I viewed a bike today, it's a silver 2002 Sept bird and I'm considering buying it.

However, I found some points of concern that I need some advice on as I'm unfamiliar with the bike.
I'll list them out below.

1) When the bike is idling in neutral gear, there is this intermittent "tuck.......tuck tuck" sound. It sounds like very light clunking.
It's not very loud, but you can hear it and feel it very slightly when you sit on the bike. The speed of the sound is not fast, so I don't think
it's engine related, there's like a 2-3 secs pause between "tucks" but the frequency is not constant.

I asked the owner about it and he said it was something to do with the clutch housing, but he didn't know exactly what.
He said he'd already brought it to the shop to check it out, as the bike had the sound when he first bought it 1-1/2 yrs ago, but the mechanic
told him it was normal as most Honda bikes will do this after the clutch housing gets a little wear n tear.

Is this true, or is it something more serious?

2) When moving off in the first gear, there is this sound. The best way to describe it is this. You know when you drive an older manual
car and you put it in reverse and you step on it, there is this humming sound that you do not get when you're driving in forward gears?
Sounds kinda like rubber rubbing on something.

That's exactly the sound I hear when I move off in first gear. However, the sound dissapears when I kick it to second, and I don't hear it in
any other gears other than first.

Owner said all the birds he's tried had this sound, is this normal? I don't remember hearing this sound when testing other birds but I can't be very sure.

3) I think there's something definitely funky going on with the clutch. I started the bike (it's already been warmed up as it was ridden to my place), pumped
the clutch lever a few times, and kicked it down into first. I get a loud clunk that you typically hear on sports bikes. I put it back into neutral, gave the lever
a few more pumps, and tried again, same thing, I get a clunk . I could not get it to slip into first without the clunk.

Is this normal?

Now here's the funny part, after I kicked it into first, then put it back into neutral, when I release the clutch lever, I feel a pulse in the lever and a slight "tick" sound. And I swear I could detect a very slight drop in engine idling speed at the point I released the lever even though the bike was in neutral, then it went back to normal again.

What could cause this?

4) Temperature during idling was 103 - 104 degrees. I live in the tropics (hot), is this temperature ok?

5) When I took the bike for a test ride, it was terribly hot on my ankles. Wasn't wearing socks. It was really hot. When I got back the veins in my ankles were showing. Is it normal to be this hot?

If you've read this far, thank you very much. Would really appreciate any help I can get on this as I don't want to end up buying a lemon.

Thanks in advance!

Oh, another thing.

I thought birds were supposed to have linked brakes.

I put it on the mainstand, and spun the rear wheel. However when I pressed the front brake lever, the rear wheel did not stop spinning.

I thought it's supposed to, does this mean the linked braking system is damaged?

Understand that while the XX typically exhibits all the behaviours you've described here, you cannot completely communicate the quality and character of the noises and feelings that you get from the bike. So while the XX usually has these noises and such, we can't guarantee that your experience is exactly the same as ours. There may be something wrong with this bike.....but it doesn't sound as though there is from your descriptions. Good luck.

I am going to add to what Joe said, Seems normal to me based on your discriptions. The link brake system will not stop the bake tire from the front brake if the Bike is not moving. There has to be forward movement of the Bike for the linked system to work otherwise burnouts would not be possible and we all know that burnouts are possible and actually enjoyed by some.

Oh, didn't know that. It makes sense now that you mention it, no wonder the 2 birds I tested both exhibited this behavior.



Thank you so much for taking the time to reply in such detail and clarity! Really appreciate it!

Just out of curiosity, what causes the intermittent clunking sound that I heard while the bike was idling?

rockmeupto125, I think you understand perfectly what I meant by when I described the sound when moving off in first gear, yes it increases in pitch with vehicle
speed, any idea what causes it?

Thanks!

Mine will do this every once in a while. I dose it in a series of 2 to 3 time with 1 to 2 seconds in between. Most of the time it's at start up but it has done it after it's run for hours at a stop light, on my bike it's the clutch basket.




Mine always clucks into 1st gear.





Not sure of the noise starting off in first.




They have brakes???

5) When I took the bike for a test ride, it was terribly hot on my ankles. Wasn't wearing socks. It was really hot. When I got back the veins in my ankles were showing. Is it normal to be this hot?

YES! Only those from hell are comfortable riding a Bird in shorts or stop and go driving. There is some talk that this bike is the prime cause of “Global Warming”.

Never the less – this is a superb machine, comfortable, handles well, and is insanely fast.

Michael

It does help to wear socks and boots.

The clutch lever should give you nice firm, even resistance with the first pull. No pumping required unless there's air in the system. It sounds like a bleeding is required, easy to do though.

Done a search regarding the heat and here's what I found:

- coat the pipes with ceramic or other heat insulating coating to keep heat in the pipes
- insulating wraps not a good idea because it will trap moisture causing the pipes to rust
- aftermarket pipes

Most people just give up and try to live with it. Being new, naive and stupid, I'd like to find a fix....

