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So I put up my 83 Suzuki gs750e in the fall according to the CA recommendations in this thread. The bike ran perfectly in the fall, I put in a new battery and I've got spark, air, & compression. Even though I put sta-bil in the gas, I think the carbs are clogged. It will crank and sounds like it wants to turn over. I know there's fuel in the bowls, but I think they might be overfilled since the fuel valve has a 'prime' setting. Its not really feasible to pull the carbs off at the moment, would I be able to get by if I drained the bowls and/or tank and put in fresh gas and sea foam? One of the spark plug boots came off, too. I put it back on and it still sparks, is there a special way to reattach them?
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May 26, 2014 15:08
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| # ? May 16, 2024 05:59 |
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Not sure if this is the right thread, but I winterized my bike... poorly. Learning experience and all. It's a 2007 Honda Shadow (750). Battery is fine, I have a trickle charger and just yesterday topped it up (since I've been draining it trying to start). I put some fuel stabilizer in AFTER the winter, but not before. The stuff I added claimed it could remove moisture and "revitalize" bad gas. The symptoms are bike won't start. Bike cranks faster when I give it throttle. It just keeps turning over (strongly) though. I have no idea where to start looking next, and I have limited resources (no garage, and condo association people are grumpy about doing work in the parking lot). Any suggestions?
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May 26, 2014 16:19
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red19fire posted:So I put up my 83 Suzuki gs750e in the fall according to the CA recommendations in this thread. The bike ran perfectly in the fall, I put in a new battery and I've got spark, air, & compression. Even though I put sta-bil in the gas, I think the carbs are clogged. It will crank and sounds like it wants to turn over. You mean the wire is popping out of the top of the boot or the boot just fell off? If it just fell off the plug put it back. If it keeps falling out of the top, clipping a few mm of wire to get to fresh, not buggered up lead helps. As far as it starting, my 700e is cranky as poo poo to get started when it's been sitting for more than a few weeks. It will crank and crank and sound like it's going to catch but never actually start. I almost always have to take the air filter out and shoot a few spritzes of carb cleaner in there to get it to go. Once it's going it's perfectly fine again. I just chalk it up to a cranky rear end 30 year old bike and expect to go through the ritual every time I park it for more than two weeks.
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May 26, 2014 20:51
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So , I have a rather sizable tear in the seat cover on my ex250. The foam underneath seems to still be in-tacked so I'm thinking of just taking off the cover and getting a new one. So, 2 questions. One, what is a good quality, durable fabric I can use for a seat cover? Two, how can I prevent this from happening again? Is there something I can apply to the seat when washing the bike to keep the cover from going brittle and cracking? Thanks in advance.
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May 26, 2014 22:05
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Debugario posted:So , I have a rather sizable tear in the seat cover on my ex250. When washing your bike, remove the seat, cover the electric bits in plastic, and then cover that in towels or rags with a final layer of plastic to keep everything dry. Then shag carpet your seat cover. tjones fucked around with this message at 01:34 on May 27, 2014 |
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May 27, 2014 01:24
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Debugario posted:So , I have a rather sizable tear in the seat cover on my ex250. Leather. No need to do anything to it, it'll last for years before having any issues. A saddler or upholsteror will be able to get you what you need. e: can put Beeswax on it to help protect it, but it'll be slippery as poo poo when you go to sit on it.
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May 27, 2014 04:45
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Shimrod posted:Leather. No need to do anything to it, it'll last for years before having any issues. A saddler or upholsteror will be able to get you what you need. Washing... your bike? 
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May 27, 2014 05:45
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I'm pretty sure it's the sun that's making your seat cover crack not water. Unless you have really really hard water and hit the cover with really high pressures (joke). I'd put a cover on your bike if you are going to be parking it in direct sun all day. I keep one at work because I've just changed my seat cover and windshield and my parking spot has absolutely no shade. I have a tree I try to park it under at home so it's somewhat out of the direct beating sun. As for washing your bike, you'll get over that soon enough.
