Posted by Frank on June 02, 2000 at 16:45:18:
In Reply to: Something smells funny here. posted by Witch Doctor on June 02, 2000 at 04:45:55:
WD,
1) Don't care about the non-related topics. Bikers come in all shapes/sizes and political views. The common bond is that we love riding. I'll keep my political views to myself as should others
2) Most of the common simple problems can and should be researched here on the forum. Almost every problem has been covered. Some of the advice is good, some not so good.
3) Yes, I too noticed that a couple of bikes have self-destructed. In fact if you go back and look at every bike that has on this forum, it's because of oil maintenance neglect, period. The oil level MUST BE CHECKED on this bike. It doesn't hold much oil to begin with. I don't buy into the theory that this bike has a weak cam or chain or oil pump. Any cam running dry of oil will disentegrate fast.
4) I'm closing fast on 60,000 miles, oil pump seems to still be holding. See above response
5) I've always had periodic trouble with my bike idling/running smoothly. The first day I rode it home from the dealer she stalled out on me as if I was out of gas. When she was under warranty I had it in several times because of it. No one could give me an answer. Every time I took her into the shop, the bike would run great. After modifications like an after market pipe, jetting, spacer removal, and modified air filter (foam) I thought I had corrected the problem but once in a while she would still stall on me. Then I blamed the weather. It seemed to happen only of foggy days. But then it would occur on sunny days. I thought it might be tank cap vent but it wasn't. Finally, after two years of ownership, I see a post a few days ago about the petcock (whick I also suspected at one time). Sure enough, running her on prime seemed to solve my problems. I'm still debating on plugging the vacuum line and running in the prime all the time or buy some type of after market petcock.
6) totally agree with your comment
7) I live in Southern California. We are fortunate enough here to have several mega bike malls/shops that at least carry the basics.
Finally, I just want to say, I been around this forum from almost the beginning. Some of the old timers seen to be around. I think this is a great forum still. I hope it remains so. It is very informative although somtimes mis-informative and of course there was the "peter eidie" affair, but he didn't bother me much except when he pulled that prank with Bruce. I respect Bruce and he has a pretty good web site of his own and he's one of the old timers such as yourself, hogryder, bob alcorn, justin, and some others. We also need to be tolerant of those with less mechanical ability and try and help them even if the fix to some of their problems seems a little obvious. Also, I'm trying to get time to write a long term report and post it to Bert. Ride safe, ride free, ride all summer.
Frank