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orthod0ks posted:I did this, and it's leaking at a much slower rate, but that may because it's low on fuel now. Any other simple solutions I should try before taking it to the shop? Honestly, probably not. But I'd recommend that you pull the carbs and learn to clean them, they won't bite and it'll be a lot cheaper than taking it to a shop.
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May 26, 2009 16:47
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Z3n posted:Honestly, probably not. But I'd recommend that you pull the carbs and learn to clean them, they won't bite and it'll be a lot cheaper than taking it to a shop. I just did this and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. The most annoying part was getting them in and out of the bike. It doesn't require any specialty tools or anything. If you've got a few sockets, box ends, and screwdrivers you can do it. Reserve a weekend (or several weeknights) and go to town. I found having a power drill to be really helpful as well.
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May 26, 2009 19:38
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I have a '91 Katana with worn fuel lines. They don't leak but are kind of brittle, when I searched for an electrical gremlin and had to remove/put back the tank several times, one got a tear quite easily. I don't like the idea of fuel leaking onto hot engines, especially in the general vicinity of my crotch. The original fuel line looked like this:  The local auto shop only had the cloth braided kind:  Is such cloth heat resistant enough to touch the engine? Also, I am planning to change oil/filter, swap said fuel lines and change or oil all the cables going to the handlebars (and the rear brake) depending on the price. Anything else you would definitely check/replace on a 600 of that vintage (possibly abused by PO, bought last autumn). Have done: Chain tension, rear bracket looks fine for now, greased rear axle in the process since the bastard was stuck HARD in the bearings, bearings felt fine, rubber things in hub looked fine. Tightened the freaky front fork nut (whats the spec here? It was loose and the fork had a click, I didn't tighten it too hard after the click went away.), battery is the funky oldschool water kind but I had it on life support through winter and it started the bike up like a champ after a couple minutes of effort. There are dates on the tires, I take it? How old is too old? They were Maxxis somethings with lots of tread. I need to go find a repair manual again, lost it with old hdd.  Edit: Also, speaking of electrical gremlins, why do they attach the ignition cluster with those stupid headless bolts? Nobody is going to swap it out secretly with another one in the street. If someone wants to steal your bike it's easier to just lift it onto a truc.. Well, okay, maybe on a Katana 
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May 26, 2009 22:37
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i always thought the cloth covered lines were tougher than the bare rubber ones. i may be wrong though.
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May 26, 2009 23:51
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8ender posted:If its 12v then don't worry about it, just pick up any old cylinder style flasher from a local auto parts store. Oh, it's wackier than that. I have a 1972 U7E in the garage, and a 1971 LT2. The dirtbikes were all 6 volt. the U7E is 12volt! With battery powered ignition of all things.
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May 27, 2009 00:05
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I'm looking to replace the old tires on my GS500. 110/70-17 front, 130/70-17 rear, though apparently some use 140/70 or 140/80 rears in lieu of availability issues. I want a tire with good grip but not so soft that it will wear out in 1000 miles or something. Basically an aggressive street tire I can use for commuting and hitting up twisties on weekends. GS500 Wiki recommends: Performance: * Pirelli Sport Demon * Bridgestone BT-45 * Bridgestone BT-090 * Avon AV45/46** Michelin Pilot Active but I don't know how dated the list is and I'd rather get the opinion of people whose posts I can actually see scrolling in front of me. Whoa. Wife Turds fucked around with this message at 18:24 on May 27, 2009 |
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May 27, 2009 18:22
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I rocked a set of Metzler Lasertec on my GS500, and they were amazing - at least as far as what was available to me. I had BT-45s installed on a previous bike, and they were not very confidence inspiring at all. They're also probably the oldest design out of that entire list - tyre technology has come a long way, even at the bottom end of the food chain.
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May 27, 2009 18:29
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Whoa. Wife Turds posted:* Pirelli Sport Demon These are what I use on my Ninja 500, they work well for both commuting and more spirited riding.
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May 27, 2009 18:34
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Simkin posted:I rocked a set of Metzler Lasertec on my GS500, and they were amazing - at least as far as what was available to me. I had BT-45s installed on a previous bike, and they were not very confidence inspiring at all. They're also probably the oldest design out of that entire list - tyre technology has come a long way, even at the bottom end of the food chain. Yeah, this list is definitely several years old. It's mainly the reason why I'm looking for opinions. Thanks for the input. Anyone else have recommendations or preferences?
