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Practicality aside, one thing I love about carbs is that they're dense but understandable records of a bunch of engineering decisions. The first carb I took apart was in a second hand DRZ I bought sight-unseen in outback Australia a few years ago that, predictably, ran like poo poo after sitting in someone shed for a few months. Turning the carb over in my hands and trying to understand how it worked and what was wrong with it, I felt like every side of the thing was a legible record of innovations and compromises that my dumb brain could more or less understand. A lot of "oh, but what about..." questions that would be answered by turning the thing over and seeing how some other person had solved this or that issue that I now can't remember, but I could appreciate at the time. I get that to an engineer a whole bike is readable in that way, but it was my first experience of really understanding mechanical objects as a series of problems and compromises rather than something that just popped magically into existence. I think it was something about the carb being small enough to turn over in my hand, totally functional without anything hidden as a concession to aesthetics, and being complex enough to be initially baffling, but simple enough to figure out if I stared at it long enough. Anyway, the problem was a clogged pilot air jet. Woop woop. prukinski fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Oct 13, 2023 |
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Oct 13, 2023 22:41
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| # ? May 19, 2024 06:57 |
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It's particularly interesting working on carbs from the 80's, 70's and earlier cause you can see the iterative design changes that make like easier over time. You're right in thinking that whole bikes are like that, that is literally all I can see and it stops me appreciating certain bikes because I know too much about the contents of the sausage. This is why I don't particularly like certain brands. They build something functional that does the job just as well as a Honda, but when you take it apart it's just wrong in dozens of tiny little ways because they were unaware of - or just outright ignored - all those hard won lessons of history. Literally at this moment I'm poo poo posting in a break from working on a triumph sprint 1050 with, among other things, a dead battery. The battery compartment is in the usual japanese bike place, under the seat just aft of the tank. It looks like you can just pull it right out - but you can't, the back of the tank overlaps it just a little bit, as does the tail fairing. So you have to partially remove the tank and completely remove the tail fairing to get at a battery which is otherwise right there in plain sight. That doesn't make the bike less reliable or even necessarily lower quality (there are other things that do though) but to me it makes it worse. And there are a dozen other little things, like the bonehead way the fairings are attached, the position of the coolant overflow tank etc etc that all add up to a big flashing neon sign that says WE DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT WE'RE DOING I find this very hard to articulate to people when I'm trying to explain why two seemingly identical bikes on paper give drastically different ownership experiences over time. And then you've got the way the things actually ride on top of that.
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Oct 13, 2023 23:13
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No, I get it, the battery thing is a great example of what you're talking about. Things that make you go "whyyyyyyyy?" when you're working on it. Carbs are my go-to example for "elegance" in engineering that end up anything but elegant, precisely because of all the little changes that build up over time in order to get it to work as intended (and still requires manual dialling in). And the fate of all such systems is to be replaced by Brute Force And Ignorance devices like EFI, because then it can roll right out of the factory fully functional without having to train and pay someone to do a thing. To say nothing of hitting emissions targets by flatspotting at a magic rpm and throttle position. Phy fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Oct 14, 2023 |
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Oct 14, 2023 22:12
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one thing we can all count our blessings about is that motorcycles never got those absolutely hosed malaise era emissions carbs with o2 sensors and poo poo
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Oct 15, 2023 03:11
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Cactus Ghost posted:one thing we can all count our blessings about is that motorcycles never got those absolutely hosed malaise era emissions carbs with o2 sensors and poo poo We got a bunch of other absolutely hosed stuff instead dw
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Oct 15, 2023 03:23
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Allow me to introduce you to the PAIR system, coast enricheners and other wonky poo poo that everyone immediately disables.
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Oct 15, 2023 03:43
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pair is extremely common and a pain right in the rear end when it gets old. My bike had it. the wr with injection also had it. For it had a kludge of a cold start system despite being efi. It had a thermobulb with a coolant supply that acted as a choke valve aka a idle air control valve. Mine didn't work right and the fix was to idle it for a minute so it wouldn't stall or buy an entire throttle body.  Those with carbs are old as poo poo now, have had 9 owners and 80 thousand miles. EFI when it is at that age, number of miles, and number of POs, is marginally in the same boat. I am really glad that motos skipped poo poo like k-tronic, feedback carbs, chokeless venturis, and other batshit automotive systems. Though we did get our own batshit systems with cv slides and injectors, ala turn of the millennium yamaha poo poo. The coast enricheners on the 950 are still in place, it's like $3 to rebuild em, or probably a weekend of time to jet the bike properly to work without. Not much else is there. Phy posted:Carbs are my go-to example for "elegance" in engineering that end up anything but elegant, precisely because of all the little changes that build up over time in order to get it to work as intended (and still requires manual dialling in). And the fate of all such systems is to be replaced by Brute Force And Ignorance devices like EFI, because then it can roll right out of the factory fully functional without having to train and pay someone to do a thing. To say nothing of hitting emissions targets by flatspotting at a magic rpm and throttle position. This argument extends to internal combustion vs electric. Thousands of bespoke moving parts all moving in a symphony vs ... three. A rotor, and a pair of bearings.
