Toutsuite
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Posts posted by Toutsuite
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My draggie's getting a new set of tyres next weekend, as the bridgestones she's got on have done 11000 miles. The front is down to 2mm tread, and the rear is quite a bit flat in the middle. So I'm thinking Avon Venoms as recommended by a few here.
The question I have to any of you who have avons fitted to this bike: Yamaha lists the front tyre size as 100/90-19 in the manual. But Avon seem to only list 100/90-18 and 110/90-19 sizes on their website, and list the 110/90-19 size for the custom 650. So what front tyre size venoms do you lovely people have? Will the 110/90-19 fit my front wheel?
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Hi BlackStar, what exhaust do you have? Stock or aftermarket? I have a similar problem in that everytime I ride with my leather jeans on, the heatshield on the rear pipe gets smeared and I then have to clean it off with car shampoo and a toothbrush. I haven't been burnt though. And it doesn't happen when I'm not wearing leathers. Strange.
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The 535 Virago actually has a touch more power than the 650 Drag!
More accurately, it has a higher power-to-weight ratio, so is quicker off the line.
Regarding claimed horsepower, when I had my draggie dyno-ed last November while she was being rejetted, she registered 35hp at the back wheel. Now she had done some 33K miles at the time, but even so, I thought losing 5 ponies, or 12.5% of the original power was a bit excessive. But after a bit of googling it seems the power transfer loss between crank and bak wheel could be anything between 10% and 20% for motorbikes. So I'm pretty sure the 40hp quote is at the crank, not the back wheel.
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Well if I go by the speed indicated on my Garmin GPS, on a reasonably flat road, indicated 70 on the speedo is about 67-68 on the GPS. Indicated 30 is about 29 on the GPS. This leads me to believe the margin of error on the speedo is something of the order of 2-4%. Would I be right in assuming that the same goes for the odometer? That would mean we all have lower mileage bikes than we think!
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Lies.
The Drag speedo only goes up to an indicated 110mph, which equates to about 94.5mph in real terms.
You were either going an actual 98mph, or were reading in km.
How do you arrive at that number? I think the speedo error is only about 2-3%, which would put the actual speed at 106.7mph for an indicated 110.
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You might find this useful: http://www.650ccnd.com/calc.htm
Works on any bike too if you input the correct gear ratios. I've made a table (ok an excel spreadsheet) of rpms in 5th for 30 to 100 mph in 10m increments. Now I just have to memorise it!
I've even toyed with a theoretical 6th gear to see what the ratio would have to be to cruise along at 70 at 3500rpm! I have way too much time on my hands!
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Yep, the blown tappet O ring was a more recent (unrelated? coicidental?) fault. The leakage continues under the bike. I crawled under there with a flashlight, it's either the main seal between the engine block and the sump, or a cracked case. The leak is still not much (leaves a 50p sized splotch of oil under the left side of the bike), and the bike runs absolutely fine. When the tappet O-ring went, the leak suddenly became bigger and messier, with the oil splotch about 5-6 inches wide. I just hope it was a coincidence and not related to the original fault, otherwise it's likely to happen again. Anyways, the bike's going back to Yamaha to be looked at again...
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Tappet O ring replaced. However, leak not entirely fixed. Still a small oil spot under the bike when I got back from work. Damn.
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Not that I know what I'm talking about, but it sounds like a reconditioning is needed rather than a new engine. You planning on doing this yourself, or are you going down the route of an authorised Yammy mechanic?
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I suppose it depends if you mean "new" new engine, or "used" new engine. But yeah, I guess you're right, worth thinking about a new ("used"?) ride...
...although, as you say, you might get lucky. There may have been enough oily residue on the engine parts to protect from total knackerification.
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Shit Ttasky, that's a right bummer, sorry to hear that man :-(
With the oil drip issue I've had over the past 3 months, I'm always on the lookout/paranoid about funny engine sounds.
