this week and a call to him about another subject did indeed result in his verifying they did start trouble shooting late yesterday but mech got called off to assist in another job. I took him my shop manual and he was appreciative of that gesture as he said it would save him some time. Bike just turned 600 miles so I told him to change oil after fix and put in some high temp front brake fluid as it was apparently fried. He said the rotors where bronze'd due to the heat from riding them during tow. I hadn't noticed but he was right. Going to ride Harley this morning before it gets to hot and thunderstorms roll in this afternoon. Going back to high 90's here in NE Alabama mountains.
 

op46

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Joined
Feb 2, 2021
Messages
168
Location
a ridge overlooking Lake Guntersville, AL.
None of the above. Will do if there is a next time. Was so damn hot that I was glad to get it back to campground and get back home all in same day. Was still in 90's in north Alabama when we got back after a 3 hour drive from the Smokey's. Going back in the fall with RV. Im to old to be tent camping in 90TellicocampHondaTrails2.jpg+ days and 70+ nights.
 

fernf5

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Joined
Jan 26, 2021
Messages
42
Location
SW Washington state
Thanks for sharing. Please let us know how this turns out. Kind of alarming to hear your experience. Biggest reason for me to have this bike (which has it's drawbacks) is DEPENDABILITY. Didn't think I would be hearing of break downs already.
 

m in sc

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Feb 2, 2021
Messages
2,434
Location
Rockhill, SC
i can say this much, the 2 breakdowns i had were my 100% own doing with aftermarket parts. (I put them on, so my own doing). I knew the risk and luckily don't have to cut a check to get it repaired. (been fine ever since i swapped that particular part out toa different brand). they are dead nuts reliable, especially stock. .02
 

op46

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Feb 2, 2021
Messages
168
Location
a ridge overlooking Lake Guntersville, AL.
So the shop (non Honda dealer) called and said they where able to duplicate the failures on both the OPMID and the engine cutting out and quitting before they started their diagnostics. They did a top to bottom inspection and testing of all the fuel and related electrical connections. Could not find a obvious failure reason, BUT they started the bike up after doing all their checks and it ran like it was supposed to.?! All OPMID spurious signals gone and bike started and ran fine. Mechanic rode it for two days and says its performing like it should. He thinks that a connector under the frame cowling was lose and he must have reconnected it during his trouble shooting. I was thinking along same lines and/or water in the gas as I topped the bikes off from my lawnmower non alcohol 93 octane can. We topped off once again during the run just before the break down with 90 octane 10% alcohol as I was thinking that IF I had water in the tank that the alcohol would help pull it into suspension? Didn't have any affect as it seems there was not any water in tank. The electrical problem was my first thought and I was right.

So conclusion is IF you got issues that are cascading and transient check all your electrical connections around the engine. Will require pulling panels and you will probably loose some of those little black cowling snap connectors if you do it in the field (Need to find a source of them, do a group buy?). Visibly inspect, wiggle and push on all connectors and wire attachment points at least and make sure a wire isn't pulled out from one. Getting the OPMID wire bundle all stowed after install can pull on them and riding vibration can walk a loose one out enough to break contact with its mate.

One of the OPMID connections to be made during install is a coil "Y" jumper and it is a bayonet style friction lock type and this is where I would start looking. Loose connection in coil circuit could have caused the experienced problems me thinks? (See attached picture)

CT125coilwires.jpg
 

SneakyDingo

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Aug 6, 2021
Messages
1,560
With bicycles, there's this creak that can sometimes appear on bottom brackets. The fix is to disassemble everything, clean it, re-lube it and reassemble everything, before performing a basic tune, and seeing if the problem goes away. 99.99% of the time it goes away, and the other 0.01% it's a warranty job that was discovered in the process. Same general idea.

