superhawk996

You know you were passed by a computer geek when he has that instead of a trusty spool of bailing wire on his bike.

Just remembered that I have a metric fuck ton of WD-40, and finally a use for it after reading about chain cleaning with it.

The few times I've cleaned I used SuperClean, Grunge Brush, and water. After rinsing I grab 6th gear on the center stand and rip it up to high speed for a bit to dry it off, then lube.

What are XX's worth in 2018? About the same as they were in 2017, as much as someone will pay for it. ☺️

They surpassed halogen a long time ago. Issues are similar to HID kits; cheapo China shit, choosing the right color, and beam patterns. A drop-in that works well in one housing may suck in another. Some of the car replacements I've seen are adjustable so you can focus them. LED headlights and off-road style light bars have always sucked for my eyes, then I got to see the expensive ones Carlos put on his Jeep. I'd say it would be kinda like upping the voltage on a set of halogens, or comparable to good HIDs.

Good point. Pretty sure all I had was an EFI header at that time.

I don't know what you paid for the bike, but with enough mods it'll hit the $7G mark.

And much of that impact is due to having this forum, without it we'd just be a bunch of people with cool bikes.

Sounds like it's just a bad battery. LiFePo4 are a bit spendy, but awesome. Super light & small, they crank strong, recharge quickly, and have almost no self-discharge. It can sit on a shelf neglected for a year, drop it in and start the bike. When I put mine in the cranking speed went up to where it sounded almost like the bike had no compression.

I believe the linkage is stock. I too lean towards the shock being the problem. It's rebuildable as long as the body isn't damaged. If something's gone so wrong that there's that much friction in it my guess is that the body would be fucked. I have no idea how many miles are it, but it was supposedly from a group buy which was many years ago. If the linkage turns out to be ok I'll open the shock up and see what it looks like. And actually, it should probably be serviced anyway to prevent it becoming fucked up.

Anything's possible. There's so much leverage on everything it's hard to imagine how it could happen. Hopefully whatever it is becomes obvious once I tear into it even tho the problem seems to be heat related. I haven't checked it again after the last time it got hot & tight, but it's been through at least three cycles of doing this and coming back to seemingly normal after it sits.

Took a ride a few weeks ago and while sitting at a stop light I felt the rear pop up a bit, not enough to be sure, but it seemed like it. After that it seemed a little stiff, but figured it all musta been in my head. After a couple more rides it's definitely got a problem. It seems fine cold but something is binding up as it gets hot. After my last ride I tried to center stand it from the seat, parking is tight so it's the best option, and I couldn't get it up. 😶 I stepped off and lifted on the grab bar and it creaked and lifted. I was then able to center stand it. It has a little over 50k miles and a Penske shock with unknown miles. I think it's the shock, but figured I'd check to see if anyone's got ideas before I start digging in. Looking at the linkage I don't see anything obviously wrong. My thought at this point is to remove the shock and if I can't find an issue with the linkage/swingarm I'll swap in a stock shock to see what happens hot.

So many possibilities. Try the starting fluid, easy way to narrow down if it's a spark or fuel issue. What area do you live in?

That would be perfect, should lower the price some.

Tell him I would greatly appreciate it!!

I can't remember if the carb header fits an EFI bike without mods, or the other way around. Dubbird, if you think it's the cats holding it back you can probably bust them out of there. I've gutted a few cats using a steel rod and a hammer. They're somewhat tough, but they will shatter. A long masonry drill bit would probably make quicker work of them than hammering a rod through, but haven't tried it. I have no idea if the cats are an actual restriction or not, but I wouldn't be surprise if they are robbing a few horses.

The squished looking parts of the header are probably less than ideal, but not terrible. They have some 'baffling' inside, but no catalyst. I've ridden stock, slip-ons, and a Yoshi full system. The Yosh seemed to have the most punch and the slip-ons a pretty close second. I think the hot ticket for performance and dual exhaust would be the headers off a carbed bike with aftermarket mufflers, assuming nobody makes a dual header, but a full aftermarket system should make the most power. Don't know exactly what the bike would do with the O2 eliminated, but I think they don't care. Apparently you got a California bike, my '01 is non-cat, non-O2.