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May 27, 2009 18:36
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Whoa. Wife Turds posted:Yeah, this list is definitely several years old. It's mainly the reason why I'm looking for opinions. Thanks for the input. Anyone else have recommendations or preferences? Well, I don't use the same tires as you, but I got Avon tires on my Valk and I'm very, very impressed with the handling. A++ would buy again.
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May 27, 2009 18:59
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The BT-45 are great for the price. I think SWMotoTire still has them cheapest. Sport Demons are still the best tire in that size, and the tread design looks quite sporty.
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May 27, 2009 20:13
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I think BT45s are what I have. And they're my first ever pair of new tyres, only a few weeks old. Very little to compare them to, but they're not going to break the bank, and the feeling is isane for the price. So seconding goku.
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May 27, 2009 20:27
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goku chewbacca posted:The BT-45 are great for the price. I think SWMotoTire still has them cheapest. I think I'm going to go with the Sport Demons since the BT-45s seem only marginally less expensive.
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May 27, 2009 20:32
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I've got the BT-45s on my V-strom and I love them quite dearly. I've got about 5 thousand miles on them so far and they're holding up fantastically front and rear. I'd highly recommend them. They're shaping up that I should get around 9-10k on the rear and probably twice that out of the front.
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May 27, 2009 20:44
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Z3n posted:Honestly, probably not. But I'd recommend that you pull the carbs and learn to clean them, they won't bite and it'll be a lot cheaper than taking it to a shop. I'm a little late on this. Just dropped it off at the shop. The mechanic said not all the cylinders are firing and the carbs would need cleaned. $200 to clean them, almost twice that if they need rebuilt. I'll definitely learn to do it myself in the future, but I'm content having a pro handle it for now. Thanks for the help everyone. Edit: I had another question. My bike has a fuel gauge. Does that include the reserve setting? Either way, I don't really need to worry about the reserve so much. Is there any problem with just running the petcock on reserve all the time? orthod0ks fucked around with this message at 02:03 on May 28, 2009 |
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May 28, 2009 01:55
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orthod0ks posted:I'm a little late on this. Just dropped it off at the shop. The mechanic said not all the cylinders are firing and the carbs would need cleaned. $200 to clean them, almost twice that if they need rebuilt. I'll definitely learn to do it myself in the future, but I'm content having a pro handle it for now. Thanks for the help everyone. No, no problem with running on reserve at all times, just that you don't have the extra buffer of gas if you run out. Personally, I've only run out of gas on the track, as I obsessively track my mileage via the tripometer. I'd personally use the on position for awhile until you get a good idea of when the reserve kicks in and you need to get gas, and then just monitor your tripometer and get gas accordingly.
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May 28, 2009 02:22
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Z3n posted:No, no problem with running on reserve at all times, just that you don't have the extra buffer of gas if you run out. Does empty on my fuel gauge mean that I'm out of gas or that I need to switch to reserve?
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May 28, 2009 02:23
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orthod0ks posted:Does empty on my fuel gauge mean that I'm out of gas or that I need to switch to reserve? You'll run out of gas at from the on position at around 1/4th of your gas gauge, typically. Reserve will take you about another 40 miles at most, but I wouldn't ever push it that far. You can consider reserve to be roughly .5 to 1.5 gallons depending on the overall size of the tank. Usually around 15-20% of the overall tank size.
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May 28, 2009 02:34
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Z3n posted:You'll run out of gas at from the on position at around 1/4th of your gas gauge, typically. Reserve will take you about another 40 miles at most, but I wouldn't ever push it that far. Awesome. I'll just be happy when my bike's out of the shop and I get better than a mile a gallon. Having the gas gauge and the gear indicator seems pretty uncommon. I'm pretty psyched about those. Both are pretty helpful for a newbie like me.
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May 28, 2009 02:51
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The Only time I've ever run out of gas was when I was when I switched to petcock to reserve, in a couple hundred feet it was sputtering again and I made it to the gas station only to realize I had switched it to 'Off'  Its hard to look at the petcock while you're riding after a couple weeks under your belt
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May 28, 2009 03:17
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CSi-NA-EJ7 posted:The Only time I've ever run out of gas was when I was when I switched to petcock to reserve, in a couple hundred feet it was sputtering again and I made it to the gas station only to realize I had switched it to 'Off' I was actually able to do this successfully today. On the way to the shop, I was leaking fuel even faster than I realized and lost almost 1/8 of a tank on the 1 mile trip. It took me a minute of fumbling around, but I did manage to find the petcock. Of course, it was already on reserve, and I think I was on fumes by the time I got there.