Charging down the motorway is the worst time for that to happen too... How much mileage was on that engine? Mine's approaching 35K. Hope you find a good deal on a new engine if you have to go that way. Keep us posted matey!
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Right, during today's break in the weather (finally!), I took the bike down to Sondel Yamaha in sidcup for them to have a look. It took the mechanic there all of two minutes to locate the leak on the tappet inspection cover of the rear cylinder. Should be a simple matter of replacing the o-ring seal and curing the problem. Fingers crossed!
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If by Odometer you mean the actual mileage counter, I'm pretty certain there's no way to change that. But if you mean the speedometer, then there are stickers you can use. or you may be able to swap out the speedo face to km. Do a google search.
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Again, thanks for all the responses guys. I'm beggining to think the fully synth v-twin silkolene oil I changed to, at 10W-50, might in fact be a bit too thick for the english climate. I might change it to the Pro4 Plus 5W-40, which is for racing and sports bikes, but probably works just fine in a low-revving v-twin. As soon as the weather improves I'll take her down to Sondel Yamaha in Sidcup and let them have a look at her.
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Go semi or even full synth if you can. Also get the lowest W number you can find (like 0W or 5W or 10W), as the W number is the measure of viscosity at low temps (cold starts): the lower the number, the lower the viscosity, which means the better the oil will flow and therefore lubricate the engine at startup. There's a link to a long article about this on a post somewhere here. Hope that helps. Oh and yes, to state the obvious, use motorcycle specific oil, not car oil! Otherwise, bye-bye clutch!
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Thanks for the advice guys.
Neversaydie, the leak did indeed begin soon after an oil change, and the first thing I checked was for any oilyness around and on the drain plug, there is none. The filter was also changed (this was all done by the mechanic at maverick motorcycles in croydon) and so it's possible something went wrong there (I watched him do it and didn't see anything amiss). If the o ring is damaged, wouldn't there be any oilyness around and under the filter? The sump underneath is oily but on the other side of the engine (the stand side).
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Well for one thing, the odd drip on the move means it goes on to my rear tyre, which could lead to an off. For another, dammit, jap bikes are not supposed to leak! If I wanted a leaky motor, I'd buy an old Harley!
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The guy I took it in for a service couldn't fix it. He thinks it will need stripping the engine to change the gasket (if that's what's wrong with it) and he expects the bill to be about £700!!! Can't be right. I'm going to see what Sondel Yamaha in Sidcup think when I get a break in the weather...
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Very nice! But I hope you're tall enough to peer over that screen! Otherwise the first time you get caught in the rain might turn out to be um, problematic!
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I really like pilningas's idea! Biking across Europe, surely a bucket list item if there ever was one! Not sure bobbers make good tourers though, what with them flat, bastard hard seats they put on 'em!
Noise what happens if you take the mad plunge and get the dyna? You gonna bobberize that as well?
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Thanks for the info rossr, good to know this stuff!
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Some bikes, Harleys in particular, are loud right out the factory. Nothing you can do as it's factory standard... what a shame, eh!
Basically, so long as you're not riding like a cock, you should be OK.
Actually, Harleys coming straight out of the factory are as quiet as mice, as the company is subject to the same emmissions/noise restrictions as everyone else! It's just that more than 85% of customers choose to immediately replace the stocks with aftermarkets for that Harley sound that, ironically, Harley themselves don't provide!
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Car engine oil with anti-friciton additives (almost all car oils have them) will knacker the clutch and gears of a bike, and probably won't be to good for the rest of the engine either. The clutch/gearbox repair bill alone will be in the several hundreds of pounds at least. I see the OP hasn't commented since his original question. Let's hope he followed everyone's advice and not done anything stupid.
New set of Avon Venoms on xvs650
in Yamaha Customs
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The guy at Watling tyres in Catford says Avon don't make the front venom in that size anymore, so he'll get a cobra front. Should be fine. I'm having them put on this Saturday.
Taskmeister, cheers for the info re longevity. Any news on the state of your engine btw?