shovelstrokeed

Every time I have tried to adjust the chain on the center stand it always ends up to tight. You cannot adjust it to the same specification and expect the same result. As the suspension compresses, the distance from the countershaft sprocket to the axle centerline gets longer. With the bike on the center stand, the shock is fully extended and the distance is actually at its minimum. Slack should be adjusted accordingly. I adjust mine so that the chain actually touches the bottom of the swing arm when pushed up at about the side stand foot. Looser is definitely better than tighter.

Well, I always adjust mine hot but that is mostly cause I always lube it hot and that's when I check it for play. If needed, I just crack the axle nut loose, adjust and then tighten it again. When on a trip, I prefer to do this just as I park the bike as the knee pads in my riding pants keep the old bones from hurting the next day. 500 mile days, check and lube chain, it all just works out. I tend to adjust on the center stand and more or less look for about 1/4" of catenary sag at the mid point of the chain. That translates to about 1.25" of up and down play.

I actually see quite a bit of potential in those dyno curves and I can understand why they feel so much better. Two significant points. First, the hole at 5K RPM is really plugged, gotta make a difference in roll on feel. Second and probably of more importance, note the lack of fall off at the high rpm points. There is something going on here, just the system length doesn't seem to be optimized for this bike's cam timing. Peak power isn't everything, the area under the curve is what counts. These pipes should allow a pretty good over-rev and when running WFO should provide a nice performance increase over the stockers. I wouldn't dismiss them out of hand. A little playing with pipe diameters and lengths might see quite a bit more increase.

Stock 17/45 in high gear will give an overall reduction, counting the primary and 6th gear of 4.3333. 18/45 is 4.092 16/45 is 4.604 17/43 is 4.140 On none of them is a one tooth change in the front sprocket equal to a 3 tooth change in the rear. That would require a 15/45.

After I opened my mouth, I decided to do a bit more research/reading on the topic. Thank you for your restraint. BTW, just what the hell is the cam pulse generator used for? Silly thing has two teeth on it. I figured one of them tells the injectors when to fire and the other is used to keep the fuel pump running. Anybody know for sure? I'm helping a guy with a wonky fuel pump circuit on the other board and would prefer to go with actual knowledge rather than speculation.

Prolly have to add at least that for the sensors and figure a goodly number of hours getting the wiring sorted. Might be able to use some of the stock stuff though. I kinda like that price. I'd love to do an integrated dash with GPS, remote display for my V1 and that as a center piece. Any word on water resistance, etc? Methinks I'll go do some research.

My bad, actually 2 bads. Ignition pulse generator is on the crankshaft. There is a pulse generator on the exhaust cam that probably controls the firing of the fuel injectors or defines TDC compression on the #1 cylinder for whatever reason. I'm pretty sure I got myself backward on the lobe center thing as well. Tighter lobe centers will give less overlap, not more. I had pretty good luck on both my turbo K100 and nitrous Suzuki, both of which had mild street cams in them with 108 intake, 113 exhaust but both engines were carefully checked for valve to piston and valve to valve interference. That might be a bit extreme. The K motor probably doesn't count as it was a 2 valve engine with a hair dryer on it. The Zuke was an early 4 valve design though and would run low 9's all day on 8:1 turbo pistons with no squeeze. 1425cc and a 74" wheelbase with a 10" car tire probably had a bit to do with it as well. As to the valve springs, well, I would be surprised if they meet seat pressure and overall length specs at 20K miles. Revs have very little to do with it, just number of cycles, so long as you are not getting into coil bind or floating the valves. If I were going to go so far as to pull the engine, or even just drop the thing far enough to check the cam timing, I'd probably go ahead and pull the head, send it off for a good multi-angle valve job, replace the springs and put some mild cams in there. A little light porting and chamber work would do wonders as well. Of course, your looking at a grand or so there, maybe 2.

