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obso posted:None of you ever used a punch or edge of a small chisel to break loose small screws like that? Just set the tip of the punch/chisel close to the outside edge of the screw and tap it in the direction you want it to turn. I've done this a bunch of times with gearbox/diff drain bungs when they rounded. It does work extremely well.
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Mar 31, 2013 22:06
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Rabid Snake posted:Thanks for the advice. My dad replaced the rear brake shoes and front pads before he let it sit for awhile (he only rode it for a month before his arthritis made it impossible for him to ride anymore). Should I still replace these items since its been sitting for awhile? I'll probably drain and replace the front brake fluids for good measure anyways. Ill definitely check the coolant/radiator fan now that you mentioned it. 1. No, they'll be fine. 2. Yes do the fluids. 3. Avon is decent, the only anectode I have is a friend had avon qualifiers on his vtr1000 and the grip was insane.
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Apr 2, 2013 09:59
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High Protein posted:Does it really matter if a bike sits all winter with 'old' oil in it? I doubt it, especially for synthetic. I'd be inclined to just follow the maintenance interval, claims like 'it turns acidic!' reek of bike forum hearsay to me, but maybe I'm being too skeptical. Yes, it does matter. It isn't really that it turns acidic, it's that condensation builds up in the crank case. I've seen cars which havent had the oil changed in a couple of years without moving; you would swear the head gasket has a slight leak when you take the oil cap off. This is why every manufacturer everywhere stipulates that you change your oil at a certain mileage or a certain time, irrespective of mileage. Trans oil isn't really the same as it doesn't have to deal with exhaust gas or petrol and isn't exposed to atmosphere.
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Apr 2, 2013 19:33
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High Protein posted:Sure, and of course changing it won't hurt, but will it really build up enough condensation to hurt in one winter? Especially if you just go for a long ride and warm it up properly afterwards. In any case, the moisture issue would suggest it's best to do the oil after storage, not before. Put it this way: it's bad enough that car manufacturers worry about it; bike engines are much more sensitive and fragile so yes, I would change the oil. Especially seeing as it really doesn't cost that much. I've never seen the point of changing the oil beforehand though. edit: as for the oil change intervals, I think that the expectation is that no one would ride the bike so little as to fail to accumulate x miles in x time so they didn't put in a time interval. Alternatively, the owners' manual will say somewhere that if you don't meet the mileage requirements to change the oil at x time anyway, and it just isn't part of the normal schedule. Sagebrush posted:That oil sat in the ground for a hundred million years before it got into your bike; it doesn't change in the slightest unless it's exposed to heat and pressure (like in a running engine). Claims like "it turns acidic" are bullshit. If you store the bike long enough without running, though, other things like water are going to eventually get in, and without heat the boil the moisture out on a regular basis it'll build up and start to rust things. I assume that's why people thing old oil turns corrosive. This is a hilarious line of reasoning. From now on I'll answer every argument about material degradation with 'it sat in the ground since the inception of a solid earth so sitting on your front lawn won't hurt it at all!' EZipperelli posted:Dumb question, but, if I'm about to change the chain on my bike, is it totally necessary to change the front and rear sprockets as well? Or is this just a good recommendation(appx. 14,xxx mi. on original chain and sprockets)? I'd get the wheel up off the ground and check for tight spots. Also look at the sprocket teeth and judge their wear/possible curvature etc. I've heard you can do two chains to one set of sprockets but it really depends on how you ride, what sort of bike it is etc etc Slavvy fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Apr 2, 2013 |
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Apr 2, 2013 20:58
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I think in general the importance of the type of oil, how you treat it etc is severely over-stated on the internet in general and this forum is no exception. Using the right grade and changing the oil around the right time are definitely important but what kills most engines is people being idiots, caning the bike when it's cold or doing standstill burnouts or simply having too low or high an oil level.
