Scratchin me 'ed

 
Fellow told me something the other day and I can't tell if its fact or
fiction.

Sooooooooooo.....Tarbender...top shelf, plastics on the bar til it melts.

My buddy told me a mechanic at a Harley dealership said if he was going
to put the bike up for the winter, to set the kickstand....er
"Jiffystand" <-(Harleyspeak), on a piece of wood or non-conductive
material, especially if the bike was sitting on concrete.

Supposedly the "jiffystand" ...."grounds" the bike through the concrete
and drains the battery.

Now this makes NO sense to me.  If if there were some sort of
"grounding" going on, there is nothing to complete the circuit.

Essentially, even if there was "grounding", it would be the same as
connecting just the negative side of the battery to a piece of metal in
contact with the floor.  The positive post would simply be floating free.

I am finding this a bit difficult to fathom.

Anyone else heard this "theory"?  While I suppose there is no harm done
by setting the bike on something non-conductive, it sounds more along
the line of urban legend or old wives tales.

Andy

--
The two most common elements in the universe- Hydrogen & Stupidity

 1hogrider wrote:

  Haven't you ever seen a car going down the street with two rubber strips
bolted to the frame and draggin' on the ground to "insulate it from
grounding"  ? Same principle ... IOW it's bullshit . Now if it's parked with
the jiffy stand on dirt some kinda plate would be a nice idea ...
--
Snag
Learning keeps
you young !

 On 11/15/2011 7:30 PM, Snag wrote:

Haven't seen that in YEARS.  I remember seeing the rubber strips on cars
and even chains on some fuel tanker trucks but like I said that has been
many many years ago.  It must have been back in the 1950's I saw that
stuff and remember asking my Dad about it.  He explained but it didn't
make much sense at the time.

I have heard someone tell me never to sit a car battery down on the
ground because it saps the power out.  Don't know if thats related or
not.  Again....where is the explanation behind that one?

BTW, I agree about the jiffystand on dirt.  Now THAT makes perfect sense.



--
The two most common elements in the universe- Hydrogen & Stupidity

 On 11/15/2011 6:40 PM, 1hogrider wrote:

Car batteries used to be made of hard rubber cases, and before that
there were some that had wooden cases. Those old cases would allow
battery acid to leak through and create a conductive path to ground.

Not an issue with the hard plastic cases in use today.

Back to the issue with placing the jiffy stand on a non-conductive
surface, that's a bunch of crap. Maybe if the aforementioned leaky
battery were in use that might have been an issue.

--
Fins BS#221 AH#135
Hoodlum #43
2007 FLHTCU

 
I am going to call Arlen and tell him of a great aftermarket add on
for ALL bikes.
Instead of making jiffy(kick) stands from metal ..... we should make
them out of wood !!!!!