Modern Buddy

Hey all, great forum! Read almost every topic in this category! Anyway, I just bought a 2008 silver rattler 110 from a guy up in red wing. It has around 400 miles, and it was supposedly stored in his garage for two years. After looking it over, it looks absolutely FILTHY! It looks like it was either stored outside or ridden in the snow. The guy said he had a dirt race track in his back yard, so I suspect that it may have been ridden back there.

There's either rust or dirt on what looks to be a brake line, up near the right grip. I also saw that the rear shock was bright yellow with a canister of some sort attached. Is this the stock suspension or an aftermarket one? My roughhouse doesn't have one like that so I am a little confused. Upon further inspection the exhaust fender seems extremely loose (not to the point of falling off, but close) and rattled during the test ride. Also during the test ride whenever I let off the gas it bogged quite a bit. The idle seemed low, too.

I bought it for $1900. Vintage creampuff? Or massive headache waiting to happen?

Thanks, PJ

Sounds like it should be fine. The rear shock you described sounds like the stock one. Clean it up, get a tune-up at the local Genuine dealer if need be, and ride the heck out of it!

Lonestar7 wrote:...Vintage creampuff? Or massive headache waiting to happen?...

Probably neither.

Awesome! I'm so happy that you guys think its good to go! My local shop is terrible, but it's the only one that I can get guaranteed service.

Update:
I just got it home an hour ago and took it for a test ride. Everything worked fine except that when I stopped at a stop sign, it sputtered and died. I started it up again and had to keep it at full throttle just to keep it at idle. It died a second time. Started it a third time and just gunned the throttle; it almost popped a wheelie (I only weigh around 120lbs) and kept going. Blasted around a corner and everything worked fine after that.

Then, when I engaged the turn signal, it blinked really slowly. My roughhouse blinks at around a blink and a half per second (minor estimation). This one blinked at around almost a blink per 1.20 seconds. Either the rattler has a really slow blink rate by default, or the relay is messed up/not getting enough power.

After I got back home after three laps around the lake, I was experimenting with the turn signals and comparing the rattler's to the roughhouse's when all of a sudden the rattler's signal stopped blinking. It was just a solid "on". I'm not really sure what happened, but I think the relay decided to die.

What do you guys think?

Thanks again, PJ

I also forgot to mention that the horn lets out a really high pitched whistle ing sound when ever I use it. Definitely different than the roughhouse.

Any ideas as to why?

Thanks, PJ

From those symptoms, it actually sounds like a weak battery. Is the battery new or fully charged? Were you able to start bike with electric start. I remember my turn signals just staying light and not blinking, changed out battery and all fixed.

Yeah everything else works fine! It's weird. Electric starts ok, running lights flicker at idle (to be expected with a 2 stroke), but the weird thing is that when I turned the signals on, the blue display dimmed whenever a signal light, brake light, or high beam lit up. I think this is normal, but I'm not entirely sure.

I actually have quite a lot of dead batt experience from the roughhouse: don't let your phone charge off it for around 6 hours when driving with the high beam on and leave it plugged in by accident when you go to a family picnic!

Symptoms included not or barely turning over, bizzare light quirks, wrong horn tune, etc.

This rattler doesn't really show any of those in the severity of the roughhouse, so I don't know what's going on. It seems like a dead relay to me.

I highly doubt the battery has ever been changed. I pretty much killed my roughhouse batt but I was able to restore it to partial life (starts it fine, runs high beams and all factory equipment fine; just can't run the accessory outlet). If I plug anything into it, the thing gets depleted within a couple of hours.

If it's been sitting for 2 years I would:
Drain the gas tank.
Drain the carb float bowl.
Replace the 2 stroke oil.
Replace the brake fluid.
Replace the battery. A failing battery can take out the charging system. There is no way a battery will be fine after sitting for 1 year let alone 2.

I do agree! Thanks for all the advice! I took it out last night and it kept dying on me. It seemed to lose power within a certain rpm range if I held it there (like when going through a really tight turn at slow speeds) for longer than a second or two. Also, I don't know if it's normal, but moving at a slow speed seems to make the engine lurch the entire machine; like it yanks on the clutch or something on every revolution. It's really scary.

Any thoughts?

The browning of the brake line is from the bike sitting outside I'm pretty sure. I've got an '07 Rattler 110 and mine is doing the same thing. The rear shock IS stock for the buckten, which is pretty awesome. It's a fully adjustable race quality shock for the most part.

With the lighting problems, I let one of my batteries go bad and it was doing some of the same things you mentioned. When I would turn on the blinker, my whole display would start to flash/dim, especially if I was sitting still. So I would at least try to charge yours up if not just buy a new one, because like someone mentioned above, a bad battery can and will destroy your charging system if left unattended long enough.

And with the losing power at certain RPM thing, maybe try cleaning out the jets in the carb? That one could probably be a couple different problems, but cleaning out the jets doesn't take too long and usually smoothes out a lot of issues.

SuperCyclone.81 wrote:...rear shock IS stock for the buckten...It's a fully adjustable race quality shock for the most part...

Nope. As in no rebound or compression adjustment, only preload.

I stand corrected. Thanks for the comment.

You problem with the engine dieing at idle speed has to do with your air mixture adjustment screw. Right about 400 is when they start to move or need to be re adjusted. It's a tiny screw and requires the seat to be taken off. You can search this site, it's a common problem, it happened on mine.

You could try turning up the idle (the screw with the big knob) but i doubt that's your issue.

B02S4 wrote:
Nope. As in no rebound or compression adjustment, only preload.

I think that canister is just for show, has anyone taken one of these apart?

the canister actually is an oil reservoir it helps to keep the oil cooler hence a better working shock