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Apr 2, 2013 21:40
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High Protein posted:Agreed, especially on the warming up part. The way I see people start a cold bike and just tear out of there, pegging the limiter... I always gently warm it up, even if that means sticking to the slow lane for a bit. Having pulled apart a bunch of engines, every time I go over 5k with the engine still cold I have nightmare visions of the piston scuffing that always seems to occur. Here's a question: what's worse for my bike in terms of warm up; idling it until it's reasonably warm or riding it straight away? Normally it's a no-brainer, but my route to work puts me on the motorway roughly 500m from my house so the temperature is barely 100 degrees by the time I'm doing 5500rpm at just over 100km/h and it feels SO BAD FOR IT.
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Apr 2, 2013 22:25
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alnilam posted:I'm asking this on behalf of a friend who doesn't have the privilege of an SA account You'll get two responses here. One camp will say that having an ancient bike is awesome because you have to fix everything, it'll be your pride and joy and you'll learn to love it etc etc. The other camp will tell you that having an ancient bike is horrible because you have to fix everything, rides like poo poo, parts are hard to find, it's finicky and sensitive and maintenance-intensive. My 2c: buy something you aren't concerned about dropping. Don't PLAN on dropping it, but it's safer to err on the side of caution and get a bike that isn't too precious and shiny for your first one. If you're asking how difficult it is to remove a windjammer, it doesn't sound (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm just assuming) like you're very mechanically confident, in which case newer is generally better. Old bikes being easy to work on etc is all wonderful when you know what you're doing but nothing beats modern materials, low mileage, no rust or age or previous owner bullshit.
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Apr 3, 2013 21:05
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ChiTownEddie posted:2010 Bonneville Yup, battery is hosed. The voltage is just the surface charge. Try jump-starting or bump-starting the bike and check the charging voltage to make sure the bike hasn't killed the battery soemhow.
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Apr 6, 2013 00:40
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Good god I'm glad I have an injected bike.
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Apr 10, 2013 10:56
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Nerobro posted:Having a fuel injected bike just means the idle won't wander, you'll still detonate, burn holes in pistons, and have really lovely off idle throttle response. Haha what? Seriously? Carbs: perfect in every way. Efi: BURN HOLES IN YOUR PISTONS because honda/suzuki/kawasaki/yamaha don't have any idea how to build a completely mature technology that has been around for decades and even the most fundamental aspects of engine design elude them. Right. n8r posted:A carbed bike that is ridden regularly will have no more or less fuel system related issues than an FI bike. In fact it'll probably have less because there is no fuel pump to die. My 42 year old Yamaha has given me essentially 0 carb related issues that weren't related to tuning in a new set of pipes. I'm sorry, this is plain old not true. Carbs will not last 100,000km's without anything besides the air filter being touched. Carbs need regular tinkering, balancing, cleaning on top of any issues that crop up, which they do, because carbs are finicky mechanical devices which wear out rapidly, clog and fall out of synchronisation. Issues on efi bikes specifically caused by or related to the efi tend to be rare and unusual (at least with the japanese bikes, I can't speak for european or american brands). The idea that 'there is less to go wrong' with carbs is just flagrantly bullshit. Efi has all of three or four sensors (all of which are extremely simple), a bunch of wires, a handful of fuel injectors (which are directly derived from automotive items and are also dead simple), a fuel pump and a rugged ecu which works fine if you don't gently caress with it. Carbs have dozens of small fragile parts which wear out, they are fundamentally imprecise and incredibly sensitive to the slightest abuse or poor conditions. The fact is that on an injected bike you just don't have to touch the fuel system and it will work fine. There are no caveats about routine maintenance or balancing or bullshit cold startup routines or whatever. You just don't touch it and it works fine. Rah.
