Shed Stuff
Korumburra 11th November with the Honda Meister Paul Southwell seemed like a great way to check out the R1 after some shed work after Ben's Archies Creek epic (21st October). Honda build quality as opposed to Yamaha character worth checking out. Alas, no Paul due to a failed stator, something that used to plague my RZ350 frequently. It was off with the rotor and smell those fried windings. I modified the plastic cover on the RZ by copious drilling and installed a duct inside the fairing to bring cooling air to the alternator. May be worth a try, Paul, but the cosmetics will suffer.
After the Archies Creek thing I took the Monday off before Cup Day and
checked the valve clearances for the first time. All OK except one intake shim
which was 0.0035" clearance instead of 0.0040". It was only tight by
half a thou’ (sorry about the lack of metrics; goes with my age) so
no need to mess with all those shims thankfully.
As the carbs and radiator have to be moved to get at the valves, I took the opportunity to drop the Factory Pro needles to their lowest groove in an attempt to get fuel economy nearer to those pesky Hondas. Nine years of running are sure to have worn the jets that the needles run in and proper control of the mixture may require their replacement as on Sunday I was putting in 10 litres when Cameron's GSXR was taking eight. The bike did not show signs of being too close to full power lean which is also close to full power bang, if run at big throttle openings for too long. Gippsland does not offer the kind of straights that may lead to detonation and tears. Oh for the good old leaded days when a nice grey pipe said much about correct mixtures.
Factory Pro billet velocity stacks are moving up the wish list: nice straight intakes instead of the curved plastic intakes as standard. Also fitted from Factory Pro is a four degree ignition advancer which seems to improve the mid-range a touch.
Past mods to the intake system include opening up the intake tracks in the
airbox with the trusty Dremel and raising the tank to allow more airflow.
I run a K&N filter. Other related mods in the quest for less oil
consumption are Dremel work on the original crankshaft breather to
maximise flow and the installation of another breather from the oil filler
point to the airbox. If it has achieved nothing on the free
crankcase breathing front, it is a conversation starter of a very
high order.
I have settled on Castrol Edge 10-60 after trying just about every oil on the market and try not to overfill to keep the dreaded Yamaha oil level warning light off. Better to run the level between the high and low marks on the sight window and put up with the odd flash. Washable oil filter and magnetic sump plug which collects small amounts of ferrous material at each oil change. “Where is it coming from?” I wonder. Mucked up gear changing is a likely cause.
Rear brake fade on both of the recent Gippsland rides was a problem in the
tight sections of road as I trail brake into corners (high corner speed
not my strong suit as you may have noticed). The last set of rear pads were HH
sintered, for the first time. With a lot less metal available on the aftermarket
Braking rear disk, I was boiling the fluid and losing the rear brake.
Wheels out for a set of Pilot Powers this week and a return to normal rear pads and a change to Dot 5.1 brake fluid may help. I changed the fluid in the front system as well.
Part of my enjoyment of motorcycling is the Shed Time, but moving too far
from stock only drops the resale value. I will persist anyway.
Cheers
Geoff Jones R1