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May 27, 2014 06:07
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Linedance posted:Washing... your bike? I remember doing it once or twice in the time I've had it. Kind of seems pointless since it lasts a whole 100m down the road before it's back to dirty again.
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May 27, 2014 06:17
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With pollen season it's almost more a a matter of time than distance.
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May 27, 2014 06:18
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Goddamn trees and their sex all over my tank 
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May 27, 2014 17:17
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Has anyone here ridden the Triumph Tiger Explorer XC? I sat on one at the dealer and I liked it, it fits my huge frame pretty well. I like the idea of an adventure bike, and being and to go off-road if I want. I would road trip every weekend on something like that. Sexy biek
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May 27, 2014 18:36
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If you like it you should get it. All the mags seem to agree it's a good travel bike. It'll be a handful off-road though.
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May 27, 2014 18:50
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I'm financing my current bike and wouldn't be able to afford it anyways.  . A man can dream
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May 27, 2014 19:00
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Myrddin Emrys posted:Not sure if this is the right thread, but I winterized my bike... poorly. Learning experience and all. It's a 2007 Honda Shadow (750). How much gas is in there? I would look there first. If it's possible and you have half a tank (I'm guessing you can't drain it since you will get bitched at) fill it up with fresh gas from the gas station and try again. If you can drain it, I would just drain the tank and put in a gallon. If it starts, ride it, fill it up, and be happy. Do you have your choke open? I have a 99 Shadow 1100 and I need to have the choke open on it to start it. On my 06VTX1300 it starts with no choke needed. Do you have the gas knob pointed to the tank, and not off?
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May 27, 2014 19:01
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If the bike is carbed, there's good odds the gas or gas leftovers in your float bowls are gunked up and whatever you do to the gas in the tank won't do squat. I would check there before doing anything more intrusive. That's why when you winterize it, after you put the stabilizer in, you need to run it a bit to get the stabilizer actually into the carb (or close the petcock and drain the carbs, for more effort.)
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May 27, 2014 19:06
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This is a surprisingly fast-moving thread.Shimrod posted:Give it a few months before you replace the fairing, you'll probably drop it again stupidly. quote:Took me 2 years to drop any of my bikes, didn't drop my 1st ... dropped my 2nd twice within' a month both at pretty much a stop (backing up/about to do a turn, but barely moving). quote:I can't imagine the fairing is that badly marked from a driveway drop. Here's a couple more: Is there a CA consensus on grippy pads for my knees? I think they'd make riding this thing a little easier, especially when braking, but I don't really like how those StompGrip things look, and the only other ones I know of are the Techspec brand. I also made a foolish impulse bid on eBay and now I'm stuck with a 1975 Suzuki T500. This thing needs some work for real. The tires are the original set, the brakes don't seem to exist, and the suspension seems solidified. Is it gonna be easy to get parts to start sorting this thing out, or will this be a pain in the rear end? I've never had a vehicle older than me before. VVV argh. VVV Frosty- fucked around with this message at 22:13 on May 27, 2014 |
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May 27, 2014 21:41
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Frosty- posted:Is it gonna be easy to get parts to start sorting this thing out, or will this be a pain in the rear end? I've never had a vehicle older than me before. No and Yes, respectively. Old bikes (especially metric ones) have much worse parts availability than old cars, mainly due to smaller numbers of them being sold than equivalently old cars. For the 1978 Goldwing I'm rebuilding/cleaning up, most of the parts are no longer available new, the only way to get the majority of parts is to strip them from another bike, or pay through the nose for expensive replica parts. Some parts are available aftermarket, but are often poor quality compared to OEM. I can't imagine an old Suzuki that likely sold in much smaller numbers than first-gen Goldwings will have much parts availability at all. Ebay and Craigslist are going to be where you get 99% of your parts, most likely.
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May 27, 2014 22:10
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Eventually you'll either have a 3d printer that can print aluminum on your desktop, or there'll be one in the 7-11 on the corner, and then all you need is a single copy to digitize and you can have all the replacement parts you'll ever need 
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May 27, 2014 22:28
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bbbbbbbut big manufacturing! I desperately want that carbon fiber 3d printer. It looks so cool.