I've had manual petcocks, and I've never had an old one that didn't leak so it's in an even race with the autos. Actually, I've never had an auto that leaked, but only had a few of those. The only use I see for a manual off is to run the carbs dry, something I do but very few others would. Most people praise not having to fiddle with it and prefer having a light or gauge inform you it's time to fuel rather than running out of fuel then having to fumble for a valve while trying not to die. The worst part is forgetting to turn it back after fueling so the next time it dies you don't have a reserve. I don't find bike gauges/lights to be "notoriously inaccurate" but the reading will vary with angle more than on some cars. With my SuperHawk I discovered that if you're going up a canyon when the light comes on you have a lot less left than if you'd been going down when it came on, luckily the gas station was at the bottom of the canyon so there was a lot of coasting but no walking involved. As for not really knowing where true empty is on a bike's gauge, same applies for a car. When I get a new one that I plan to keep any length of time I run it out to know where true empty is. Pump, hoses, and filter in the tank; it's the best place for the pump. The filter has to go somewhere and in the tank beats being right above/near a hot engine. The filter lasts a really long time so I don't see it as being in there a big deal. Hoses are somewhat of a necessity. Almost all cars have a pump and hoses in the tank, many have a "non-serviceable" filter in there too. Most car tanks don't have a convenient access hatch and getting the tank out is a pain.

I might do that, figured I'd start here in case someone had the desire.

That closeup is looking into the collector through one of the headpipe holes showing the "pairing" separator plate.

The headpipes are the same diameter as stock, bout 1.5" OD, but I see some improvements over stock. The bends are a little better, and the welds holding the part that the flanges push on to hold them to the head are much cleaner than stock. The welds on the stocker are fairly thick beads in the path of airflow. The flanges are much thicker than stock and aren't bent, tho that doesn't seem to be a true problem with the stockers other than looking wrong. That's where the good ends. The collector is stupid. For starters I think it's too short so the merge is pretty abrupt, and the tubes are farther apart than they need to be making it even shittier than it needed to be. There's an attempt to smooth the flow between the exits of the pipes, metal plate kinda filling in the gaps, but poorly done. Then there's a flat plate in the collector that splits it in half emulating a 4-2-1 like a stocker. It might help, might hurt, might do nothing notable. The cylinder paring is carbie style; 1&2 and 3&4; "pairing" used loosly because they're not truly paired, but sorta. Where I think they went wrong again is the single pipe out of the collector, it looks way too small. A larger diameter pipe would probably un-fuck it some, but I doubt it would make it any better than a stocker. A complete re-do of the collector is what it would really need. When Anthony (Cecome) brought me his bike to try to figure out why it was weak the header caught my eye right away as being a problem. He had serious doubts, but putting a stocker on cured it's woes confirming that this thing just doesn't work. CBRbear didn't know he had a cork in his bike's exhaust. Would be interesting to hit him up an see if he remembers what brand it is. Might even be a one-off custom, or maybe someone's prototype and they didn't put it in the trash as they shoulda. Would be real sad if he paid someone good money to make this thing. Some other interesting header observations: It's fairly common knowledge that the cylinder paring between carbed and EFI is different. I'd read that the carb version is steel and EFI is SS which is mostly true. Interestingly, the carb is steel up to the final part where it splits toward the mufflers, that section is SS. Maybe they did that because that part's more visible and a rusty pipe would be ugly. Also, with the EFI paring the #4 pipe is quite a bit shorter than the others. The steel headpipes on the carbie have a seam on the inside that might mess with flow a bit, the EFI are smooth.

