Toutsuite

Pissf*cking shittery! Returning from a long ride today, the draggie breaks down. No transmition to the rear wheel. Gears all work, but letting the clutch out only results in nasty grinding noises coming from either the rear hub, or where the shaft goes into the final drive u-joint thingy. Hard to tell as I broke down on the south circular and it was bloody noisy. I suspect the 4 hour wait for the recovery truck was just the beginning of my woes... Anybody have any tips, (or spare parts)?

Hope to see some of you there!

Hi mate, in that case you'll have to upgrade your stator/generator. You will have to do this eventually anyway, as the OEM stators on the dragstars tend to fail somewhere between 35-50k miles. Yours being an older bike, it may be sooner. However, it's not exactly cheap: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-XVS650-Drag-Star-1997-2003-Generator-Stator-8111599-/360843252997?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts_13&hash=item5403ef1505 £140 for the Electrosport stator plus the labour to get it fitted. I wouldn't try doing it yourself, unless you have a very well equipped garage/shed! My mechanic told me it was a bastard to do, mainly because of the problems threading the cable loom through the bike, necessitating undoing the rear monoshock. He charged me 2hrs labour, and I think he underchared me to be honest (when I popped in to see how things were progressing, there were 3 mechanics sweating and swearing to fit the cable through!). Another option might be to replace your passing lights with LED ones which consume less power. Or perhaps you could do both.

Well done mate, enjoy your lovely ride!

That is very well preserved! Very fine example! Well no issues with voiding warranties then, given the age of the bike. And only 6K? Was it in a museum? Why do people buy motorbikes and then not ride them? One thing though: those highway passing lights will absolutely kill your battery, and eventually fry your stator/generator as well. Don't ever use them. In fact I'd advise getting rid of them altogether. The dragstar's generator can barely cope with the standard electrical load as it is. Unless the previous owner has upgraded the stator.

The mechanics are pulling your leg Las, unless they think you mean fully synth oil meant for cars; f.s oil for bikes will not harm your clutch. If it's fine for the wet clutch of any other type of bike, why wouldn't it be ok for the wet clutch of a cruiser? Especially one meant specifically for V-twins, that all the Harley guys swear by? And the thing about the warranty, really? I'd like to see where it says that (not that I don't believe you), sounds outrageous to me... Hey Sun, how old is your "new" bike? How many miles on the clock?

Been using this since I got my draggie, fully synth, specially formulated for V-twins: http://www.opieoils.co.uk/p-858-silkolene-v-twin-10w-50-fully-synthetic-high-performance-motorcycle-engine-oil-for-v-twin-designs.aspx If you change to this from mineral or semi-synth, you won't believe the difference. Like getting a new gearbox! Got a write-up of it somewhere on the forum. ACF50 is good.

Hi Sunsprie, welcome to the forum. Being aircooled, the draggie can get hot. The pipes certainly do, but then that's true of any motorbike exhaust. You say you didn't take her over 30, well, that can add to the heat as she's not getting much airflow over the engine. It would help if you could tell us if there are any modifications to the bike.

Good to hear mate, 6 litres for 80 to 100 miles is now in 60+ mpg territory! But if that's what you're getting maybe you don't need to downsize your jets after all... I have Vance & Hines Cruzers fitted, with baffles which are quite free flowing, so they're quite loud. At motorway speeds I really need to wear earplugs! At more normal speeds she's pleasantly loud and turns a fair few heads... Edit: forgot to ask, do the new baffles have packing of any kind? If not, wrapping some fibreglass around them will quieten them down a wee bit.

Yeah, so what did you do?

Great news mate, glad you sorted it!

I work for one of the local authorities in South London, whose hq are just inside the congestion charge zone next to Tower Bridge. I commute on the bike, it's the cheapest, quickest, funnest way. But I'll have to buy another bike, made after July 2007 in 5 years time if I am to continue doing so.

Oh fuck your soul Boris! First it was motorbikes can't use the bike box at the lights (yeah try and enforce that you toff twat), and now this... And 24/7 as well? Fucking hell. Guess I'll have to replace the CB500 in five years time.

They can be!

We should all take an oath not to be hypocratic.

End of an era...

