Should I ride my motor bike in the rain?

[Evh515093]

I was thinking of taking a ride today, but it is now raining. Should I ride my bike in the rain or no? Obviously at slower speeds. I have an NT carb, so the air intake is on the bottom.

 

[Member 30571]

Most CDI boxes don't like the rain.

 

[digital_life]

Make sure all connections are as water tight as you can, I used an old bike inner tube cut it to about a foot long then cut it down the middle.

Then I wrap it around the frame, then take one of the bundle of wires and wrap it around.

Then wrap it around the second bundle and wrap it again and use zip ties to hold it all together

Most people use shrink tubing to make the wires water resistant.

You can also put a little bead of silicone caulking around where the spark plug wire connect the the CDI.

When I first got caught in a really big rainstorm the bike did loose a lot power and I was actually afraid that I would not make it home and have to peddle home and where I was it would of taken probably 5 hours or more.
I used shrink tubing to seal the wires and it worked great after that.

 

[Cypher_Xero]

I was thinking of taking a ride today, but it is now raining. Should I ride my bike in the rain or no? Obviously at slower speeds. I have an NT carb, so the air intake is on the bottom.

i ride in the rain all the time to or from work (about 1.5 miles 1 way), mine only sputters because im running a full open carb with no way to shield water spraying off of the rear wheel and into the carb.
So long as you can keep water out of the carb youll be ok, and ive never had a problem with my cdi getting wet.

 

[Frogslayer]

If the cdi is cracked and susceptible to moisture, it should be replaced anyway.

 

[Wrench]

Dielectric grease on electrical connections it waterproofs them

 

[Frogslayer]

I hate cheap factory dielectric grease. Like one's found goobered all over taillights in 90s vehicles. It gets hard and makes the bulbs lose contact. After market grease is better but i much prefer shrink wrap and gaskets over grease any day.

 

[Wrench]

I use dielectric grease in multi plug connections. Besides keeping moisture and corrosion out, it preserves and lubricates the plastic plugs
Have you ever had a plastic plug get stuck together and break apart because it's old and got dry. Dielectric grease keeps it like new and the plug connection is easy to take apart. It's also good for rubber O rings too.
I use just enough, I don't want it making a mess or getting all over my hands when touching the plugs.

I also remember the old factory electrical grease. That stuff got hard and crusty. After it got hard ya had to clean it off to get a good electrical connection

 

[inspectorcritic]

If you get in a wreck it's not going look good on your injury lawyer judge may think no shelter like a car , bicycle go f*** yourself on your claim should have waited for better weather.

 

[YetiWoodz]

I'm 4 months in my electrical apprenticeship. We've used dielectric grease already and oddly it was indoors in a dry area. I didn't know this, but when dissimilar metals come in electrical contact, over time one of the metals corrodes the other. It's called galvanic corrosion.

We used dielectric grease in aluminum lug connectors, actually they came with it already in specifically to prevent galvanic corrosion.

And dielectric grease doesn't affect conductivity either. We used it directly on the mating surface contacts for high voltage cable in a nursing home to power the ventilation system. So if its used in that situation, it must be safe to use lol!