Is motorcycling allowed?

[The Ouzo]

This is not bike related, but I rekon this is probably the most correct thread for this without starting an entire new thread. Reason I say this is that it could relate to bikes that stand around for a long time without being used.

I have a generator that I seldom use, we prefer to rather just go without power than have a noisy gennie running. A few months back I tried to get it started but it would just not catch, occasionally it would back fire, occasionally it would catch and die straight away. I spent hours stripping and reassembling the carb on a few different occasions. Thought the only other thing could be the spark plug which I changed. 

Then on sunday we had an unscheduled power outage, not knowing how long the power was going to be out for I decided to give the gennie one last try. Somewhere in the back of my mind this though came through about the petrol perhaps being old, so I drained the fuel and added a few litres of fresh petrol. Of course because of all the previous attempts at starting and for some reason I left the key in the on position the battery was now flat.

So I attempted to pull start, with a back still stiff and painful for digging up water pipes on the thursday I only gave it a half hearted pull. But 3 pulls later and is was running. Some splattering and coughing because there was some old fuel mixing it up in there but it eventually settled down.

 

 

So back to bikes. If you've got a bike thats been standing for a while, make sure to drain the fuel and put in fresh fuel before trying to get it running again.

[Hairy]

1 hour ago, The Ouzo said:

and depending on how clever the ecu is on the bike it may even need an ecu fooler so the ecu thinks there is still a cat in place. 

I'm sure it must be the same on bikes, cars with cats normally have an o2 sensor before and after the cat and adjust the ecu accordingly, remove the cat and either the ecu throws the state of tune way out or chucks up a check engine light.

 

You can run the bike decatted without a tune and just an ecu fooler, but you wont be getting the full advantage of the decat.

Thanks guys

From looking around it seems there is no getting around the fact you would have to either dyno the bike, or get a fuel pack / whatever other tchjuner  for the bike if you remove the cat.

The costs start adding up very quickly, and for this particular bike I do not think it is worth the expense ... even though there is some power to be gained with the high flow + tuner and the current pipes that I have.

[sawystertrance]

There's a guy on Wilddogs who sells a device for adjusting the air/fuel mix and claims to cure surging and difficulties associated with cats. I think he even lives close to you. I'll see if I can find a link

[sawystertrance]

Found it. See if this link works and if you can contact him.

 

https://wilddog.net.za/threads/boosterplug-feedback.225626/

 

[sawystertrance]

If not, here he is:

 

[Andrew_Smith]

1 hour ago, sawystertrance said:

Found it. See if this link works and if you can contact him.

 

https://wilddog.net.za/threads/boosterplug-feedback.225626/

 

Forgot about him on Wild Dog, thank you for sharing.

I would definitely like one for my G650X.

My bike has also been decat.

[sawystertrance]

If or when you do this, please give us some feedback. Perhaps I need one too. Cheers

[Hairy]

1 hour ago, sawystertrance said:

There's a guy on Wilddogs who sells a device for adjusting the air/fuel mix and claims to cure surging and difficulties associated with cats. I think he even lives close to you. I'll see if I can find a link

Thanks

I have seen his adds on FB and the like for some time, and also did a bit of YouTube searching on this.

I have mixed feelings.

To be clear, I do not have issues with cats, I just prefer dogs

[sawystertrance]

Why the mixed feelings? He has some positive feedback from HD riders and surely more horses is good, right? There is an environmental cost I suppose but what else bugs you?

 

[Mongooser]

12 hours ago, Andymann said:

So the higher the number on the plug the colder the heat range is and subsequently you need to ride the bike harder to get it to burn the oil off.  When we used to race back in the day we ran NGK BR10EGV.  We used to warm the bikes up with an 8 and then run a 10 for the race.  On our old Classic bikes we run really hot plugs - NGK B4HS and B5HS because we don't ride the bikes hard enough for the plugs to get hot.

So for your sister who lugs the bike maybe try a slightly hotter plug - perhaps a 6 rating?  And if you are not flat out on your YZ wherever you go - maybe try an 8?

40-1 is cool if you are running a full synthetic.  When we ran Castrol TTS we could go to 32:1 when the norm was 20:1 (much older bikes in the 80's!). 

As long as you are running decent oil and not this outboard motor stuff that some people use I doubt it's oil related.  Yamalube or Motul is really good.

Awesome thanks the makes a lot of sense, Will try a 6 in my sister bike. and run 40:1 in the 85, 

Is detonation at all a risk if she runs the bike with a hotter plug or does that only happen if your using the top end of the bikes rev range and riding the snot out of it? 

