Early September I made a trip to Wisconsin to be there for my Uncles wedding. A beautiful wedding it was and an amazing visit with my Uncle whom I hadn't seen in too long of a time. Got a chance to meet his Bride and her family and everything about the visit was super wonderful. She's a great person and so is all the friends and family that I got the pleasure to meet.
The visit was great but for money saving reasons I was flying out of Oakland (about 6.5 hour drive from here) and decided that I would ride to Napa. Napa is the home of some of my extended family and I planned on driving, actually riding, to visit them in the process. Plan: Park Bike at W & R's house, get ride to Oakland airport, fly to WI, come back and visit multiple people that I know in and around that area.
During preparations to head out I just had one more stop to make aboard "Silver Monkey" and sitting at a traffic light, I hear a relatively loud pop that seemed to come from my bike. Check it out real quick and everything appeared to be fully functional and nothing leaking etc.... And since I am in somewhat of a hurry to get going, I decide to get a move on and not look into it any further. That is nearly always the wrong answer.
Approximately 30- 35 miles into my trip I get caught up in road construction which kills about 25 minutes of time and still concerned about what that noise was, I got off the bike and looked around it still not finding anything. The gentleman ahead of me gets out of his vehicle to stretch his legs and we end up in a conversation and it was nice. Other direction traffic is starting to come by so he returns to his vehicle and I begin putting my gear back on. When I press the start button for the bike it seems oddly unfamiliar in character but she starts up. Not 5 miles past the construction area, she starts acting like she's out of gas and then dies out altogether.
Now I'm on the side of the road a bit upset and trying to add up the information I have to figure out what happened. My display is now showing an error code (46 on a 2004 Yamaha R1) meaning that the fuel injection system is not working properly which makes sense on the "running out of fuel" feeling I got just before. And it's seeming to me that there is a charging system issue which I'm guessing is stator or reg/rec.
Well, I start making calls because as of now I'm going to end up very short on time and will now have to travel through the night to get to the airport in Oakland on time. Thanks to the great friends I have, S picks up my motorcycle and takes it to his house, E picks me up and takes me to W's place where W proceeds to let me take his motorcycle to complete my trip.
Get back after about 2 weeks of a much needed vacation and start to work on "Silver Monkey" to find out for sure what needs to be fixed and so first thing I do is take the cover off for the stator and find that the stator is find but Yamaha used a very cool but "special" system and that the magnets are affixed to the Rotor not the stator, well at least they are suppose to be. Mine have not been able to hang on any longer and the loud pop I heard was the breakage of the setup that has them there. The battery was able to keep me running long enough to get out of town and stranded but no more than that.
The other bad news to that is just how much the new Rotor Assembly is because of how "special" it is. Retail price of $540. Goodness gracious. So, I track a used one down and manage to get a great deal on it (in fact I purchased the part I needed and the stator, stator cover and bolts, and starter clutch all together. I now have an extra stator just in case. I found a couple minor little tidbits that were not mentioned in the service manual that if not properly completed could cause additional problems. But tested everything, put it all together and my baby was once again running and I couldn't wait to go for a ride.
This Sunday, I will be going on a very nice ride to truly break her in and I'm very excited for it. If anyone out there has a 2004-2008 Yamaha R1 and gets the error code 46 and finds they have the same problem as myself. Contact me for more information and also I may be able to help find a great deal for you on the parts and I will also give you all information to assist a smooth and successful operation.
Have a great day and keep riding. And stays safe too.
James
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