The real question will be if this happens again, what then?
 

m in sc

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Feb 2, 2021
Messages
2,434
Location
Rockhill, SC
One of the OPMID connections to be made during install is a coil "Y" jumper and it is a bayonet style friction lock type and this is where I would start looking. Loose connection in coil circuit could have caused the experienced problems me thinks? (See attached picture)

View attachment 2746
thast's a very likely issue there. glad it was found. (y)
 

fernf5

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Joined
Jan 26, 2021
Messages
42
Location
SW Washington state
Thanks for the followup. Sometimes you have to sneak up on these problems to catch em and by the time you figure that out it's too late and you don't know how you fixed it. ;)
So, probably a loose connector(s). Hmmm. No definite answer, guess it's a wait and see thing.
 

op46

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Feb 2, 2021
Messages
168
Location
a ridge overlooking Lake Guntersville, AL.
So picked up the broke CT125 and loaded onto a hitch carrier with shop help and hauled back home. Unloaded and drove up and down my dead end street with no problems experienced. The shop had put 16 miles on it testing for three days. They still are not sure what was the problem but are guessing wiring loose in spark circuit that they must have reconnected during trouble shooting. We will see. IF you install a OPMID make sure you don't loosen or pull out connections. Most of the bikes connectors under the cowlings are box snap type but a few are friction spade type. There is a lot of extra cable to stow with the OPMID so be judicious in your bundling with the stock wiretailcarryCT125.jpg harnesses.
 

SneakyDingo

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As someone that is about to install the OPMID cluster, this is very helpful.
 

SneakyDingo

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Aug 6, 2021
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A follow up:
I think I figured out what happened.


My bicycle is equipped with a SON28 dynohub. The dynohub uses 2 spade connectors to connect your lighting system to the hub. If you're using all reputable German branded stuff with the German branded hub, it works great and friction fits well. If you popped into Home Depot to get the spade connector female bits, then you'd actually have to use pliers to put the connectors on otherwise it'd be way too stiff to get on by hand. Of course, I learned lessons such as this during the middle of winter, in the dark, at night, so such lessons are not easily forgotten.

I kept that in mind as I did that part of the install. It felt solid, but I decided to take some additional steps because this would be a pain in the ass to fix later. I have XL gloves and this space calls for XS sized hands, so I undid the 5mm bolt at the front-right of the right body panel to get a better look by flexing the panel back. Sure enough, the spade connector was only about 40% into the plug, I needed to give it a REALLY good shove to get it all the way in.

I think as you suspect the spade connector did fall out, and the original problem was that it wasn't inserted all the way. Because of that, it came loose and fell out during normal operation, and during the diagnosis sequence they unplugged and re-plugged in everything. Given how stiff it is, I can totally see that happening, and it would have happened to me too (eventually) if not for this warning and my prior experience with stubborn connectors.

I guess my big "warning" with this is if they thought it was solidly in by feel, but didn't visually check it was, then it's possible the spade connector could come loose again.
 

SgtAlf

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Joined
Jun 22, 2022
Messages
61
Location
Bayville, NJ
A follow up:
I think I figured out what happened.


My bicycle is equipped with a SON28 dynohub. The dynohub uses 2 spade connectors to connect your lighting system to the hub. If you're using all reputable German branded stuff with the German branded hub, it works great and friction fits well. If you popped into Home Depot to get the spade connector female bits, then you'd actually have to use pliers to put the connectors on otherwise it'd be way too stiff to get on by hand. Of course, I learned lessons such as this during the middle of winter, in the dark, at night, so such lessons are not easily forgotten.

I kept that in mind as I did that part of the install. It felt solid, but I decided to take some additional steps because this would be a pain in the ass to fix later. I have XL gloves and this space calls for XS sized hands, so I undid the 5mm bolt at the front-right of the right body panel to get a better look by flexing the panel back. Sure enough, the spade connector was only about 40% into the plug, I needed to give it a REALLY good shove to get it all the way in.

I think as you suspect the spade connector did fall out, and the original problem was that it wasn't inserted all the way. Because of that, it came loose and fell out during normal operation, and during the diagnosis sequence they unplugged and re-plugged in everything. Given how stiff it is, I can totally see that happening, and it would have happened to me too (eventually) if not for this warning and my prior experience with stubborn connectors.

I guess my big "warning" with this is if they thought it was solidly in by feel, but didn't visually check it was, then it's possible the spade connector could come loose again.
Ditch the spade connectors. https://www.posi-products.com/
 

SneakyDingo

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Aug 6, 2021
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1,560
I think it's very reasonable to swap out the connectors if you have a recurring problem. For a one time action, making sure it's plugged all the way in probably makes more sense.
 
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