They're supposedly from Delkevic but don't look like their current offering so I don't know who made them, but they're fucking incredible! Cecome bought them as part of an engine package he bought from another member who parted out a really spectacular Bird, I think his name is Whitebear or something like that, don't see him around any more. I talked Cecome into a stock header I had, he's a sucker, and I stole this one. He's all in love with his new bike and dreaming about his cross country trip and won't even see this so I ain't worried. I've done back to back rides with full stock, stock header and slip-ons, and full systems and I guarantee you the performance of these are nothing like you could ever imagine!!! My assometer isn't ASE certified, butt it is finely calibrated; drumroll........17.489HP!!!!!! No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. 100% bolt on fitment, installed on a nearly bone stock bike, and they gave a solid and repeatable 18.312 HP loss!!!!!!!! I don't know how they managed to pull that off and haven't seen any BB header that looks anything like it, but here they are available only to the .org!!!! These would be perfect for anyone who's said "I like that bike, but it's just too fast". Or maybe your 10 year old daughter has expressed an interest in riding but you think your Bird is a little too powerful to be used as a training bike. Have no fear, these will calm that angry beast right the fuck down! Now I know what you're thinking, I gotta fuckin have these but can I afford them?!? Well, smart me would put them on ebay with at least a $1000 reserve, but I've had a couple drinks so you're in luck my friend. You pay the shipping and maybe enough for a 6er of PBR or a liter of Black Booster whiskey (a true bother would offer both, just sayin) and they're yours! I'd go fully free, but I gotta rig up a box, and the worst part is I'll have to touch this abomination of steel again. The only use I see for them is someone wanting to use them for parts to make a custom header. From memory, the headpipes are just a hair bigger diameter than stock and should be decent for something custom. The collector is where the magic happens, it's probably pure scrap metal but might be useful for parts. It appears to be SS and has a little bit of shine to it. The head pipes are slip fit to the collector so the shipping box should be smaller and cheaper than a stocker. I was super tempted to put them on ebay without disclosure, anyone would pay decent money for them cuz they look cool, but it would be a total dick move. I also have a stock header that I cut at the collector before getting these, that's also available. I was thinking I'd do something custom but there's always too many other more important things to do so it's time to part ways. I can take pics if anyone's truly interested. They'll probably just sit in a corner for another decade or until I decide it's time to get the fuck out of here and take them to the recycling yard.

You done all you can, that bike is just fucked and you're smart for not trusting it. Even tho you're new here, I'll extend the love of the brotherhood and relieve you of that POS. I won't charge the usual disposal fee and I'll even give you a ride home as long as you're buying the roadies. One time offer and it expires when I sober up and come to my senses. You've done a fair bit of checking and tweaking and may have already fixed whatever was wrong.

Don't know of any ECU updates for the Bird. Some, maybe most, have a lean spot just off idle that can make them a little jerky, it's a fairly common thing with may bikes. Mine doesn't have it at all. I don't know if that's a 2001 programming thing or if I just got lucky, or maybe just don't feel it. I think the Duc's idle adjustment also involved a computer connection and gaining access to "sealed for emissions" screws. It pisses me off to need a computer to make adjustments, but on the flip side, proper adjustments on an old school car engine involved a timing light, dwell meter, a propane enrichment device, and CO meter, and doing those adjustments every 30k miles. Then we look at non-Italian bikes and they put an adjustment screw where you can tweak it while riding, even tho it never needs it. Valves that rarely or never need adjustment and timing chains that last forever. Japs also provide automatic cold start high idle instead of a fucking lever, might as well have carbs if you're gonna have to use a manual cold start device. The lesson here isn't to avoid modern stuff, it's to avoid Italian stuff. That said, I miss my Duc.

Funny, we recently had a root cause conversation going as well as some carb vs injection stuff. Many hate carbs, a few rather have them. I don't care either way, but carbs generally won't suddenly crap out like injection can and aren't reliant on fuel pressure so they can be more reliable. Other than the cold start I didn't notice any real difference between my '97 and '01 Birds' performance. My Ducati had a little bit of a rough idle/low throttle issue, not so much to know something was wrong, just seemed like it could be better. I reset the TPS and it was cured, I think I also did some adjustments but don't remember. I think Aprilia has a similar issue where the idle position tends to 'drift' out of spec. I got a wire harness & software off ebay that let me plug the laptop into the bike to see what was going on and do the re-set, pretty sure they have them for Aprilia also.