Penny-pinching car geek's guide to racing, track days, and car build. DIY projects, product reviews, and interviews.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Bike is running! ..a bit rough.

A bunch of things happened since my last entry.  I haven't asked Moyers fuel tank repair to start work on my tank yet; I sourced a used one.  I really need to call them and tell them to get started; my rusted out tank has been sitting there for a month now. 

I got the Delkevic shorty silencer and the UNI pods installed.  Since I haven't opened a CV motorcycle carb in a long time, my friend and auto mechanic Jason Kwon came and helped me rejet the bike.  Actually, he did 90% of the work and I watched. 

For those who are curious, I'm running 162F, 160R main jets, 42 Pilots (stock size), 2nd notch in the needles (2nd from top; closest to stock height) with 2.5 turns out on the fuel mixture screw. 

I installed an aftermarket fuel pump.  The previous owner had installed a mystery fuel pump.  It wasn't even mounted.  Fuel lines were everywhere, sticking outside the frame.  That is bad.  In a crash, it would surely get cut and spray fuel everywhere.  I tidied all of that up, and found a cheap, small unit to run.

I did a few other things here and there.  Replaced float bowl gasket.  Tinkerd some more with the idle mixture screw.  In the end, I got the bike running well enough for me to ride to work.  Still, I was getting a lot of popping upon deceleration and my idle was rough.  My off-idle performance was crappy though it pulled hard throughout the rest of the rev range. 

Before I could get this sorted out, a funny thing happened today.  At the end of my 30 mile commute, when I got off the freeway, I noticed that my idle with the bike fully warmed up, was at 2200 RPMs.  I started turning out the idle stop screw to lower it.  I turned it out so much that it had effectively no idle.  I don't know what happened, but when I turned it back in, it settled at 1200 (perfect) and all of the previous problems were gone.  Great off-idle performance, no deceleration popping. 

Something definitely happened then.  I still haven't figured it out yet.  The only explanation I can think of is that something that was clogging up something in the carburetors is no longer clogging up that something.  Or a vacuum line got un-pinched. 

I'll make a separate post about the fuel pump install.  I'll also do a simple write up on which part of the carb is what, for complete n00bs so that they feel less intimidated with opening up the carbs. 

 
 
Things to do:
-Sand and paint rear fairing
-Obtain fairing stickers
-Change out front tire
-Bathe, polish, wax bike

After this, my bike will be ready for actual go-fast mods.  Before that I'm going to do a track day at Streets of Willow to do a baseline run.  This upcoming weekend I have a mini-motorcycle racing clinic, and a Supermoto school.  I am very excited!