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Geico Roadside Assistance-Would not jump my bike

SLOspeed said:
That could only happen if you hook the jumper cables to the wiring harness or r/r.
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One might think so, but in the real world it may vary...

A friend jumped his Zephyr battery-to-battery from a running auto and it fried his R/R plus some fuses to boot.

(I am not an electrical engineer, I'm just relating what happened. And similar incidentsmust have happened often enough to spawn the ubiquitous and often-repeated "don't jump your moto from a running car" advice.)
 
When you jump-start the bike, you are connecting directly to the +ve pole and a grounding point on the frame. Everything on the bike is protected by the bikes own fused electrical system.

A possible reason they don't jump bikes is because it might have led to repeat calls when the jumped bike fails again further down the road, due to other electrical issues than just a discharged battery (rectifier and other charging problems).
 
I've had my vfr jumped twice by Progressive's Roadside Assistance. They didn't use the tow trucks battery; they have their own jumper unit. Both times the techs seemed pretty familiar with motorcycles. They just wanted me to expose the battery for them. I don't think motorcycles are as uncommon in the Bay Area as some think. You just have to make it clear to the dispatcher that it's a motorcycle, not a car, and they will send the right person. That has been my experience anyway.
 
After jumping bikes of all different flavors for many years, I've yet to cook anything. I've never done it with the bike running, and I've never had an issue. As someone said, everything is protected by the bikes fuses, and usually, there is a fusible link also.

And Geico roadside assistance for bikes is something like $1.00 per month on top of your premium. At least, mine is.
 
crazyirv said:
Key words-"running auto". Just do it with the car's engine off
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Absolutely this!

However, not everyone (and not ever tow driver) is aware of that, which probably is what led to moto "jump starting" being "tow the moto to a recharge point."

sanjuro said:
Tow it to the top of a steep hill...
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...and hope your battery has enough oomph to minimally-charge the system...
 
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This has been discussed many times here.
You can not damage a smaller vehicle by connecting a larger unit's battery if they are both 12 volt.
Period.
 
MysterYvil said:
One might think so, but in the real world it may vary...

A friend jumped his Zephyr battery-to-battery from a running auto and it fried his R/R plus some fuses to boot.

(I am not an electrical engineer, I'm just relating what happened. And similar incidentsmust have happened often enough to spawn the ubiquitous and often-repeated "don't jump your moto from a running car" advice.)
Click to expand...

More likely that a fried r/r blew the fuses and CAUSED the dead battery. r/r's do go bad (it's not uncommon). As they die they can create crazy voltage spikes, which can wreck a lot of things.
 
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Im tired of hearing all these complaints on your services, you are not getting your value for your money. Come see me, let me treat you right and do the job that is needed to be done the right way. See my Sig and lets get going..
 
SLOspeed said:
More likely that a fried r/r blew the fuses and CAUSED the dead battery. r/r's do go bad (it's not uncommon). As they die they can create crazy voltage spikes, which can wreck a lot of things.
Click to expand...

I'm glad someone with half a functioning brain came in this thread to say that YES YOU CAN JUMP A 12V BATTERY FROM A 12V BATTERY. If hooking up a low draw circuit (ie, your bike) to a high potential amperage source (ie, a running car) would fry the low draw circuit every time. Then tell me why your computer, tv, microwave, stereo, CELLPHONE, etc don't blow up when you plug them into the wall.

If you were connecting a high voltage source to a low voltage circuit, then yes you'd fry it in an instant. But lets use our brains and middle school science class here folks...
 
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