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Malpenix Blonia posted:Also, is there a beginner-friendly guide to carbs? I would probably know what to try if I had any idea which parts did what. I actually went to the local library to find out more about engines. You'd be amazed at the kind of specialised, practical information your public library may hold. In my quest for knowledge I even found mine had a book by Weber (Edelbrock to you yanks I think) on tweaking and servicing carbs. For my 2p on wet-weather riding; watch out at lights/lines/stop signs. I went to pull up at a stop some days ago after some showers and nearly lost the front end on a small oil slick left by some inconsiderate sod in a rust bucket. Ended up half a bike-length over the line. ReelBigLizard fucked around with this message at 23:47 on Oct 18, 2008 |
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Oct 18, 2008 23:43
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FuzzyWuzzyBear posted:First, I know how to drive stick with a car, and I usually blip on downshifts to rev match. Should I do this on a bike as well? I never knew it was the approved practice until someone told me, I just started doing it to make downshift smoother when I was learning (I've found it takes the edge off if you accidentally double shift too, a scary mistake to a new rider at the best of times).
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Nov 18, 2008 20:09
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I decided before I got my bike I would get a fully comprehensive riders policy, no matter what I bought. It's not cheap but it's worth it for the peace of mind. Once I hit 25 it dropped to pretty reasonable levels.
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Feb 10, 2010 16:45
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Busted a fork seal on the SMC  It's not pissing out fluid but it seems to have a fairly steady weep. Worst part is the dealer can't fit me in until friday and they'll charge me £~100 for the pleasure (about $170 US). I'm pretty much set on doing it myself now; I have a basic but well thought out tool kit (I'm a technician by trade). There's a couple of awesome how-tos on youtube for my style of forks. I have another problem, the dealer only has one fork seal. My experience as a technician and service engineer tells me to replace both at the same time, so they are not mismatched in any way. Is it going to be a problem if I only service one fork?
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Feb 28, 2010 18:55
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Zool posted:Using maintenance throttle to shift that balance as close to 50/50 as you can I always aim to put more on the rear than the front on the SMC, up to about 40/60; recovering the back on this bike is almost a zero-effort affair. The only fall I've had was from loading the front up too much. Zool posted:You're motorcycle I are not!
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Mar 10, 2010 16:08
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Armacham posted:how much free ply is normal for a cush drive hub? Not much, if you need to ask that question then you probably need to change out the wedges.
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Mar 11, 2010 15:05
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infraboy posted:Wheeling looks scary, I just want to commute to San Francisco and sit here after I park my bike for 20 mins watching the scrubs in their cars try to find parking. For me riding for primary transportation is the equivalent of having a job that you really love. I get great mileage, I can skip traffic, I can take my bike down tracks too narrow or lumpy for cars, I can get around the island quicker than any other vehicle but most importantly I enjoy myself while I do it. And wheelies are a little scary, they just also happen to be totally  , like stoppies.I really like this forum because of it's tongue-in-cheek, "wheelies are awesome, as long as you are ATG(At)TT", attitude. I like TFR too with it's "Lets blow the gently caress out of some milk jugs with .44 MAG but watch your loving trigger discipline!" vibe.
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Mar 17, 2010 14:51
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FuzzyWuzzyBear posted:Predicting a flood of "how do I change my fork seals" in about three weeks in the thread.  Been there, posted that, about two weeks back.  How-to thread's a comin'
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Mar 18, 2010 00:56
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quote:Wheelies are, for the most part, vehicular wanking. ...should be the tagline for Cycle Asylum 
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Mar 18, 2010 03:25
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niethan posted:I have a silly question: why is the air intake and carbs on the back and the exhaust at the front of the engine and not the other way round? I always assumed it was to keep the exhaust from getting too hot and the carbs from icing up. It's probably not that simple though.
