129crossplane

We are in the country too and its common for them to get in cars as well. Had same situation where a mouse had nested in a vehicle and chewed through the wire harness. Dang squirrels are bad as well.

sloppy syncro mesh fork would be where i would look then. keep in mind that the travel is further between 1st and 2nd due to the neutral. this is where most riders experience probs at. typical issues are due to missed shifts goin from 1 to 2.

So my buddy calls me up and says his Honda Shadow is running like crap and it smells like its running extremely rich. After completing work on one of my bikes i grab tools and make the trip to his house. I have him start the bike and i can tell its running rich because of the famous smell.......but i noticed a different smell with it too. I looked around his garage (which is detached from his house) and noticed he put hay down for some odd reason. First i checked to make sure choke wasn't still pulled......check. Before i adjusted his carbs i had a hunch and decided to check the air filter for clogging. I pulled off the cover and presto!! The culprit was as visible as lime green rain gear! A field mouse had worked his way into the air box and built himself a little nest. When my buddy had started the bike earlier, it sucked the poor little fella against the filter and suffocated not only the bike but itself as well. It looked like a cat stuck on a screen door in summer time! Moral of the story here.......next time get a hamster cage instead of covering the floor with hay!!!!!

if all you get is a clicking sound when trying to start it its obviously electrical not fuel related. also the fact that someone hacked away at the electrical would be an indicator too. it does sound like your battery took a squat so check voltage on it and make sure all connections are clean and tight. the clicking you here is more than likely a relay. try jumping the battery off with a car or another source then go from there

wow 74 this sounds like a unique problem. I would think that if it was a diaphram it would do it constantly not sporadic. It sounds to me like the trip to a friends house is allowing for heat expansion and after sitting for an hour it will continue to heat some. As it cools like when you get it home and it sit for a day or more it retracts which allows it to move easier. Check fluid levels first then look for binding evidence on the clutch assembly itself.

P.S. no oil burning

The rattle ended up being the cam chain tensioner. While i had the access to everything i checked valve lash and some were slightly off. The hard syarts are still under investigation due to my ignorant american ass killing a cell in the battery. I purchased another battery yesterday (along with oil and filter that costs over $130 dollars) but the battery ended up being wrong as the posts were on incorrect sides. I have been told to crack the throttle slightly when starting to reduce the amount of drag on starter so hopefully that will help.

This is a common factor when buying cheap boot/wires. I would just replace the wire/boot that is arcing. Im guessing this problem gets worse as the bike gets warmer or wet. As stated before electricity takes the path of least resistance and if it happens to be through the boot rather than through it than there ya go. I'm not much for "rigging" but rather fixing so thats why i say replace the boot. You can tes the others by either using an ohm meter to measure the resistance or a simple way is to warm the bike then spray water on them (one end to the other) and watch for arcing. Plug wires will tend to arc too so be sure they are away from or protected from heat sources. Watch for a gray ash looking area on the wire and boots as well

If you are having to choke it than it means its getting too much air and not enough fuel. Choking minimizes air inlet. I agree with the afore mentioned about the carbs. The crappy eth gas we are served now tends to draw moisture which can either cause rusting in the tank or carb bowls. Sounds as if there is foreign matter clogging the jets. Possibly clogging floats too.

If there is no "slight" grinding then your syncro should be fine.......this is if like mentioned before that linkage is not loose. Some harleys do this but its typically loose in between all gears. This is caused by either a weak shift return spring or a misadjusted shifter pawl, both of which are located in the trans case. If the shifter flops its due to the return spring that has lost tension and will need replacing. Typically that is a crap job that will probably require a mechanic if your not that inclined. If its pawl adjustment then let me know and i can walk you throught it. For your sake though i hope its a loose boot or shift clamp linkage.

Thanks for the warm welcome airhead!!!

Thanks for the insight.....as for the maps it had a power commander 3 that the previous owner had installed. Im not sure what type of mapping he did (if any) but i noticed the lights were constantly flickering on it. (pc3) I tested it and even reset it and found the unit to be bad which is what I think burned up the throttle pos sensor on it. Removed the pc3 and found it to be faulty, replaced the tps and put it on comp to see if ranges,voltage and the such were close and all was good. I'll try opening the throttle some as soon as the damn battery charges up again. Thats not the first time I have heard of ppl having to crack the throttle on them. Some say its cause of the cross crank

I love Kirrie's idea cause if it doesnt work then you just made one hell of an awesome potato cannon!!! I would heat it with a torch till it gets somewhat red then immediately drown it in cold water. This causes enough expansion and retraction to remove even the most stubborn of metals

I have been reading a lot lately about hard starts and rattling/ticking noises in R1s of different years. I purchased mine used last year with intentions of making a track bike out of it. After a week or so I too noticed the famous "ticking" sounds they love to produce. I took it to the wizard here in Tennessee and found that the cct was in fact bunk and replaced it.This did help some with the hard starts, I'm guessing that it caused improper timing issues. We checked the fuel maps and found them to be right on for stock settings. Still after a few days of sitting it is hard to start. Any other ideas???