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May 28, 2009 03:36
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I got a question for you guys, why is that when my bike is on the center stand in neutral and i rev the engine up it makes the rear wheel start to creep. Its very slow but its definitely moving, and if i try to spin it in reverse it does about half a rotation catches on something and then starts to spin forward again.
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May 28, 2009 05:44
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Friction between the clutch plates - especially when the engine is cold - will still transmit some power to the rear wheel. That's how I ended up with my thumb jammed between the chain and sprocket. 
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May 28, 2009 06:40
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Simkin posted:Friction between the clutch plates - especially when the engine is cold - will still transmit some power to the rear wheel. That's how I ended up with my thumb jammed between the chain and sprocket. But that would be the case if the transmission was in gear but the clutch pulled in no? I was under the impression motorcycle transmission was similar to car transmission in that when in neutral there is no connection of power between input and output besides possibly a worn bearing that isnt letting go completely?
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May 28, 2009 06:47
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Z3n posted:You'll run out of gas at from the on position at around 1/4th of your gas gauge, typically. Reserve will take you about another 40 miles at most, but I wouldn't ever push it that far. My gas gauge flashes (it's electronic) when I'm almost out of gas, but it doesn't take into account reserve. I can switch over and still get another 25 miles or so (mine's something like .7 gal). You should be able to look up how big the reserve is, and then you can caluclate range on it based upon your mileage.
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May 28, 2009 06:48
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dietcokefiend posted:I was under the impression motorcycle transmission was similar to car transmission in that when in neutral there is no connection of power between input and output besides possibly a worn bearing that isnt letting go completely? Nope!
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May 28, 2009 08:07
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HNasty posted:I got a question for you guys, why is that when my bike is on the center stand in neutral and i rev the engine up it makes the rear wheel start to creep. That's totally normal. Why... comes after simkin.. Simkin posted:Friction between the clutch plates - especially when the engine is cold - will still transmit some power to the rear wheel. That's how I ended up with my thumb jammed between the chain and sprocket. When the motor is revved up, more torque is transmitted. Simple. :-) The rear wheel on my 550 moves quite quickly in neutral. Faster than I'd like if I try to oil the chain. bobula posted:Nope!
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May 28, 2009 08:44
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my guzzi had major wheel creep when i first got it running on the center stand. this is in neutral, and with a dry clutch. so i wouldn't have guessed it was possible. but i guess the gears in the tranny are subject to the same oil principle too.
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May 28, 2009 12:02
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:my guzzi had major wheel creep when i first got it running on the center stand. this is in neutral, and with a dry clutch. so i wouldn't have guessed it was possible. but i guess the gears in the tranny are subject to the same oil principle too. Well, a dry sump just means that the oil isn't allowed to pool into an oil pan at the bottom, so yeah, you still have oil moving around your system. EDIT: you said dry "clutch" derrrrr
Doctor Zero fucked around with this message at 19:28 on May 28, 2009 |
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May 28, 2009 16:59
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I'm thinking about getting a bike but I know very little about them. I like the style of the Suzuki Boulevards. Are they any decent? What size should a newbie get in regards to the Boulevard assuming they are good. I know that for Japanese style bikes 250cc seems to be the standard but I'm not sure about "American" style bikes.
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May 28, 2009 18:29
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I can't get two of the main jets out of my old Yamaha carbs. The brass is extremely brittle and cracks but also bends very easy, it's like it's condensed powder or something. I ordered replacements at an exorbitant cost after I mangled the old ones but I still need to get the old ones out before I can finish cleaning the carbs. So far I have tried: A screwdriver, until the slot broke off. Needle nose pliers until the brass bent (and broke some more). Channel lock pliers because the brass is hosed anyway, it just broke more and didn't loosen. I REALLY don't want to drill this because I'm sick of helicoiling everything on this bike (Not my fault, previous owner had an overtightening problem) and also it's pretty small. How should I get these things out? In the past I've left them in and sprayed them as best I could but they need more than that now.
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May 28, 2009 18:29
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Jets come with ready made pilot holes in them for easy-outs. 