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Apr 10, 2013 20:34
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n8r posted:I'm glad you guys :effortposted: the response to Slavvy because I probably would have said something like: Every bike I've owned besides my most recent two were carby, but thanks for your blanket assumption about what I have and haven't done. Xovaan posted:Carbs and EFI are both equally optimal for daily use and require the same amount of effort to learn, diagnose, and fix issues. K-jetronic: worst of both worlds! Ultimately my point is that carby bikes only currently exist because of industrial inertia as Geirskogul has pointed out, and they are inferior in every way both from an owner's and mechanic's point of view. No, I wouldn't buy a bike with a crap chassis and engine but efi over an early R1 with carbs. Yes, early injected systems have cold start levers, but this is down to cost and laziness on the part of the manufacturer as implementing cold start mapping is a piece of cake. Modern bikes have fly by wire and I can assure you the throttle response blows away any carburettor as it is instant, there's no waiting for airspeed to increase or fuel to atomise.
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Apr 10, 2013 23:25
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nsaP posted:All those responses to your post and n8's is the only one you choose to acknowledge? lol No, I just didn't want to create an even bigger wall of text packed with quotes. Do you exist just to nitpick? I have a question: I've never fooled around with a powercommander. How are they implement physically ie do they just splice in between the ecu and sensors, or what? How do they actually work? And are they somewhat generic across models and brands or are they model specific, so when people say 'has a power commander fitted' they mean 'has a power commander designed for a gsx-r750 fitted', or what? Ponies ate my Bagel posted:Guys, why are we arguing? Can't we all just agree that no matter what technology is in use it only *really* sucks if it's on a Harley? Preach brother.
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Apr 10, 2013 23:59
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I'm at work so I can't do anything in real-time. Seriously though can someone explain powercommanders to me? I'll be getting a modern sportbike of some description soon and I want to know.
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Apr 11, 2013 00:28
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:At our shop we've seen a lot of 70s/80s bikes, most often Japanese fours, showing this symptom, and not a lot of them are actually due to intake leaks. It can be a complete bitch to solve the issue. Some of the worst offenders are the old Honda mechanical slide carbs. The cause is similar to an intake leak though, it's running lean due to reasons that are hard to specifically track down. Assuming it's just wear on the moving parts in the carb which lets too much air through. Upping the idle jet usually fixes it, but a disturbing number of those bikes have pressed-in idle jets which basically can't be changed. I guess if you're running too rich or fouling plugs you just add Sagebrush.
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Apr 11, 2013 01:30
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Nerobro posted:Yeah, modern fuel is less energy dense than the old stuff. (almost everything at the pump is at least e10, if not e15.) Going up a pilot jet solves a LOT of problems. This is interesting, here in NZ only one service station brand does 10% ethanol and it's 98 octane only. Is it really that different running e10/15 to normal petrol on an older bike?
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Apr 11, 2013 03:09
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Modern EFI doesn't really need to be maintained in any way. Unless you wanna tune it or something. Keihin make throttlebodies. They're shaped like carbs for nostalgia factor or whatever you want to call it. ThatCguy posted:So, out of curiosity, what is it on an EFI bike you don't think you'll be able to "DIY"? This.
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Apr 11, 2013 03:55
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Thanks but that doesn't answer my question. Is there a slide in there? Look at the link. It clearly shows you there is a conventional butterfly plate inside. The cleverness is that it looks just like a carb without being one.
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Apr 11, 2013 20:22
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Any/all of them. Butterfly shaft, slide, butterfly plate. I dunno this for sure but it was a plausible explanation offered by an MMI instructor. I see literally no reason why an EFI system would need a slide, it makes no sense. I'd say it's all just illusion.
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Apr 12, 2013 01:33
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GnarlyCharlie4u posted:Goddamnit I wish I could remember offhand but I recently worked on a bike that had EFI but the "throttle bodies" (really just carb bodies with injectors added) had CV slides. Interesting. I wonder if it was a stop-gap money saving design like it sounds, or if there's some real benefit I haven't thought of.