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May 27, 2014 22:44
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The guys were showing it off at the techshop earlier this year. Neat thing. It's fundamentally a nylon printer, and it just adds layers of CF inside to increase rigidity. It's not going to make 100% CF fairings or whatever but it can make plastic parts that are way more durable than anything else coming off an FDM machine for sure.
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May 27, 2014 23:11
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I just fabricated some turn signal brackets for my 'wing yesterday. I did it the old fashioned way with aluminium stock and power tools. 
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May 28, 2014 00:02
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HotCanadianChick posted:I just fabricated some turn signal brackets for my 'wing yesterday. Well well! Why don't you shoot a vimeo video at 240fps about it
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May 28, 2014 00:17
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Aluminum doesn't spark when you cut it. What good would that be?
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May 28, 2014 00:26
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Throw some rusty iron on it, it'll spark eventually.
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May 28, 2014 00:37
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americanzero4128 posted:How much gas is in there? I would look there first. If it's possible and you have half a tank (I'm guessing you can't drain it since you will get bitched at) fill it up with fresh gas from the gas station and try again. If you can drain it, I would just drain the tank and put in a gallon. If it starts, ride it, fill it up, and be happy. Do you have your choke open? I have a 99 Shadow 1100 and I need to have the choke open on it to start it. On my 06VTX1300 it starts with no choke needed. Do you have the gas knob pointed to the tank, and not off? It's almost full. I tried with choke open and closed. And yeah, the gas is set to On, and not reserve or off (though I tried with reserve just in case... no luck). You're also correct that it will be tough to drain it - obviously it's fairly easy to drain, but I'm not sure what to do with the gas once it's out. Snowdens Secret posted:If the bike is carbed, there's good odds the gas or gas leftovers in your float bowls are gunked up and whatever you do to the gas in the tank won't do squat. I would check there before doing anything more intrusive. Yeah, it's carbed (I'm 99% sure anyway). Ugh. Gunked carbs were one of the reasons I didn't ride for a long time on my junker bike. To be fair, though, those carbs CAME gunked. It was a nightmare for me last time as the carbs were very hard to remove and when I got them off there were plugs covering where I need to unscrew - but those plugs were covered in a layer of metal, so I had to literally drill into the carbs (without any indication that there WAS anything under the metal... leap of faith!). Shockingly, it worked, but I HATE working on carbs so much now. How much will I get laughed at if I call bike repair shop and say "I winterized my bike improperly, can you please come and make it run again"? Is that a thing? I don't have a way to GET it to an actual bike shop... And yea, this is the LAST TIME I listen to "experienced rider" friends of mine. I swear they were playing a prank on me. They said all you need to do to winterize it is fill the tank all the way up (their reasoning was full tank = no room for extra moisture or something, it made sense at the time) and a bike cover. Myrddin Emrys fucked around with this message at 01:52 on May 28, 2014 |
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May 28, 2014 01:48
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I'm helping a friend work on their bike, a 1984 XR500. It has a 540cc big bore installed with a louder muffler, but I'm not sure the PO adjusted the jetting at all so now going WFO acts like a kill switch. It's a double carb setup, one main at 135, the other at 108 at stock. How much higher would you recommend going on the jets?
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May 28, 2014 02:34
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Myrddin Emrys posted:And yea, this is the LAST TIME I listen to "experienced rider" friends of mine. I swear they were playing a prank on me. They said all you need to do to winterize it is fill the tank all the way up (their reasoning was full tank = no room for extra moisture or something, it made sense at the time) and a bike cover. The filling up thing is true, but you need to also run stabilized gas through the carbs, fog the cylinders if you're keeping it outside, lube the chain, tend the battery, so on and so forth.
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May 28, 2014 02:59
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M42 posted:The filling up thing is true, but you need to also run stabilized gas through the carbs, fog the cylinders if you're keeping it outside, lube the chain, tend the battery, so on and so forth. I'll definitely be looking more into it this winter - I did take care of the battery though.