Rode with a 8 this afternoon in the yz125 and didn't seem to get a fouled plug.  just starts bogging if i dont ride it fast and keep the motor hot 24/7. 😂guess i should stick to my 300 for slow riding as its made for lugging around trails.

Thanks again for all the info

 

 

 

[Hairy]

14 hours ago, sawystertrance said:

Why the mixed feelings? He has some positive feedback from HD riders and surely more horses is good, right? There is an environmental cost I suppose but what else bugs you?

 

Not really knowing how this performs against other product that have been around globally for a while (And obs cost a good bit more) and having no practical experience with tuners.

So it is more reluctance I would imagine than really mixed feelings.

[Andymann]

Definitely - the moment she starts pinning it with the hotter plug you are going to get some issues again.  When I was at Yamaha we had such an problem trying to convince men not to buy their wives and girlfriends YZ85's just because they rode YZ125's and YZ250's.  85's are such temperamental things - hell they literally change with the weather.  Have you ever felt how well a 2-stroke goes when it's really cold and the air is nice and dense?  Or when it's just about to run out of fuel.  There's an old saying - a 2-stroke will run brilliantly just before it blows up!

We used to try our best to recommend TTR230's in place of YZ85's because they are just perfect for recreational riding, but they just weren't cool enough with the styling and the old drum brake at the back.

Put in a hotter plug and let her ride it and then take the plug out and check it - it's not strictly the right way to do a plug check, but it will give you a very good idea of what the engine is doing.

 

[Andymann]

10 hours ago, Mongooser said:

Awesome thanks the makes a lot of sense, Will try a 6 in my sister bike. and run 40:1 in the 85, 

Is detonation at all a risk if she runs the bike with a hotter plug or does that only happen if your using the top end of the bikes rev range and riding the snot out of it? 

Rode with a 8 this afternoon in the yz125 and didn't seem to get a fouled plug.  just starts bogging if i dont ride it fast and keep the motor hot 24/7. 😂guess i should stick to my 300 for slow riding as its made for lugging around trails.

Thanks again for all the info

 

 

 

What does the manual say the premix should be for an 85?  I would go with that

[sawystertrance]

Slightly off topic but still two-stroke related. A while ago I passed a groupf of two-strokes stopped at a coffee shop. Great selection of bikes with RD 350s, a coupla Suzuki triples and even a Suzuki rotary. When I walked past about 30 mins later the guys were leaving and some had run out of patience and weere already gone while 3 of them were kicking away like crazy trying to get their bikes started. Man, it reminded me a of the old days... Stragely, though, I started out biking with a Yamaha 360 RT3  and can't remember ever even changing the plug. Lucky for sure.

[Andymann]

All my DT's run with normal B8ES NGKs and they are fine.  It's the highly strung bikes that tend to be a but iffy.  The one thing that we have seen over the years though, is the number of plugs that just die, or actually spark normally when they are tested outside the cylinder, but fail under compression.  We have a very interesting talk at our Club a while back about NGK and how to spot the ones which are not made in Japan.  There's certain markings on a Japanese NGK that aren't on the ones made around the world.  Crazy as it sounds, but I actually order all the plugs for my bikes off the Yamaha Part number, to ensure I get the Japanese ones.

We also have one of our old race bikes that will absolutely not run properly on anything other than BOSCH plugs.  It's the craziest thing and I initially wouldn't believe it, but put in an NGK and two days later you will be standing next to it cursing.

[Spokey]

On 10/28/2022 at 11:38 AM, Andymann said:

All my DT's run with normal B8ES NGKs and they are fine.  It's the highly strung bikes that tend to be a but iffy.  The one thing that we have seen over the years though, is the number of plugs that just die, or actually spark normally when they are tested outside the cylinder, but fail under compression.  We have a very interesting talk at our Club a while back about NGK and how to spot the ones which are not made in Japan.  There's certain markings on a Japanese NGK that aren't on the ones made around the world.  Crazy as it sounds, but I actually order all the plugs for my bikes off the Yamaha Part number, to ensure I get the Japanese ones.

We also have one of our old race bikes that will absolutely not run properly on anything other than BOSCH plugs.  It's the craziest thing and I initially wouldn't believe it, but put in an NGK and two days later you will be standing next to it cursing.

This is very interesting, thanks. I have a little DT125 arriving tomorrow. Seems in fine fettle. My brother went to check it out for me in Centurian whilst I was in Saudi. Plan to teach my wife and daughter to ride, initially around the garden………………