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Apr 12, 2013 02:49
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Nerobro posted:I'll say it again. Early R6's had vacuum slides. With EFI. I think I've mentioned this before.. in the last week. Early R6's are carby...? Unless you mean 03 as early. I also don't see how that's at all an argument against EFI, nor did I say EFI is flawless; just better than carbs. nsaP posted:Cain't exist if you haven't thought of it. Jesus give it a rest would you.
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Apr 12, 2013 06:01
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ReelBigLizard posted:I'll say it again. EFI is not inherently jerky. I think I've mentioned this before.. in the last week Thanks. How many bikes actually have OBD2 nowadays? Is it mandatory for bikes yet?
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Apr 12, 2013 11:01
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n8r posted:The problem with early EFI and the jerky/surging you would experience had something to do with the range of fuel an injector can spit out. When you need that teeny little bit of fuel at cracked open throttle all the way to lots of fuel at WOT stuff gets hard to setup. This was solved on some bikes by going to two injectors per intake so you had one smaller one and one larger one. Not sure how that gets solved these days, maybe injector tech has just gotten better. You might be able to shed some light on what the purpose is of the secondary throttle butterflies on my SV's intake. They don't appear to be directly proportional to throttle load/RPM (granted, my scientific analysis consisted of giving it a rev with the tank off to see) and they're operated by the ecu. Is this just to try make the engine smoother at low revs because of v-twinnyness? What would happen if they weren't there?
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Apr 12, 2013 21:01
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I didn't get much traction in the 'tell me what to buy' thread so I'll try here. I'm going to go look at this: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=582826848 I'm looking at it because the market here is such that if I want an actual sportsbike, I could get this, or I could pay about two grand more for an early 00's 600SS that I don't want. Does anyone have any first-hand experience with these? Anything I should look out for? All the 'big' sportsbikes I've ridden have been post-2000, I've got no experience with a dinosaur like this. What would the handling be like compared to something more modern? Assuming, of course, the guy isn't full of poo poo about the reworked suspension and low-mileage engine.
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Apr 16, 2013 01:19
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Z3n posted:I hate any bike that has a "reworked engine". Chances of it being done right are about 10-20%, in my experience, which means you better get it cheap enough to justify a rebuild. Older bikes tend to be rather stable handling, not super flickable, excluding the 900 CBRs and a couple of other random models. It'll also be heavy. But they can be quick in the right hands, just like most bikes. If you didn't have a particular reason to buy a ZX7R though I wouldn't. My only real reason is that I can't seem to find anything with similar sort of power/weight and handling in that price range. Every 600SS I've ridden I found pretty ghastly for lack of torque, but I have an irrational fear of litresports. The most powerful bike I've ridden daily was a hornet 919 and that felt pretty comfortable performance-wise, but I want the handling, full-fairing and other qualities of a sportsbike.
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Apr 16, 2013 01:42
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infraboy posted:Find yourself a honda 929/954/gsx-r 750, they have better midranges. I mainly got a 954 to play around with but i'm really falling for it. RC51 start at 8 grand around here, RSV mille not much less. 954/later gsx-r750 are usually about 6500-8000; if I could buy any of those it would be a no-brainer, trust me. The nearest competitor to this price/performance-wise are early R6's, cbr600f4i's etc and all of them start at 5000. NZ is not a nice place to buy used bikes.
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Apr 16, 2013 03:51
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Righto. It is irritating because anything that looks like a sportbike here commands an enormous, retarded premium. I can get a mint hornet 919 or sv1000 for 4500-5000 but as soon as it gets a fairing and USD forks the price skyrockets for no reason. For comparison's sake, I got my K3 sv650 with 50,000km's on the clock, with a slight dent in the tank and other minor deficiencies, for $4000NZD in December. This was a particularly good deal and I'm likely to sell it now for at least that much.
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Apr 16, 2013 04:16
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clutchpuck posted:If it feels good, you aren't leaning too far. It'd be a good plan to back off when they feel squirmy. Serious question: what does this feel like? I've always just experienced grip-grip-grip-grip-tyreslidinglaterally.