Adam, There is a whole bunch to this. Individual cam lobe centers plus spread between them can all have different effects depending on where/when. In general, tighter lobe centers (relative to intake and exhaust) will give a bit more overlap, providing more top end at the expense of mid-range torque. Within that, differential timing of the intake and exhaust can favor exhaust or intake tuned lengths to get better cylinder filling. Step one is to find out where you are with the stock setup. The measurement is not all that difficult, requiring a degree wheel, a piston stop and a dial indicator with some form of mounting arrangement. Probably the most difficult thing is access to the components with the motor in the frame. Another factor to consider here is that the XX uses a camshaft to drive the ignition pulse generator so, if you move that cam, you are gonna change your iginition timing and might wind up pissing off your knock sensor. As in all things when seeking HP improvement, there are 3 stumbling blocks to every step in the ladder. Given your bike's street mileage and the number of drag strip passes you have done, you might just want to consider a set of valve springs.

Next time, when you have the proper gasket in hand, do what the racers do. Use a sealant/adhesive on the cover side of the gasket and a smear of grease on the engine case side. This way, you can remove and replace the cover numerous times without the need for a new gasket. On my old Suzuki powered race bike, we would pull the clutch cover after every run to adjust weights/replace plates. I usually would get 100 or more runs out of a gasket and never a leak.

I have about 28K miles on my wingrack and keep a pretty good load in the side bags most days. Probably 30#/bag when I'm on a trip. No cracks, no signs of stress of any kind.

$$$$ ???????

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.

If they produce as advertised, I should be able to score a nice Akro or TiForce cheap. Hell, I'd even settle for a cheap set of slip on pipes at this point. As much as I like the stealth character of my stockers, just the thought of all that weight sitting there pisses me off.

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.

5-7 mpg could just be "winter blend" gas. You might also be seeing an increase from 5% ethanol to 10%. You are in PA and they probably are still on winter blend or using up remaining stocks. See what things are like in May.

Either way will work, they usually have a little LED on them. I don't use the Widder controller but have the Gerbings one, they are not cross compatible, BTW. On the Gerbings it does use Frequency Modulation, the little light flashes faster the more you turn it up. Usually, with that scheme, the pulse width remains constant. I have also done the other, the frequency remains the same, flash rate, but the length of the pulse varies with the pot setting. This scheme is a little easier to implement in that the chip count is lower. But, I haven't messed with this stuff for a long time so things may have moved on.

In a no load condition, it might just show a couple of volts of leakage. You really need to check this with the vest connected via a breakout connector. These are not simple rheostats, they pulse width modulate full voltage/current to the heating elements. Frequency is probably fixed just change the width of the pulses.

According to 3 different GPS systems, the speedometer on my bike, with 17/45 gearing and a 180-55/17 Pilot Road rear tire is off by 7.9%. 90 indicated is 83.4 GPS. Pretty much agrees with my local LEO who graciously sprays me with microwave and lately laser radiation every Sunday morning on my way to breakfast. I have U-turned a couple of times and asked for a reading. 40 mph zone, indicating 45 and he/she always says 41 or 42. Oddly enough, that is exactly the same differential I got on my BMW 1100SBX, which runs the same tires. When I did my gearing spreadsheet, I corrected for this by changing the tire section modulus. Figured it had to be that as the calculations for speed in gears in terms of rotational numbers are too simplistic for the engineers to have gotten wrong. Had to be the rolling diameter of the tire. Turns out a modulus of 53 is about spot on.

Of course it is going to feel better than a squared off Z6. As you already stated, the lighter carcass and generally better profile will help as well. You basically went from a sport touring tire to a tire more heavily biased toward the sport side of things. The 190 tire on a 5.5" rim might work well on a Ducatti but, when compared to a Blackbird, the steering geometry is not even on the same planet. Shorter (by far) wheelbase, different swingarm geometry and steering head angles. The focus is different as well as the 999 is essentially a race bike with a few street accutermants. It also has a steering damper to help cope with slight instabilities. The focus of the bike is not straight line stability but quick and easy turn in, which is aided by the taller and narrower profile given the tire on the narrower rim. The only way to be sure about this stuff would be to fit a 180 and 190 and run them back to back over the same roads at the same pace. With that comparison in mind, I think you would find the 190 to be a reluctant turner on the 'bird with a distinctly tippy feeling once turned in as the squished sidewalls will not contribute the same stability over minor bumps and wiggles of the road surface.

