What the hell is wrong with my damn motorcycle?

Yeah, sorry for the profanity in the topic, but hey, you know. Anyway, I got my bike back today after having the shifter and the brake-light sensor fixed. The bike in question is a 1989 Honda CBR600. Anyway, I’m riding it home from the mechanic’s, and it starts to occasionally half-stall on me while I’m riding it. This would concern me, except (a), its done this before on occasion, and always recovered, and (b), the bike has been in storage for many months, and I figure its just not broken in yet. Anyway, I’m heading down a long hill, and sure enough, it totally stalls out on me. Damn, says me; here I am at a major intersection and I’m stuck. Fortunately, my friends were following me in their car, so at least I wasn’t alone. Anyway, we push the bike down a little side road, out of the way of traffic, and start trying to get the bike running again. When you hit the starter, the starter motor doesn’t come on, but the headlight dims (so its at least TRYING to start). We try charging the battery up a little bit via jumper cables. Nope, doesn’t help. We try pop-starting, first by riding it down a hill, then by being pushed by my friends. The bike doesn’t seem to be igniting at all, so it sounds like theres some sort of electrical malfunction. I know its likely that the battery is in bad shape, and was planning on replacing it anyway…but the bike should still start, even with a bad battery, while its being jumpered…no? So, mechanically-inclined Dopers…any ideas? If it could be the battery, thats an easy fix, but if its a major electrical system problem, its heading back to the shop tomorrow morning. Dammit.

Check to see if the starter is hung. On some vehicles (I have experience with a lot of stuff) the starter will not return back to the ready position after an attempt. Just a guess, I’m not really a motorcycle guy (trucks and tractors are more my speed.)

Any idea how I could check this? The starter is electrical as opposed to kick, if that matters.

Could it be the coil? I had a car that would stall after it heated up, and then wouldn’t restart until you waited 20 minutes or so for it to cool down. I’m not sure what the connection between the temperature and the coil was, but after I replaced the coil, it never stalled again.

On the other hand, the starter not starting would not be caused by a bad coil, that I can conceive of. But it’s worth a shot; coils are cheap. And if it doesn’t help, you can wipe it off and take it back.

I left it in a friendly stranger’s driveway, near the scene of the breakdown. I guess my plan is to head out there tomorrow morning and try to start it, then head to the nearby bike shop and ask their advice. This happened last year after a fairly long ride; the first time it died, I was able to pop-start it, but the second time, no dice. I left it in a parking lot, came back a day or so later, and it started up fine. I had been riding in the rain for a couple hours that day, so I assumed electricals were just getting wet and crapping out. Ah well, let’s see what happens.

Apart from the starting it almost sounds like fuel starvation.

Sometimes the air vent to the fuel tank can become blocked, engine runs on the fuel in the carbs, maybe runs at low speed but as soon as the demand rises as vacuum forms inside the tank and it stalls.

You leave it for a while scratching your head and then presto it starts again.

Do this a few times though and the lean running of the engine does the plugs no good at all which would make for difficult bump-off starting.

Make sure that the battery is fully charged first and see if it turns the engine over, it may be spinning but not engaging.

Jumping a bike from a car? Are you getting the voltages right? If you’re trying to jump a 6 volt off a 12 volt, you can certainly cause some electrical problems. I speak from my own VERY painful experience. You can get 6v battery chargers very cheaply.

Shouldn’t you have the headlights off when you’re trying to start? Although the fact that you get headlights says you’ve got some kind of power.

Most modern street bikes (all that I have worked on in the last 15 years) have 12 volt electrical systems. I’m pretty sure that a CBR would be 12 volt (Most of my experience is on Suzukis).

Many motorcycles don’t have headlight switches. If the ignition is on, so is the headlight.

Sounds electrical to me. An experienced Honda tech might have an easy answer for you.