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Apr 16, 2013 05:28
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clutchpuck posted:It happens on knobbier patterns, the tires sort of wiggle around under you as the tread flexes. Those k60s don't look particularly knobby so I bet you could ride them as far over as a Strom will like to be without any weirdness though. Ah I getcha. So normal sports/road tyres will do what? Just lose grip suddenly? I ask because I've always learned how much grip any given bike I'm on has by deliberately trying to provoke a loss of grip, hopefully without crashing in the process, and then just knowing not to push quite that hard. When I read bike magazines and see people talking, they always talk about being able to 'feel' how much grip you have, like in a car. Am I tone-deaf to tyre feel somehow or is there something I'm missing? I've never felt a difference in sensation through the bars, pegs, seat etc until the bike just loses grip and starts sliding.
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Apr 16, 2013 06:02
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High Protein posted:The buzzing is normal, it's the vibration of the brake components. As long as it isn't a squeal, it's fine. Surprised me too the first time I heard it, previous bike didn't have it. I was quite pleased the first time I rode a bike with decent brakes and you could hear a faint 'fizzzzzzzzzzz' every time you braked. Bikes with sliding calipers seem to be noisier than those with fixed, but that's my totally baseless personal observation.
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Apr 16, 2013 20:21
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It's worth making sure the clutch cable is lubed and the clutch lever pivot is lubed too; I had a bike where the brakes felt monstrously notchy and bad and it was just the pivot being completely dry and 'catching' the lever.
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Apr 18, 2013 00:32
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Forty Two posted:See if you can get a pinlock insert. I've had on in my current helmet for the 3 years that I've had it and it still works brilliantly. I could never go back to not having one, unless someone invented some kind of miracle spray on stuff ReformedNiceGuy posted:Seconding this, they're incredible andI wouldn't be without mine either. The higher end shark helmets (and some other brands I assume) have a hollow visor which acts like double glazed glass and simply will not fog regardless of what you do. It works better than my shoei with a pinlock. I need a new helmet 
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Apr 21, 2013 22:35
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Xovaan posted:Dumb question, but is there a better or worse place to be sitting on a motorcycle seat? I usually scrunch up to the tank. I've always been taught to sit far back in the seat so my legs can clamp the sides of the tank more effectively. I feel much more in control of the bike when I do this, but I don't know if that's because it's a better seating position or if I've just gotten used to riding that way. I have a question. I Bought this a couple of days ago:  Does anyone know what sort of bike the rear swingarm is from? It definitely is not the factory one and I want to know if it'll affect the handling, and if so for better or worse. It also has a neptune can which sounds OK I guess. From what I've read on the net, normally they have a catalytic converter hidden inside the can so obviously this will flow a fair bit better. How can I determine if the bike has been re-jetted for the new can? I've never ridden another ZRX and so I'm wondering if it's possible to tell by examining the carbs somehow?
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Apr 22, 2013 10:03
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Halo_4am posted:If it had a new can and wasn't jetted to accommodate a significant difference in airflow or back-pressure the bike would be running like poo poo. If it's running strong and even through the range then it was re-jetted or didn't need to be re-jetted. Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Swingarm looks similar to the old GPZ/ZX 900s from the 80s. I don't think that'll affect your handling much, unless it's shorter or longer than the stock one. Nerobro posted:Yes, you can check the carbs to see if they've been rejetted. The simplest thing to do is pull a slide and see if it's a stock one, or an adjustable one. otherwise you can pull the rack, and check the jet sizes in the float bowl. Cool, thanks. The bike runs superbly so I guess it must have been re-jetted, there are no flat spots or popping or rough running whatsoever. Halo_4am posted:Also, grats on your new hugely superior EFI bike? Let's not do this. I said if it were a good bike I'd overlook the carbs, and I did. Think of this as me giving carbs a chance!