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May 28, 2009 18:36
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Okay. So. I'm well aware of the differences between radials and bias plys when mounted on a car...but what about bikes? I occasionally see things about bikes being specifically designed for bias or radial...is there any truth to this? Is having a separately flexing sidewall that leaves the contact patch alone as important on a motorcycle? I kind of feel like the additional feel and sense of traction a bias ply gives would be welcome. I'm pretty sure I have radials equipped on my bike right now but they're old as hell and I've decided on Sport Demons as replacements...is there any reason not to get bias ply tires (assuming I'm replacing both at the same time)? I've heard that radial in back and bias in front is doable, but I'll be replacing both so the point is moot.
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May 28, 2009 19:08
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I have a KLR enduro that needs new tires. I have ordered the tires and new tubes, but am wondering if people change dirt bike tires themselves? I read the manual, and it shows a bead breaker tool and some rim protectors with screwdrivers. Would it be like changing the tire on a car (possible, but hard and sketchy) or like changing a tire on a bicycle? Also balancing, when the shop changed the tires on my old xs400, they "balanced" it, but the weights didn't stay on long enough for me to bolt the tire back on and I didn't notice any problem. Is it important to balance dirtbike tires? Any other things I need to do besides check for loose spokes?
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May 28, 2009 19:09
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[[ Please wait, retrieving post quote... ]] blindjoe posted:I have a KLR enduro that needs new tires. I have ordered the tires and new tubes, but am wondering if people change dirt bike tires themselves? I read the manual, and it shows a bead breaker tool and some rim protectors with screwdrivers. Would it be like changing the tire on a car (possible, but hard and sketchy) or like changing a tire on a bicycle? i've done front and rear tyres on my BMW f650, its easy, just make sure the new tyre is warmed up if its cold weather/cold workshop. i kept mine in the hotpress(airing cupboard? I don't know what Americans call it) overnight before doing it. get proper tyre irons though, screwdrivers will make it a lot harder, i have one long one and one short one, but an extra long one would make it a lot easier. here is an excellent video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8635543758286799977 edit, he keeps talking about ru-glide in that vid, i don't know what the gently caress that is, but i suspect someone's making a fortune selling soapy water in spray bottles as that's all you need. echomadman fucked around with this message at 19:33 on May 28, 2009 |
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May 28, 2009 19:28
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TheReverend posted:I'm thinking about getting a bike but I know very little about them. 250cc Cruisers and Standards will tend to be physically small. As far as size goes, unless you are of small stature to begin with, something from 500cc to 750cc shouldn't be too big to handle as a beginner. Anything bigger than that is starting to get very heavy and hard to maneuver for someone not used to the weight. Although I have known people to start out on 1200cc bikes without issue. It really depends on the bike and you. The more important factor is horsepower. Try to stick to bikes under 60-70 HP so you don't get in trouble with throttle mistakes. Also, used is better than new so you don't want to  when/if you drop it because you make a mistake.Personally, I sat on a Boulevard and I instantly found it fairly uncomfortable. Go to a dealer (or dealers) and sit on everything that strikes your fancy to see what feels right for you. Actually, most important, take the MSF before you do any purchasing.
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May 28, 2009 19:36
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Simkin posted:Jets come with ready made pilot holes in them for easy-outs. To be honest I've considered this but I don't want to get shavings everywhere in the body of the carb. It's still what I'll do if there isn't some awesome trick to it.
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May 28, 2009 20:09
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Doctor Zero posted:Actually, most important, take the MSF before you do any purchasing.  Thanks for all the help though.
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May 28, 2009 20:15
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Whoa. Wife Turds posted:Okay. So. I'm well aware of the differences between radials and bias plys when mounted on a car...but what about bikes? I occasionally see things about bikes being specifically designed for bias or radial...is there any truth to this? Is having a separately flexing sidewall that leaves the contact patch alone as important on a motorcycle? I kind of feel like the additional feel and sense of traction a bias ply gives would be welcome. I'm pretty sure I have radials equipped on my bike right now but they're old as hell and I've decided on Sport Demons as replacements...is there any reason not to get bias ply tires (assuming I'm replacing both at the same time)? I've heard that radial in back and bias in front is doable, but I'll be replacing both so the point is moot. No, there's not an issue with it. Bias Plys doesn't give additional feel and sense for traction...it's just a design type. All modern tires are radial for a varity of reasons. The reason to get bias plies is because they're the best tires available for your bike/wheel size. If you were racing you may need to be concerned about it, but plenty of racers go very fast on old bias plies for bikes that don't have the rim sizes to run modern radials.
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May 28, 2009 20:15
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Bias-ply is fine is that's what's available for your bike. Back in the day they raced at 170+ mph on bias-ply and they didn't die oh wait 
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May 28, 2009 20:38
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