thanetman

That'll do fine, just down here there's a junction onto a dual carriageway just past a blind bend so you need to pull away quick incase a truck comes round that bend at speed

Problem solved - there's a guy breaking a FJ1200 and he bought hyperpro springs for it, heavier fork oil, new seals, headstock bearings and mudguard but never fitted them as he got another bike instead so he'll fit the lot to the forks and yoke off the bike he's breaking then I'll ride up and swap them over with mine, job done . Now here's a question which is probably a bit thick - if you want to make a fast acceleration from standing still i.e. turning onto a dual carriageway from a junction what's the highest revs you can use in 1st gear without the bike chucking you off or doing a wheelie when you let the clutch off as after 1500 miles I haven't quite worked it out yet and my 0-60 times are probably still about 7 seconds. Timbo

Cheers Ttaskmaster - something to keep me busy on Thursday

Hi all; Got a FJ1200 and whenever I go over a manhole cover that's dropped an inch or over a pothole (of which there are plenty round here) the front wheel bites right down and it feels like the rim on the front wheel is hitting the road and the whole front of the bike crashes down quite hard with a loud bang/clang, even with the tyre at right pressure. Someone else took my bike for a spin and he reckoned it was steering head bearings that needed doing. Does that sound right or is it something else? There's no wobble from the steering when going round corners etc. Timbo

I'll go hunting around eBay for one

Yes I read up about this which could explain why when I put it into second gear sometimes the engine just revs up instead of engaging - embarrassing when in a narrow street as everyone turns and looks at you Can you get a double bubble screen for the FJ or some sort of second screen to keep the flies out my eyes? The carbs we're only balanced two weeks ago so guess it's fuel mixture - do I need to turn the screws in or out?

It does to me when I do occasionally go past 5000 rpm in 2nd gear On a different note I've noticed when I close the throttle or use the gears to slow the bike down there sounds like a bit of backfiring or popping sort of like the 2 strokes of the old days - but not when you accelerate. Is that normal? Having only had bikes with one cylinder before this is new stuff to me!

First thing I did was fit some daytime led lights, problem is they aren't as good as I thought they would be, that was what the bollocking was about as I was relying on them in the daytime instead of the dipped beam :-\ although at dusk they are pretty bright. They are on the wing mirror stalks.

Sorted! Bumped into a decent bike mechanic by chance at a bike meet near me who used to run a bike shop. He discovered it was only running on 3 cylinders (!), checked the plugs, spark, compression test, adjusted carb mixture (carb number 4 screw had been turned out 4 times, hence why she was guzzling fuel), and synced them all for £30 and now she goes like rocket! He did give me a bit of a bollocking for not riding with my lights on in the daytime and keeping it in too low revs before changing up a gear, he said on the open road don't change up until it gets to 6000rpm when accelerating. I've also discovered that all bmw drivers with nearly new cars insist on racing you - or trying to. It's quite nice to know a £1000, 26 year old bike can piss them off when leaving roundabouts

Out of interest has anyone had their carbs synced before and if so what sort of price does that cost?

Joined!

Cheers Slice, sadly I won't be riding it anywhere today as the clutch went last night, Checked the reservoir and it's empty and looks like a fluid dribble over the left hand side of the engine down the bottom. Called the mobile mechanic who serviced it before I bought it and he said he replaced the clutch seals and he'll come round Tuesday to check it out but gives me time today to oil the springs and do the idling.

Yep mine was imported, going by the writing on the swing arm could be Germany. It's done 77,000 km so not massive mileage. To get the cables off I'll need to remove the fairing as my screwdrivers are too long to fit the gap between According to what I was given with the bike the carbs have been cleaned so mystery as to why it's still a bit stuttery but guess I can have them done again. I've got some new plugs to go in it but I need to burn off a bit of fuel first as I almost filled up the tank. I'll get a holder for my mobile phone and use it's gps speedo in future. Just been for another hours ride and it is very comfy, not even feeling tired.

Righto, I'll do that but the rideout did show up one big problem - when you come to a stop and put the bike in neutral the revs we're sometimes (but not always) taking a few seconds to drop back to idle and on two occasions they stayed at about 3000rpm so the traffic next to me probably thought I was after a race! Any ideas? It happened a lot more when it was hot.