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May 28, 2014 03:24
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Myrddin Emrys posted:Yeah, it's carbed (I'm 99% sure anyway). If it has a Choke it's got carbs. (99.99% of the time)
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May 28, 2014 03:49
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Digital_Jesus posted:If it has a Choke it's got carbs. (99.99% of the time) Unless it's EFI and has an Enrichment Lever (tm).
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May 28, 2014 03:50
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Safety Dance posted:Unless it's EFI and has an Enrichment Lever (tm). Well an Enrichment Lever isn't a choke it's an "Enrichment Lever".  M42 posted:The filling up thing is true, but you need to also run stabilized gas through the carbs, fog the cylinders if you're keeping it outside, lube the chain, tend the battery, so on and so forth. Or just buy an EFI bike.  To be fair you can winterize your bike just by filling the tank as long as you're not using gas with ethanol. Digital_Jesus fucked around with this message at 03:54 on May 28, 2014 |
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May 28, 2014 03:52
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Digital_Jesus posted:Well an Enrichment Lever isn't a choke it's an "Enrichment Lever".  My favorite winterizing strategy is "ride the drat thing".
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May 28, 2014 03:54
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May 28, 2014 03:55
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 you DJ.
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May 28, 2014 03:56
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Myrddin Emrys posted:It's almost full. I tried with choke open and closed. And yeah, the gas is set to On, and not reserve or off (though I tried with reserve just in case... no luck). You're also correct that it will be tough to drain it - obviously it's fairly easy to drain, but I'm not sure what to do with the gas once it's out. After having had to go over carbs several times now for people who've had them rebuilt by 'vintage bike shops' to the tune of a few hundred dollars I'd recommend trying to see if any CA goons who are familiar with carbs can help out. 99% of MC shops these days have no idea what to do with a carb except charge a pile of money to "fix" them. I'm not trying to paint myself as an expert or anything, just less of a hack than the people who did the shoddy work for money. Plus once you've got someone who's familiar with them show you how to go through the rebuild process step by step you won't have to hate them (as much).
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May 28, 2014 04:12
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I cleansed my carbs all on my own, and when I put it all back together (the pain of which I've forgotten similar to how women tend to forget the pain of childbirth), it started up and ran well. Did I do it right? The stupid thing runs! I'm still putting off syncing the carbs which I know I should have done right away.
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May 28, 2014 04:23
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Yeah, I prepped my ninjette allll over for winter and it still runs kinda cloggy at low speeds after winter (gently caress you pilot jet t ). Not looking forward to the headache of jiggling that thing out of the frame. Or cleaning it. Or syncing it. Or anything at all, ever. gently caress you carbs.On the plus side, it gives me something to do when it's too hot to ride (i.e. all of july and august).
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May 28, 2014 04:40
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captainOrbital posted:I cleansed my carbs all on my own, and when I put it all back together (the pain of which I've forgotten similar to how women tend to forget the pain of childbirth), it started up and ran well. Did I do it right? The stupid thing runs! I got really good at pulling Ninja 250 carbs when I forced my buddy to give me his bike for a month so I could fix it. Let me know if you want to tackle this ever. Actually, the Harbor Freight infrared thermometer trick could make syncing the carbs on the bike possible, since your bike is running pretty well already.
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May 28, 2014 04:45
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Hmm...was it...no, it was when trying to remove the awl filter from my Honda Odyssey and it started deforming and getting all scrunched up and my hand was getting sore because I couldn't find purchase on the thing that I was swearing so much and so loudly that I checked around the garage to make sure the kids (or the neighbor kids) weren't around. But the time BEFORE that it was getting the carbs back on. Safety Dance posted:Actually, the Harbor Freight infrared thermometer trick could make syncing the carbs on the bike possible, since your bike is running pretty well already. Wait, could you explain this, because it sounds better than what I was dreading.
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May 28, 2014 04:48
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