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Oct 15, 2023 16:40
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cursedshitbox posted:Thousands of bespoke moving parts all moving in a symphony vs ... three. A rotor, and a pair of bearings. Uhh what about the 3.5x1021 electrons per second my dude
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Oct 15, 2023 17:59
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Sagebrush posted:Uhh what about the 3.5x1021 electrons per second my dude Much like carburetors; Try not to stick your dick in it and you'll be ok.
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Oct 15, 2023 18:35
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The electrons are like petrol, don't get them in your mouth or eyes and you'll be fine
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Oct 15, 2023 18:40
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Slavvy posted:The electrons are like petrol, don't get them in
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Oct 15, 2023 20:00
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statist liberals telling me i cant buttchug electrons
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Oct 15, 2023 20:20
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Went out for about four hours today. Temperature was mid/upper 50s, which is a bit cooler than I usually do but I put on long johns underneath my perfed textiles and stayed warm enough even with some strong breezes and not much sun. I had a balaclava in the bag if the wind was too much but chapstick was all I needed with the helmet vents closed. Looks like I'm right at 1200 miles since I started riding in August 2021. I'll probably get one or two more good riding days before I get the annual inspection in November and hang it up for the winter.
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Oct 15, 2023 23:45
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I'll probably do what I did last winter and keep the bike at least semi-operational. There might come rideable weather when you least expect it where I live, sometimes on days when I'm off work and can make something out of daylight, temps above freezing and mostly dry asphalt if those things should happen to coincide. Long rides in the cold isn't great but just getting on the bike for a short jaunt or three during the off-season helps keeping the worst of the abstinence at bay for me at least. The road salt sucks, so does washing the bike when it's cold since I have to do this outside (unless I use bro's garage) but sometimes it still feels worth it IMO. I have started putting the low ethanol slightly more expensive gas in the tank though, should there be a snowy icy weather for months on end in store which is also a possibility.
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Oct 16, 2023 08:05
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If you don't intend to ride it often, it might be worth just putting fuel stabilizer into the tank before you fill up each time, so that it would be fine to just leave for a few months in case the weather does get too nasty.
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Oct 16, 2023 13:45
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I have a stabilized gas can I've been using to fill it up with for the last few rides and put it on paddock stands and a battery tender under a cover when I think I"m done. I take the cover off on nice days to let it air out.
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Oct 16, 2023 21:54
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https://www.pure-gas.org Ethanol free gas lasts many months without breaking down. I know not everyone has a conveniently close station for regular fill-ups, but for a lot of people, one trip and a 5-gallon jug would see you through a winter’s worth of occasional rides.
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Oct 17, 2023 08:10
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if nothing else you can buy it for like $24/quart at the hardware store
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Oct 17, 2023 09:12
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Hey it's me guy-who-bragged-he'd-not-dropped-his-bike-yet. I went to a gas station and when I came back out I got on the bike and it almost fell over in the direction of the stand, which I had not yet raised. Turned out I needed to pee so hard I didn't kick it down all the way and it was teetering on the edge while I was taking a piss. Still haven't dropped it though, so here's me tempting fate again, gently caress you fate. More seriously though here's a story to share: I was riding west at night on the 10 ding the speed limit in the second lane to the left. Another biker passed me on the left and we gave each other the biker blessing o7. Just after a car zoomed by https://on doing at least 20 faster than I was, so like 90 or something. The other biker was a cool cat and showed no reaction but god drat, LA drivers. Beware of people passing you in the median, I suppose.
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Oct 19, 2023 07:18
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Vino posted:Turned out I needed to pee so hard I didn't kick it down all the way and it was teetering on the edge while I was taking a piss. Still haven't dropped it though, so here's me tempting fate again, gently caress you fate.
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Oct 19, 2023 09:30
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Yeah a bike drop is always just one small mistake away and those are probably inevitable if you ride long enough. I've been lucky with several close calls but my luck ran out this summer. No damage to either body or bike that time so it was a cheap lesson, maybe I learned not to do that particular dumb move again. unplanned impulse stop at a scenic place for a much needed piss, cold stiff knees, soft ground at a sideslope, heavily laden bike
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Oct 19, 2023 10:40
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3 close calls in 10k miles - kickstand that wasn't down, a stall at a right hand intersection with bars turned, and coming to a stop with the bars turned right while at a riders course of all places.
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Oct 19, 2023 13:13
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My closest calls to dropping it has always been with moving the bike without sitting on it. Me being to close to the bike, the bike being upright, and it starts overbalancing away from me while I don't have good leverage to arrest it. I managed to drop my fz6n once when I emergency braked in a parking lot when I was unfocused, already late and a car popped out from behind a van while I was in the slightly wrong position in the lanes.