Straight through pipes are the ones that have the potential for the biggest gains in hp, but as you have found out, they're too feckin loud! The baffles on the silvertails have this weird metal plate in the middle, forcing all the gasses to go through the padding, creating a lot of back pressure. Combine that with those very big jets and I don't like to think how much unburnt fuel has gone through that packing (hence why its ruined). So the next step is to drill a hole in that plate. Basically as big as you can make it, 20-30mm. This will louden up your silvertails, but the packing will take the edge of the noise, an in any case, won't be anything like as loud as with no baffles! With that done I'd expect you'll still be running too rich, if less so than before, so I'd advise you to fit smaller jets, and possibly plug up that hole you made in your airbox.

When I used the alternative, it kept coming loose at the bottom. Never figured out why. Then I bit the bullet, got the OEM one and no probs since.

Might be unrelated but did you replace the speedo cable with OEM or some cheapie alternative? Word of advice: use the OEM cable, as the cheapies are not quite the right length they should be.

I only did about 45 miles with the airbox restored (with the duct) before switching to the k&n filter, so don't think the plugs would have had time to change colour. So no, didn't check. Does the tiger feel any vrrrroooomier?

I'd definitely get it dyno'd first (£40-£45) to see what's what. But yes, sounds like she's way too rich. What size are the stock jets compared to the 127.5's? Maybe you just used too large a main jet? If the jets are too large and you're running quite rich, you'll actually have a drop in hp. I'd start with a dyno and then possibly reducing the jet size, as you may have put in larger ones than the motor + silvertails can usefully turn into power. Edit: just did a search and stock jets are about a size 91. So I'm fairly certain the issue is with your main jets being way too big. I'd say combine going with option 1 (drill hole through plate) plus repacking baffle with fresh fibreglass, with going down to a size 110. Possibly lower. Also check your plugs for colour. If black then yep too rich.

Some time ago, I posted how I was getting very high mpg's (60+) even riding through London traffic on the drag 650 (which is supposed to do 45-50 mpg). I couldn't figure out what was causing this blessing, but was worried she might be running way to lean. However having checked my sparks it turns out she was running a smidge on the rich side. So still couln't figure why I was getting such good mpg figures. Could it be the V&H pipes alone doing this? Even after a re-jet done shortly after fitting them? Then recently I was playing about with the airbox, thinking of ways to increase airflow a bit, since she was running slightly rich. Looking on a website reading up on something called a RAK, or a home-made air intake mod, I noticed this duct in the chamber behind where the filter sits. Now my airbox didn't have that. It had obviously been removed by a previous owner. Without that duct, the airflow is way too high, even with the stock paper filter, so you get a lot of sputtering and hesitation. I found this out when I removed a bit of plastic that had been screwed in place over about a third of the duct aperture to compensate for the absence of the duct itself. So this, combined with the V&H cruzers was what was giving me high mpg's. When I finally received the duct from Japan (via Fowlers) and installed it, my mpg went down to 47. Crap! What to do? Well I decided to give the K&N filter a try. I'll get the numbers out of the way first: I did a 50 mile test run today, through central London, Spitalfields, City, then out to Richmond, then back through the other side of the park, up the A3, south circular and back to Brockley. Some bits of heavy traffic, some clear bits and a good run up the A3, with a mix of economical and aggressive use of the throttle. Result? 61.8 mpg! That's up from 47, with just a change of filter in my setup. But that's not all. There was a very noticeable improvement in throttle response across the power band (though I didn't take it up to the limiter, I never do that, so can't say if there's an improvement right at the top). The bike launches more readily, pulls harder and climbs faster through the revs. It were great! I might get her dyno'd again to see if it's real or whether I got a bad case of the placebos - though I really don't think so. Conclusions: It think a quick, easy (and free!) way to improve airflow to the filter in order to increase mpg would be to shave some length off the duct, or even to remove it completely and then place a bit of plastic over a 3rd of the hole. I imagine this would have some benefit even with the stock pipes on. You won't get any power gains though. For that you'll need a K&N filter. (and no, I don't work for them!) Now I'm off to order one for the CB500 and the car!

Heehee!

All depends if you caught his license plate on the video I suppose. I'd be all for reporting the little shit, it's not just himself he might get killed. As slice says, put in on the tubes and see if the police contact you.

We are talking Olympic levels of dozy fucktardery!