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Apr 22, 2013 19:54
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JP Money posted:I've been toying with the idea of trying to reverse bleed my brakes lately with a syringe and some clear tubing. The DRZ especially has a brake hose that curves up above the MC and could trap air. The lever will always have a good amount of travel due to a small piston but I'm curious if I can make the brakes feel better with this method than the typical draining method. I suspect it won't make any difference though. I've never had much success with drawing brake fluid through, vacuum or otherwise. I've found that after you bleed the calipers, you can bleed the master cylinder area by holding on lever pressure and briefly cracking off the banjo bolt. This seems to work on bikes where the hose travels above the master cylinder too, and you can usually tilt the bars in a way that mitigates that. I don't know if a syringe can draw through enough fluid to get the air all the way down the lines, through the caliper and out the bleed nipple, unless you have a cartoonishly large syringe.
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Apr 23, 2013 20:08
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Ashex posted:Probably, but how else was I supposed to get a decent video? I've found this happens when my sprockets get middle-aged, but lubing the chain generally makes it go away.
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Apr 27, 2013 00:11
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My friend just bought an 82 Cx400/GL400 as his first bike; I test-rode it for him and told him it was a heap but the price is right and he likes lovely old bikes (because he's dumb). Anyway, it seems to pull pretty strong and smoothly up until you hit 5500-6000rpm, at which point the engine just seems to lose power and becomes reluctant to rev any further. It isn't choppy, it isn't cutting out or hesitating, it just seems to suddenly have half the horsepower it did earlier. Is this a fuel starvation issue, or something deeper involving fuel? I'm ruling out spark because it just doesn't feel like a spark issue. Also, the guy who sold it was a car mechanic (not a very good one from what I could tell) and he was convinced there is some sort of coil inside of the engine which energises the ignition coils outside the engine which in turn make spark. He said that a 'bike mechanic' told him this and to me it sounds like bollocks. This bike just has a conventional stator alternator inside the motor and conventional transistorised coil ignition, right? He bought it yesterday so I haven't yet had a chance to gently caress around with it.
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Apr 28, 2013 23:21
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:CX500 you mean? Interpreting it loosely, the mechanic is right. There are actually multiple coils in there that run the ignition system. Looking at a wiring diagram, I see no less than four coils connected to the CDI. That's pretty stupid, even for Honda, you shouldn't really need more than two at most. I wouldn't expect those coils to be to blame for high RPM power issues, though. It's a 400 but yes it's a CX. Seriously, there are coils inside the engine which somehow cause ignition? What?
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Apr 29, 2013 02:35
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:That's how a lot of older ignition systems work. It's how charging systems work. It's how modern crank sensors work. Everything is just a coil of wire somewhere in the engine with a magnet flying past it. They don't cause a spark plug spark on their own but they're part of the system. Oh so you're talking about a magnetic pick-up. That makes infinitely more sense and wasn't at all how the guy actually described the thing; that means it's basically exactly the same as every other bike ignition system for the past thirty years. I very much doubt that that is the issue, in that case.
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Apr 29, 2013 04:09
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Well, yes and no. The pickup is a coil. There's also multiple other coils that provide power to the CDI box, whereas the pickup merely tells the CDI box when to fire the spark. The other coils are what I think of as the alternator, unless I'm severely mistaken and there's some other entirely separate system for the lights, battery charging etc.
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Apr 29, 2013 21:02
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Unless they made multiple different ignition systems for that bike, I just pulled up a wiring diagram that showed a magneto powered CDI system. Multiple power coils and a pickup coil. So yes, separate from the charging system. Lame, I gotcha now. I'm 90% it's a fuel issue based on the way it rode anyway; I had to ride it to his place last night and exceeding a certain amount of throttle OR a certain amount of RPM made it bog down; it wouldn't get up hills on the highway without slowing down to 60 and dropping down into third because the slightest increase in throttle from 100km/h level ground cruising resulted in bogging and severe lack of power.
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Apr 29, 2013 23:30
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