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Oct 19, 2023 14:37
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I dropped my 50cc scooter, my Italia 150cc cheap scooter, my Harley Roadster, and the Bonneville. Each drop makes me slightly less of a dumbass. (this is not me saying I’m no longer a dumbass)
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Oct 19, 2023 16:33
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The only bike I've never dropped is the Monkey
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Oct 19, 2023 17:22
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I haven't dropped my Rebel so far, but my dad managed to knock it off of a paddock stand and onto himself while trying to show me how to thread a new chain onto the sprockets without detaching the shift lever. That was exciting. I definitely dropped bikes a couple times as a teenager, though.
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Oct 20, 2023 01:31
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I dropped the Scrambler off a lovely paddock stand last year, obviously it's annoying but not worth beating yourself up over. Dropping faired bikes sucks a lot more, the plastics are so fragile.
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Oct 20, 2023 11:08
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get on my level, my first drop was when i thought i was in neutral at a red light and when i let go of the clutch the motorcycle shook loose the bonds of my crotch and went off to be free e: wait, no, that was drop two. drop one was trying to climb a steep rutted dry wash, stalling, and eating poo poo. three was taking a 15mph turn at the posted limit but it was covered in pea gravel so i lowsided despite my diligent speed. thats all so far i think. falls in mud or trying to learn to wheelie don't count imo, even if they do contribute to my shift lever and plastics being all hosed up Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 10:15 on Oct 22, 2023 |
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Oct 22, 2023 10:12
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Falling off-road doesn't count at all and is basically just part of doing the thing and may even be beneficial
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Oct 22, 2023 10:20
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Yeah if you ride off road the assumption is you’ve already fallen a million times.
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Oct 22, 2023 15:14
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having a bike that's under 300lb wet certainly has made me more cavalier about dropping it, for better or worse
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Oct 22, 2023 15:47
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My first drop was trying to get the 50cc scooter over a little hump at the gate into our back yard at the last place we lived. I was off the bike, revving it, when it suddenly popped over the hump and the front end shot into the air because it was light enough that the bike couldn’t get away from me and I was still on the other side of the gate. My other drops were pretty equally stupid, but each in their own unique ways that haven’t repeated.
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Oct 22, 2023 20:38
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Beve Stuscemi posted:Yeah if you ride off road the assumption is you’ve already fallen a million times. Good thing I saw this, was about to brag about dropping it all the time
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Oct 23, 2023 20:21
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I wouldn't say I came close to dropping the bike but I had a totally new experience yesterday when coming to a stop at a crosswalk shortly after leaving work - the boot was sliding on the asphalt like it was oiled glass or something, no grip at all. Turns out that the decorative tree that's right next to my favorite parking spot has dropped a bunch of berries of some kind on the ground, and the sole of my boot was covered in lots of slimy pulp. I didn't notice a thing on the rubber footpeg but had a bit of a pucker moment when I put the foot down and felt it slide. I realized what had happened and let the foot drag for a bit when taking off again, and that was that. Needless to say I chose a different parking spot today.
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Oct 26, 2023 07:38
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I had exactly that moment. On pulpy leaves. On another person's bike. Might as well have died that day.
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Oct 26, 2023 07:55
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I never ever ever ever ever ever want to assume that my skill level is higher than it actually is or that I’m somehow “better” than other riders. I am happier to assume I’m a dumbass newbie than to assume I’ve upgraded to the next level. But sometimes other riders make it really hard not to. In the last week I’ve seen
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Oct 27, 2023 19:44
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Geekboy posted:I never ever ever ever ever ever want to assume that my skill level is higher than it actually is or that I’m somehow “better” than other riders. I think this is good and self-aware.
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Oct 27, 2023 19:54
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I still remember someone posting here telling a new rider to swap the throttle tube on their MT03 with an R6 one (because the throw is too long on the mt03). Then they said something to the effect of I didn’t do it until I was comfortable with the bike, about 600 miles.
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Oct 27, 2023 20:03
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Toe Rag posted:I think this is good and self-aware. It was mostly the way it was phrased, I guess. I don’t feel like I ride an unusually large amount but I’ve done 7,000 on one of my bikes since March. How is the self-awareness slipping away after you’ve barely broken in a new engine’s worth of miles?
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Oct 27, 2023 20:29
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I guess I'd have to see the post, but I think around the 1,000 mile mark is where, for most riders, the gap between confidence and ability will be the largest. Asking "hey guys I'm feeling pretty good on the bike but how do I keep myself in check" is totally fine. Different people have different riding goals and ways they approach them. I personally think miles ridden, in and of itself, is meaningless. 800 miles on Tail of the Dragon, let alone on the track, is far more informative than 800 miles through suburban America. I'm with you on the two things you posted, though 
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Oct 27, 2023 20:49
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