Any one have any first hand experience with these bikes?
No I do not. If you asked, any experience with a carb'd bike? Yes, you've seen one carb you've seen them all. There is no year or month or however they distill crude that has come from the same ground, hello? It's the same old shit doing the same old damage you add condensation/evap = Do I need a carb rebuild?
I've never owned a carberated sportbike, are they difficult to care for?
No difference I can tell? But once it sits for too long? I want to own a low miler, never crashed or I walk away with me wallet in hand. So, you found a low miler. Go back and walk the bike as in a 360°-walk-around. Finish off the bike:
1. I want to walk up to a cold engine. Someone selling me a bike/car I let them start it. I am standing behind the exhaust while they light it off.
2. I turn the key off immediately once the bike does not puff out [valve guide] problems.
3. I figure it's going to be my bike within minutes and being it's a carb bike with low miles, clean, I now chase the carb problem being a sitter. You find miles divided by years sitting and that is the average year the bike moved... as if.
4. I need to turn the bike off quickly so I can touch a header near the head. Why? Carb clog. No heat at the pipe, no fuel coming out of the jet holes.
5. Say we have a cold pipe on the final inspection? We are buying a bike with low miles so the pipe says a bad cylinder or clogged carbs. Why was the bike sitting so long for? So main focus is compression with anything used. It might have a bent valve? One sat and say a valve locks open from rust around the open valve stem area. There is a tag, bends the valve just enough to have an engine miss. That's my 2-way variable I have to decipher, converse with me wallet say.
6. I am back to a short run of an engine family with its own carbs. That means I need new rubber if the carb does not start well/at all/not at all. I am going to assume I can buy a new valve, piston, head-gasket(s) parts so as to bring the compression back.
7. I am running a 2-variable what if. What if that mileage has a compression problem? Do I ask to take one, pull the plugs, show the owner the what if's? And now I have no parts for a carb rebuild it's the carbs. I'm going to research my NA's on line so if they are not available, why reach around for the wallet?
Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated
Do not put a year on the bike. Look at it as old as hell, how much money do I pour into a pile with limited parts? If going in I know I'm going to search for an NA and pay the price for it, go for it. If you are not willing to tinker and ride, look at the time/money/spent vs. a newer model that needs no tinkering with. A newer model says the time/money wasted could have bought this bike and no carb rebuild to worry about. However, it's going to be a headache with more telemetry like you are used to. Consider those parts more bulletproof as the tradeoff.
good pre-2005 Motorcycles would be nice too!
Pre-electronics still means carb/sensors/evolution of ignition systems. When you are at issue with carbs it's all about assembly/disassembly.
1. Must have, must have a T-handle with the correct tip to screw/unscrew or you are screwed!
2. Must have bulk vinegar to clean all parts.
3. Must not lose the bubbles from brown soda on the cheap is the vinny neutralizer for color [metal] bleed and water washing is not enough so it's becomes a 3-process dip = V-S-Wash off with with lots of running water in a colander strainer over a deep dish pan so any smaller parts are in the pan, can't wash out over the top of the pan, keep flushing.
4. Must remember that no bending of float tabs are necessary.
5. Must not dip float needles with rubber tips into the vinegar or they pop off and I told you so.
6. Must of had a senior moment because I forgot to add to the dipping process was to use gumout carb cleaner for the jet hole openings. Any hole you see just keep spraying out a gray kind of gunk buildup. It's soft, fresh, moveable. This avoids using an air compressor. Air dry; works in the sun so it takes longer who cares.
7. Must discuss the low speed screws. I would not touch them. Why? The oring will swell is 1 is a good thing. The setting is already factory set is 2. The tapers are untouched so as to ruin the carb body, but a needle is cheaper, as if you rub both hands together [thinking the worn against] new against junk is 3. The carb cleaner is going thru that hole, up the needle's gap between body is 4 either way. The fresh gas is moving liquid and acts as a cleaner. Add something to the gas so this cleaner will not swell the rubber is 5 ways around that move.
8. Must consider if dipping an assembled body into the vinegar; the swell is so slight; that is more of a chance of survival; but if a bowl has the rubber still in the groove; I'd steady the bowl; dip vinny up to the fuel line mark; drop the jets in there also; meaning: I need an eye to know how bad those bowls look and how surrounded are the jets with the varnish that displaces the gas and all that liquid to gas/to solid I am looking at?
Tormenting the motorcycling community one post at a time