Bike I was looking at is an 02 model, owner informed me that the cans come with cat converters,
does the converters make the pipes run hotter than usual? If yes, can I purchase a set of used stock cans
from '00 or '01 and do a direct swap, or are modifications needed?

To understand the cause of the problem, is the majority of the heat from the engine, being blown out of the inside
of the fairing to the legs (will be felt when bike is at speed), or is it from the exhaust pipes (will be felt at traffic stops)?

I even went so far as to ask the owner for a cigarette so that I could check for exhaust leaks! But there was no leak.

On the question of aftermarket pipes, what's a good brand to use to reduce the heat?

PS: It seems to be an agreement that carbed bikes are not as hot as EFI bikes, could it be that the factory mapping is very lean,
causing the enigne to run hot?

Cats should run slightly hotter than regular pipes. I know of no problems putting stock cans without cats in their place. You won't decrease the amount of heat very much, however.

The majority of the heat is from burning gasoline. It comes from both the engine and the pipes.

Choosing a pipe....I don't think there's been any discussion as to which run hotter. Rationally, the less baffling a pipe has, the cooler its going to run.
I use a set of Vance and Hines SSR2 slip-ons and have no problem leaning against the exhaust with blue jeans on. Occasionally I'll forget and do so with a bike with the stock cans on and get burned. There's that much of a difference.

Factory mapping isn't too lean. Obviously more fuel will run cooler, but even XX's I've ridden behind with rich enough mixtures to see the black smoke at highway speeds have very hot stock pipes.

Hotdog.

All the things you are describing are normal to the XX.

The clutch basket, being an overhung load, tends to wobble just a bit and that causes a little noise in the gears.

The low gear set is prone to a whine.

The clutch takes a little time to release fully and, if you take that time, will engage smoothly with no clunk or lurch about 70% of the time. The rest, well, it's a Honda.

Yes, there is a bit of heat down around ankle height at low speeds with the feet on the pegs. Boots and jeans, or better, riding pants make it a non-issue. Not to be snotty, but, only a squid would ride around without proper foot gear. I confess to occasionally riding to and from work in nothing more than a pair of Merrill slip-ons and some light socks. All I experience is some mild discomfort though and, with my Gilles Tooling rearsets, my feet are more or less well away from the hot area.

There is also a good bit of heat coming up from under the triple clamp when the fan kicks on at about 214 deg coolant temperature which you are gonna see if you spend any time idling while waiting for a light on a hot day. A tank bag seems to help a bit with this.

All in all, Honda did an excellent job with heat management on this bike. Just ask anyone with an ST1X00, or a BMW K-bike. If that is all you can find wrong with the bike, I'd say you have a winner.

rockmeupto125,
Thanks, the V&H sound awesome wrt reducing heat.

shovelstrokeed,
Thanks for the encouraging words, I'm getting the bike tonight and going to go for a long ride with the missus.
Will try the suggestion of wearing boots.

Over here in the tropics we seldom wear full riding gear when commuting because of the daytime heat and humidity.
We only do that when we go touring, for safety.

where are you? in the tropics?

That's what he said.

He's in Singapore.

shovelstrokeed said:
“only a squid would ride around without proper foot gear.”

Based on fifty years of accident free riding: A pair of sneakers (no socks), shorts and sunglasses is the best riding gear to gain the full experience of freedom on a bike.

Squids and those who think otherwise should maybe limit themselves to a pink Vespa!

Michael

Everyone that uses sneakers and slip-ons will regret it if they drop the bike
and the foot get caught under it. It hurts like hell, and you're damn lucky if
you don't break any bones.

I fucked up 2 times, and wearing proper boots and clothes that saved me twice.

I learned of my mistakes, and haven't had any mishap in 10 years. (Knock wood)

Well Michael, I've been at it a few more than 50 years and have experienced a couple of crashes. Mostly back when I road raced and a couple of times at the drag strip due to equipment malfunctions. In every case, I was wearing full gear and came away relatively unscathed. One memorable street crash, I was drunk, resulted in 2 each broken, elbows, wrists and ribs. Broke both my ankles despite boots when I bailed off a soon to crash drag bike. Toes come off and break really easy in a crash/slide scenario and there isn't a whole lot of flesh protecting ankle bones. Next to your hands/wrists, your feet and ankles are some of the most complex bone structures in your body. "Freedom" is nice and all but so is walking and you won't do that for a long time if you crash in the gear you suggest. It is a free country and you are free to be as stupid as you wish.

Not that this is exactaly what you're describing, but I thought I'd throw it out before you noticed it, since it sounds like you're an observant individual.
Starting in '01 (I think) the clutch switch (which was probably the clicking you heard) also acts as an ECM input. You'll notice that when you're in gear and just before the point of engagement the RPM will rise slightly in anticipation of the load.

K