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Apr 22, 2010 23:02
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Clank posted:I guess Im just not used to it and never noticed it before on the KLR. I don't have to fight it. What you're feeling is quite normal. The KLR has off-road fork/triple geometry, with wider bars giving much more leverage. I notice the same feeling every time I go from my KTM to any kind of road-oriented frame. It passes.
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Oct 12, 2010 00:37
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JP Money posted:It goes without saying but don't get any of these on your plastics / paint. Quoting for emphasis, Acetone will gently caress your poo poo up. I'd start with lighter fluid and a bronze brush, and try brake cleaner if that didn't work.
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Nov 4, 2010 16:13
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AhhYes posted:I'll give this a shot, of course. Putting a quarter of a tank of nice fresh guzzoline in there certainly wont hurt. Can you smell fuel at the exhausts after trying to start it? Have you checked to see if you're getting spark? I don't know the electrical configuration on your bike but Italian bikes aren't exactly known for outstanding electricals. Pull a plug and touch the thread to the cylinder head while you crank it and see if there is a good spark. Your bike is injection. The random stalling at low revs / stopped at lights isn't entirely uncommon to injected bikes. The injected KTMs are notorious for it. Some systems aren't happy if the battery is even the slightest bit weak, did they put in a new one when they did the 6k service? While doing a quick google for the user manual for your bike I saw a couple of posts that bemoaned the fuel line connections, apparently they can work loose. Ducati apparently make you take your bike in to the OFFICIAL DUCATI AUTHORISED DEALERSHIP for absolutely everything nowadays, including changing some bulbs. Couldn't find a service or user PDF  poor show, Ducati.
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Feb 7, 2011 22:00
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Weinertron posted:Are Yuasa batteries worth the expense over cheapo batteries plus ones for an SV650? I lost a very old, weak battery in the cold weather we've had lately. It was a cheapo "Batteries Plus" one of indeterminate age that the PO put in, seems to cost less than half as much as a Yuasa. I'm tempted to cheap out here. I only cheaped out on a battery once. Never again. Cheap batteries can cost you a lot of time in second-guessing or worse, diagnostics at a dealer. They'll let you down. *mumble*mumble*150fookinquid*mumble* ReelBigLizard fucked around with this message at 10:04 on Feb 15, 2011 |
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Feb 15, 2011 10:01
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JP Money posted:Well I'm not so much asking how hard it is - I know that it's not difficult. I'm more-so asking "is it cool to be riding reasonably hard on the street with a plugged tire?" The worst-case scenario is that the plug fails and the tyre starts going slowly flat. A modern motorcycle tyre isn't going to explode because of one tiny hole. If you're still worried, remove the tyre and patch it on the inside instead.
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Mar 11, 2011 16:19
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Zeroboy posted:live cheap and dangerous. A small puncture from something like a nail, properly patched, is not going to result in any kind of catastrophic failure on a motorcycle tyre though. Worst case is the tire slowly deflates. A cut is a different thing, a piece of scrap metal, glass, or similar will not make a small, neat hole, it will cut more than a few of the fibres in the tyre and compromise the integrity. I have read some stories of steel belted car tyres failing after a plug because the plug allowed moisture to get to the belting and cause corrosion, but this is not an issue on a motorcycle tyre.
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Mar 12, 2011 11:41
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Z3n posted:They have you remove the plug because it's easier to turn the engine over when you don't have to fight the compression. I rarely remove plugs during valve checks, but I'm particularly paranoid about dropping a shim into the head or something. A good strong Nd magnet is your friend; I lift out and set shims on my bike exclusively with the magnet that is fitted into the handle of my 'dentist' pick/probe.
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Mar 16, 2011 15:09
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Anyone here got any experience replacing EFI with a carburetor? I'm getting hosed off with injection.