Short answer, you can gear it to go 200 or any speed you wish. The rub, it doesn't have the HP to pull the taller gear. At least not in stock form. 175 true is probably typical for most stockers. Add a pipe and some mixture tuning and you might pull 180 or so. As was stated on the other forum, it takes pretty close to 200 RWHP to get over 200 mph with the Blackbird for various reasons, mostly aerodynamics. Most stockers are somewhere around 135 RWHP with guys with pipes and mixture tuning in the low to mid 140's. The calculation is pretty simple to do. If 140 RWHP results in a HP limited speed of 180 mph, to go 200 mph you need 200/180 cubed x your orginal HP, discounting things like rolling resistance and other minor factors. So 200/180=1.111. That number cubed is 1.3717 x 140=192.04 RWHP close enough for govt. work.

Try Gilles Machine. I have a set on mine and they offer everything from the stock position to a little foreward and down from there. I run mine a bit up and to the rear from stock, about 1/2" in both directions. I'm 5'10" with a 30" inseam. They were on my bike when I got it and have given me no trouble at all. High quality stuff. You will need all the stock mounting holes/hardware. The adaptors bolt to that.

Not sure that is such a good idea. Oil temperature and coolant temperature do not necessarily relate. Even at 45 deg C ambient (113 F for you Luddites) you won't really see much difference in oil temperature. A quality 20w50 synthetic should see you through. Think of it this way. Oil temperature is a function (not quite linear but close enough) of power produced/work done. A given load will produce a given rise in temperature over ambient. You need to get the oil over 100C to get the bad stuff like water condensation out of it, I would put the oil temperture, before the cooler somewhere above 150C with the engine operating under load. The oil is designed for that and will take it with no problems. Compare a good spread of tempertures from say 10C to 50C and the difference in oil temperature and you will note there is only about a 25% difference in oil temperature. We used to run oil temperature gauges in the sump of all our race cars and found very few occasions, this on a road race car, where oil temperature got above 150C. The circle track boys, whe spend more time at full throttle do see higher tempertures but they run 10 or more gallons of oil in their cars with elaborate cooling and oiling systems. I read somewhere recently that a NASCAR car burns 8 quarts of oil in a 500 mile race.

Checking, and adjusting if needed, the valve clearance IS regular maintenance. I've got 35K on mine now and, as soon as I get my VFR running again - about another 700 or 800 bux - I'm gonna do the job. Time for plugs while I'm in the neighborhood. Since I'll be able to ride the VFR, I can lay the bike up for a week or so and just do it right, off with the tupperware, drain/replace all the fluids, the bike is pushing 6 years old now so hoses might be a good idea as well as new brake pads. With my schedule and that of the storage yard where I keep my bikes, I only get about 1.5 hrs a day during the week.

-------------------------------------------- I think you are in Canada, right? Do you use different weights for different times of year (example 10/40 in winter and 20/50w in summer?) With the hot weather coming in November, he is likely in OZ. As to your second question, the two oils overlap so much in terms of temperature range it would seem silly to me to make just a small change like that. A quality 10w40 should be good for just about any oil temperature an XX is likely to encounter. The difference in cold pour point between a 20w50 and 10w40 is pretty small as well. Might take a second or so longer to reach full oil pressure when it is really cold out but certainly nothing that would damage an engine. The of course, you could always go with something like a 15w50 synthetic and stop worrying altogether.

Ed... your sleeping... wake up. Copied from...Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Stoich) Jump to: navigation, search In internal combustion engines, the air-fuel ratio refers to the proportion of air and fuel present during combustion. The chemically optimal point at which this happens is the stoichiometric ratio (sometimes referred to as stoich), where all the fuel and all the oxygen content in the air of the combustion chamber will perfectly balance each other out during combustion. For gasoline fuel, the stoichiometric air/fuel mixture is approximately 14.7 times the mass of air to fuel. Now back to a little more about what I wrote.... Best Power is made in between 12.4 and 13.1 on our XX's at Max LOAD. My bad for not writing that before. Like Drag stip pulls with the rider sitting up. That's not to say that's where the engine will run under normal conditions after being tuned like that. Under most Normal Road conditions the ratio will be from 13.1 - 14.2 : 1, thanks in part to the stock ECU. Sorry, and you're right. 14.7:1 it is. Actually, I think that is for iso-octane but that is most of gasoline anyway. I have an excuse, posted at 0558 and hadn't had coffee yet also, my blood sugar was 72 that morning, an all time low for me. It was 468 when I was diagnosed 5 years ago.