Ok, so the other day when I was warming the bike up, everything seemed to be going fine... unill all of a sudden the revs dropped off a little bit and it started sounding really... well for want of a better word, thick. If it were a person I'd say very bad phlegm in the throat. But I also figured that it would go away as I rode the bike. Not so. Very quickly I dscovered that I'd lost a fair chunk of power, and the thick sound did not go. Also, now I had a pereodic scrapeing rattle from the chain/drive sprocket area. I have NO idea what has happened here, I did tighten the chain up a few days ago (and it was really in need of it) but elsewise... I'm stumped. I know it's not much to go on, I'll be going up shortly to start taking bits apart and will take photos of anything that seems unusual and post them up here... but any ideas what this could be?
Aparently not... though I got a list of things back from the mechanic that do need doing... Chain + sprocket - quoted 300 Fork Seals - quoted 200 Steering head bearing - quoted 250. Ugh it's going to be an expensive month.
Now this is just getting concerning... Got the bike bak yesterday, took her into uni today, filed up the tank, ran a few errands... having fun sine I didn't have her all weekend ( )... anyway I'm pulling up in the carport at my sis's and a dim light catches my eye- I have an orange fuel light AT 80 KM! That is WAY too soon... So: My bill says that they hanged the spark plugs (fouled) and leaned out the carbies... and now I'm burning more fuel than that bike has EVER done. That's more fuel than my sister's car burns!! What the hell?
80kms to orange, I think you might have to have a chat with your mechanic, thats running very rich or there is a leak somewhere.
Interesting experiment: I decided to do a little test bike stationery, in neutral, wound the throttle out gently. Above 10k it popped farted and spat smoke, filling the air with the smell of fuel. Tasty. called mechanic, he asked what fuel I was using 'why BP 98' I reply. He goes through their logs of my vehicle and suggested I try 95. What followed was a little bit of a ride to drain as much from the tank as I could. Oh how I screamed through the streets, down the hills and around the bends, untill I found myself in the peace of montrose. There I fed my steed the suggested fuel, and sped off over the mountain again. My what a difference. She sounded calmer, even at high rpm, and the seat cooled down very quickly. My temp guage likewise showed the engine to be much cooler. Maybe it was the mountain air but it seemed the new fuel had an effect. I returned to the stable and repeated the stationary wind-up test. Much better. No pop. No fart. No smoke. Hmm. Have to see where this tank burns too, but looking good mr spannerman. Forgive the unorthodox style of this post, i finished writting an undergrad paper today. Feeling a little... dry.
Ugh. On the 95, once again the light comes on at 80km, reguardless of the new fuel. Back to the drawing board.
none :S It was doing 95 to orange before- not good but better than this. I've been doing a breakdown of things it could be Engine: 1. Fouled plugs - brand new ones went in saturday 2. Misfiring cylinder - rectified Fuel flow: 1. Carbies imbalanced - they were rebalanced saturday 2. Clogged jets - carbies were cleaned saturday 3. Needles too rich - unchecked 4. Fuel leak: None that I can see. Franly losing fuel at this rate, it'd have to be pretty obvious I should think Air flow: 1. Air filter dirty - No idea HOW dirty 'too' dirty is, but it is somewhat grimey. Will replace. Could cause THIS much richness? I don't know. Comments welcome.
Wow I am way too regular on this part of the forum... So spent an hour or two this arvo going over the bike after monday night's lowside. Got a slight problem: there's an.... unpleasent sound to the engine. Kinda like somthing's knocking but only gently... not realy risked running it long enough to warm up... thought it might have been oil level and while topping it up did seem to help a little bit, it didn't get rid of it entirely. Any thoughts? Looks like it'll be a mechanic job anyway but I thought I might throw it out there anyway.
i get a tad over 100kms before the first light comes on on my across reguardless of the fuel i use though it does tend to run nicer on 98ron fuel