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Mar 17, 2011 15:54
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Spiffness posted:Why do this to the 690? I guess there is no overriding reason, just a lot of smaller frustrations. The FI locks you down to paying for re-maps by the dealership (and mine is poo poo now since they lost their good mechanic) or paying through the nose for things like tuneboy or vortex systems, neither of which give you any option to really dig into the workings of the ECU further than messing around with the fueling table. I'm a tinkerer, I don't feel like I own something until I've owned it. I have no qualms about cleaning/tuning/adjusting carbs. I'm a software developer by profession and an electronics enthusiast by hobby, this isn't some "hurr, technolgy is bad because I don't understant it" thing. In my opinion the ECU on the 690 is probably what lets it down the most. The other consideration is cost, if that wasn't an issue I'd probably be looking seriously at a replacement ECU. According to reviews the Vortex replacement is excellent but the Vortex is currently $1000 USD here in the UK, and more on top of that for the editing software. An FCR41 would run half that (maybe even less from eBay), be easier to fix on the road and make it easier to modify the bike; I'd like to experiment with removing the huge airbox and replacing the exhaust with something lighter, cooler and smaller. Spiffness posted:If its too brutal for you Them's fightin' words
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Mar 18, 2011 14:30
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2ndclasscitizen posted:Err, a Tuneboy lets you play around with pretty much everything in the ECU. That's the point of it over a Powercommander. Hmm, I must admit it's been a while since I had looked at their site (it used to be a godawful, contradictory mess). It's still unclear on how much of that is supported for my particular bike though; "and will soon support the new 690 SuperMoto." This also gets my hackles up: "Note: A TuneEdit key is for a single ECU, this cannot be transferred." and also: "A PC running Windows 95,98,ME,XP,NT4 or 2000" I don't currently own any machines running 10+ year old OS's, yes I can probably sort one out but it will take up space I don't have and likely cost me more money too.
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Mar 18, 2011 15:01
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Spiffness posted:and you can always virtualize. I was under the impression that flashing embedded systems with virtual machines was troublesome at best and catastrophic at worst. The fear of bricking my ECU has prevented me from even considering that avenue but things may have changed. I already virtualise for CAD work on my Mac. One other benefit of going down the carb route, at least over the Vortex, if it doesn't work out I can easily offload a generic FCR on eBay and just re-fit the injection system. One other reason I failed to mention in my previous post: I'm really loving curious about just how hard it is to do, I love a challenge. Lastly; I hadn't even considered converting to carb as an option until I found the Rallye parts fiche. Turns out that the KTM Rallye team had ditched EFI in favour of an FCR 41. I still have the fiche and I have some very useful part numbers.
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Mar 18, 2011 18:24
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Gnaghi posted:I think in my fully-geared up state I could take a dog on no prob. This raises a whole new question though, I mean which animals could you take on in full moto gear? I reckon I could lay the boot in on a Badger.
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Mar 21, 2011 15:24
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Gnaghi posted:Leather is a non-issue for primates in general, since they can just break bones with their crazy strength; a gorilla might even crack a helmet. Gorillas would probably be able to get a good hold on the helmet which would give them extra leverage to snap your neck... 'reckon I could kick the poo poo out of a medium sized Baboon, but that's as big as I would dare go primate wise. Those fuckers are cunning. Edit: how about aquatic animals, like crocs or small sharks?
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Mar 21, 2011 18:08
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Jr. posted:The bolts keep seizing and snapping while I'm trying to put the engine's cylinder head on (only one cyl.). What's my best course of action? Anti-seize? Shorter bolts? Witchery? First thing I'd do is carefully clean up all the threads (on the bolts and in the block) with a tap and die set.
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Mar 26, 2011 10:15
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n8r posted:Shortening the gearing is only going to increase any surging you have when opening the throttle. I could see a different throttle tube helping quite a bit. The first thing you want to do is make sure you have no slack in your throttle cable. Slack in the cable can make that initial opening more harsh. It depends on what your power curve is like, my 690 is (relatively) mild up until about 4krpm. As a result by bike surges a lot around 20mph in first, and second only really kicks in at 22mph, unfortunately the traffic in my area moves, for a lot of the time at pretty much 21mph. I'm considering shortening the gearing slightly to shift the surging down so that second gear is more usable in traffic.
