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'97 Bird in Tucson


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No tips for not getting a junky one, but for the relatively short haul and light load I wouldn't sweat it.  They have utility trailers with drop down tailgates/ramps, but might be too short to get a decent angle where the bike doesn't bottom out half way up.  See if he has a spot where you can park with the truck's rear tires high, a driveway ramp usually works, or bring ramps/blocks to drive your rear tires onto so that the whole trailer is tilted down making the ramp to trailer bed more level.  Or the floor jack and lift at the hitch.

Edited by superhawk996
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14 hours ago, SwampNut said:

Seller contacted.  Not sure why, I guess I always need projects around.

 

Fuck, I hate carburetors.

 

I pulled mine almost ten years ago when i got my 97 to check floats/levels and they've been untouched since. Aside from sync when I'm doing something that provides access to plug in the synchronizer.

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6 hours ago, XXBirdSlapper said:

Aside from sync when I'm doing something that provides access to plug in the synchronizer.

Has it ever been out of adjustment much?  I have never done mine and it idles and runs great.

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3 hours ago, blackhawkxx said:

Has it ever been out of adjustment much?  I have never done mine and it idles and runs great.

Its always out when I check it. Idles and runs fine, but riding just off idle it "grumbles". Once into the power band you certainly don't notice anything. But on a slow speed road I find that I ride a gear low to keep the throttle open enough so throttle response is smooth.

After a sync it's smooth 100%.

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When I bought my first '97 it exhibited classic symptoms of clogged idle jets, it wouldn't idle at all without the choke on and ran like shit 'till I got pretty far into the throttle.  It turned out to be a synch issue.  It was so far off I assume someone did it, but I can't understand why they'd do that.  If it wore to that condition someone had to fight with it for a very long time for it to get to the point it was at.  Either way, it was crackhead shit that got it where it was, and the seller happened to be a crackhead so go figure.  What alerted me to it was looking at the throttle blades, they were very obviously off.  I didn't have a manometer so I used a piece of wire as a feeler gauge.  I initially assumed I'd have to re-do it the right way but wanted to see if it needed more than just a synch, it ran so great I never did anything else.

 

I later sold it to a friend that rode the shit out of it.  It still exhibited no signs of needing a synch, but I assume that a manometer would have shown something and maybe it could run even better even tho there was no sign of an issue.  He then gave it to his son who proceeded to ride the piss oil out of it 'till it blew up.  There were conflicting stories so I don't have an exact number, but somewhere between 10 and 20k is how long it takes to kill one after you decide to completely ignore the oil, and it was ridden pretty hard.

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Just wanted to let you know.  Starts up with the choke on just fine, I even took it out for a drive.  Gotta start with the choke on and shut it off after a after you get going, drives fine like that.  But once you come to a stop and don't put the choke on it stalls.  I don't want to mess with the idle yet, because I know it was set right before, I think it just needs some internal cleaning.

 

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On 5/19/2021 at 8:29 AM, superhawk996 said:

He then gave it to his son who proceeded to ride the piss oil out of it 'till it blew up.

 

Kind of curious how you "ride the oil out" of a Blackbird? None of the 4 I owned ever burned a drop....🤕

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13 hours ago, TOXXIC said:

 

Kind of curious how you "ride the oil out" of a Blackbird? None of the 4 I owned ever burned a drop....🤕

Every engine consumes some oil, even if it's not enough to notice, and I'm guessing that at some point in the 10+ thousand miles of neglect/abuse the engine started using more oil than normal.  I showed up to check it out 'knowing' that there was no fucking way the motor was blown and it had to be something else.  There was nearly no oil in it and what was in it looked horrifying.

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The bike had a little over 50k when I sold it and almost 70 when it died, I believe it was still on the oil I sold it with and it had never been checked.

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9 hours ago, superhawk996 said:

The bike had a little over 50k when I sold it and almost 70 when it died, I believe it was still on the oil I sold it with and it had never been checked.

Interesting...guess you didn’t put synthetic in it. LOL! 

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3 minutes ago, TOXXIC said:

Interesting...guess you didn’t put synthetic in it. LOL! 

No, I refuse to disrespect our dinosaurs like that.

 

I think it was Castrol motorcycle spec 10-40 dino oil, don't remember the exact flavor.  '4T' stands out in my mind, but I use Rotella T4 in a lot of shit so that might be clouding my memory.

 

The current Bird has some super duper fancy synthetic 'race' shit that was ridiculously expensive, but it looks and smells pretty.  And it did make it shift much more smoothly.

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