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Mar 29, 2011 09:42
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"[panic posted:"] A good quality weatherproof toggle switch could just be put in line with the socket, would save wear on the socket and a dangling connector when you don't want to charge? Marine suppliers usually stock all sorts of switches that are perfect for a bike. EDIT: thinking about it, marine suppliers also stock some weatherproof 12v sockets that would also be suited to a bike. A search such as this turns up plenty of good options. ReelBigLizard fucked around with this message at 12:19 on Apr 4, 2011 |
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Apr 4, 2011 12:15
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bladesamurai posted:Nah, the bike seems completely dead unless I hook it up to my car, the second I hook up my car, the lights turn on, all of the warning lights do their thing, the tach does its sweep, and the fuel pump turns on. Doesn't seem like enough juice to really get the starter going fast enough, it's pretty sluggish. Gonna stop by wal-mart today and check prices on batteries and trickle chargers. Check the earthing points...
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Apr 7, 2011 18:53
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Sorry, I should have expanded on the earthing thing. Almost all modern bikes use the whole frame as the negative rail, which saves on a lot of wiring. Around the bike will be one or more thick insulated or possibly braided cables that connect with bolts directly to the frame. These provide continuity for the bikes electrics. There will likely be one from engine to frame and one from Battery/fusebox to frame at least. If they become disconnected, loose or even just too far corroded the electrics will be intermittent at best, dead at worst. An easy way to check your earths is to use your multimeter to test resistance between the negative terminal on the battery and an exposed bit of frame, then the engine.
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Apr 8, 2011 14:22
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blindjoe posted:The brake line visibly moves a bit when holding the brake, but the little flex in the rubber lines can't make the brake unusable, can it? Can't hurt to replace the line anyway, even an upgrade to a braided line isn't expensive. I'd pull the caliper at the same time and do as Crayvex suggested.
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Apr 12, 2011 10:08
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I'm a fan of the 'dry' teflon wax, the one I use is marketed by Wurth but I reckon it's actually the Dupont one rebranded. It goes on very thin and gets in between the surfaces but then quickly dries to a thin, dry-feeling film. It lasts a goodly while in fair conditions but rain seems to take it's toll, I'm now looking into chain oilers because I am lazy when it comes to chain maintenance. Any recommendations?
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Apr 13, 2011 22:23
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KozmoNaut posted:I bought a Loobman: http://www.chainoiler.co.uk/ I looked at the loobman, the price is certainly attractive but the amateur engineer in me dislikes the fact that it will still drip if you have to stop for a while when it hasn't finished applying the latest dose. Especially as I do a lot of very short trips through the day.  I've had an idea though, going to see if I can engineer my own solution...
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Apr 14, 2011 10:32
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A good answer to the "...well my friend X started on a litre bike and he's OK" argument; "...and everyone knows someone who has won on a lotto scratch card, it doesn't mean the odds are good". Saying that, I 'started' on a 690 SMC. I say 'started' because I had already taught myself to ride pootling around on a Yamaha DT125 when I lived in Uganda, and I had 10 years of urban cycle-commuting (even some in Kampala) which left me with good ingrained 'defensive' road manners. Even so, going from a 20hp (on a good day) two-stroke to a fuel-injected 650cc 65hp four-stroke bike of exactly the same weight led to a more hairy learning curve than was probably wise. Although, with the throttle map set to 'soft' the 690 is really quite docile... ...relatively.
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Apr 18, 2011 10:58
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BlackMK4 posted:Which brings me to a question - how bad of an idea would it be to buy a 250 2t as a first dirtbike? Depends on how hairy the bike is tuned, if it's race tuned with a power curve like the alps, only 30hp but all of them getting delivered between 5000 and 5200? Probably not so easy to learn on. Kommando posted:
There are loads of generic shocks you could fit too, that's what I did on my BSA. You could even upgrade for probably less than the out of production OEMs will cost you. ReelBigLizard fucked around with this message at 12:25 on Apr 18, 2011 |
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Apr 18, 2011 12:20
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Frankston posted:The rest of it is stuck on the bike and I cannot get it off. The nut is stuck fast and I can't get enough leverage on it. I've sprayed it with WD40 but that just causes the wrench to slip off. I'd probably be cutting a slot in the nut with the Dremel at this point, you don't often need to cut the whole thing off, just a slot in one side of the nut and then pry it open with a flat blade driver or similar.
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May 10, 2011 13:51
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I'd say you're better off with a good strong pump and a separate gauge. From my own experience the gauges that are built in to most stirrup pumps aren't usually that great, but if you have an accurate dedicated gauge you can always overfill it with the pump and then measure and let air out slowly to the desired pressure. Luckily, most of the garages where I live have free air, I usually just check it every few fill-ups.
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May 10, 2011 22:18
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Ammanas posted:What would make a fuel injected bike run rich? Are you getting any error lights? As Uncle Ivan said; dirty air filter would be the first thing to check, could also be one of the following: leaky injector some sort of ECU fault (try disconnecting the battery for a few minutes to reset) or even a hosed Lambda probe or other sensor. Injection is wonderful until it's not  Here4DaGangBang posted:Has anybody got any tips for keeping the aluminium parts of a bike free of powdery corrosion? There are anti-corrosion waxes for this very purpose, I've always preferred just leaving a layer of oily grime over everything though...
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May 16, 2011 11:51
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Would any of you proud, rugged, handsome mastodonic-penised Americans be willing to post some OEM KTM parts to me in the UK if I get it sent to you (and cover the shipping of course)? Your prices are nearly half what we pay in some cases, and baby wants a new flatslide...
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May 19, 2011 13:51
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Ola posted:Have you checked with bikebandit.com? They sell OEM parts and ship worldwide. Don't know if the pricing will still be in your favour, but worth checking. The parts I want are KTM dealer 'Special Order'. Like, Cyril-Despres-uses-it Special  Edit: Well gently caress me sideways they stock the special bits too... pricing isn't fantastic but I'll keep them in mind. ReelBigLizard fucked around with this message at 00:08 on May 20, 2011 |
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May 20, 2011 00:02
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Z3n posted:What are you planning, come on I've had enough with the 690 EFI and the nuclear furnace that is the catalytic exhaust. I'm not sure what route I'm going to take yet but I know I want to fit the black SC Project can and preferably remove the air box for a pod filter. Possible solutions: Cheapest/easiest: Exhaust, pod filter, memjet piggyback unit and maybe the G2 throttle tube. Pro: will have money to spare for other things, like my money-hole of a boat, which is also my money-hole of a home now. Con: may not improve things dramatically, don't like the idea of piggyback units, would rather fix it right the first time. Cost: less than £500 Very hard, more expensive: Exhaust, pod filter, Keihin FCR, fuel pump and CDI unit from the factory Dakar 690 Pro: Dependability, easier to tweak and modify, much smoother delivery at low speeds (a big plus where I live) Con: A shitload of work, another thing to add to the maint schedule, a small step down in performance from the EFI £700-850ish Not as Hard, more expensive still: Exhaust, pod filter, Vortex replacement ECU @ around 700AUD. Pro: all the benefits of the EFI, none of the shortcomings, job done properly Con: any other mods and tweaks and I need to re-flash the replacement ECU, manufacturer in Aus, reflash kit/software is another 700+AUD Cost: £550-1200ish
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May 20, 2011 00:41
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Z3n posted:LM-2.. ...TuneECU I had forgotten about TuneECU, looks like the 690 LC4 side of things has been expanded since I last looked. I'll add that to the list too, then. I was going to get a wide-band lambda and an LM-2 no matter what I did. EDIT: found this http://www.motopabst.eu/artikel.php?ad=14940 
ReelBigLizard fucked around with this message at 10:11 on May 20, 2011 |
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May 20, 2011 09:08
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