Tell-On-Yourself Thread

First ride with a friend, we stopped at a gas station where our pastors son works. The friend I was riding with fired his bike up, I go to start mine. Nothing. That darn killswitch... Again. Tried to start it more times than I'd like to admit before realizing it. Followed that embarrassing moment up by killing it leaving the lot :)
 
Set out for a nice ride this morning. Had a little trouble starting. Only running on left cylinder at first then right side kicked in. (has never happend before) Got about 4 blocks from home and problem came back. Definately a fuel delivery problem. And then my worst fear was realized. The bike has left me stranded(never happened before) I hear so much about carb issues on these machines yet I never had any fuel delivery problems. Ever. Now I am so regretting not getting that in line fuel filter intalled yet. After spending what felt like 10 minutes (in reality only 2 or 3) on display at the side of the road still trying to look cool as I played with choke and throtle linkage I opened the fuel tank cap. Bone dry. Switched to reserve and was on my way. what an idiot!
 
This morning I was investigating some weird noises coming from my rear brake drum. When I wanted to put the rear wheel axle back in, it wouldn't go in all the way. Just the last 1/4 inch wouldn't go through, so I hammered and pushed and wiggled and pulled, took it out and put it back in, and finally tried pulling it through by just screwing on the axle nut. That turned out to be a BAD idea, since I totally destroyed the thread on both the axle and the axle nut!!! After that, I tried flipping the chain tensioner and found out that has a smaller and larger hole, and the axle couldnt pass through completely when it was the wrong way around! :doh:

luckily, the local bike shop scrapped a XS400 DOHC some decades ago, and I got a new axle for just €15

phew!
 
Maiden voyage of my bike, and there must have been a little wind, it was around 11pm at night, and I started to push the bike, hard, (I was going faster than the posted 65 mph) I felt something hit my right arm. My right mirror fell off, and hit me, it took me another 2 or three minutes to figure out what that was. battery was dead as well, (all fixed) and carbs balanced as well now.

It took the battery 3 jump starts to get it to sustain my first trip, then the return was a kick start, and no stopping anywhere. I had hoped the battery would revive with a 2 30 minutes trips. no luck, $35. bucks to Fleet farm for a new one. ($45 for AGM at Mondus, Maybe an upgrade in near future)
 
Yep there was some wind. It got crazy up by me yesterday. Had to repair some of that #$$&$%%@&**$ vinyl siding that started to balloon off the house yesterday afternoon. You must have gotten some of the same wind as us. Also had to re pair some structure in the garage where the joists were supposed to be tied together. Freakin half assed builder missed the studs with his nail gun and wound up splitting some others. So telling on my self. Bought a newer home built by a half assed contractor.
 
My bike is parked on the street, at a place where quite a few people walk on the sidewalk. Also since there is free parking here (just outside of city center) but way more cars than spots, the cars park on the sidewalk every so often. Result is, that there is barely any space for people to walk and often I find them bumping into my bike, adjusting my mirrors for me. Hate it, but I don't have any other place to put it.

Last week I took the XS to work again. At the last half mile, it ran like crap. Probably on one cylinder, it didn't want to go ANYwhere. So I took my bicycle to work the rest of the week.

Today I thought I'd give it a try again. So this morning I re-adjusted my left mirror and tried starting the bike. Nothing. Not even a click from the starter, although my light was burning strongly. I know when it's the battery, my neutral light doesn't shine so bright (nice rhyme, eh?). So I'm confused, and try pushing the bike in 2. Nothing either. I come really close to going back inside to take off my gear and grab my bicycle, and i realize it's that f-ing killswitch :doh:

So I start it OK and ride off. After about half a mile, it stalls. I can't get it to come back to life, I only manage to get it to fire once in a while. I curse the bike to hell and then think: what if... I don't have enough fuel.....? So I turn to RES and bam! there it goes...:banghead:

probably the cause for it running poorly last week as well :doh:
 
There has been many times that I have found this out. If it runs on gas Ya gotta feed it gas, Oh and don't always believe the gas gage. Once years ago I knew there was at least 1/4 tank about 4 gallons. But going on a short trip so stop at station to fill up. I'm about 400 yards from the station and it nearly stalls on the throttle. Idle & coast to the pump and put 15.? gallons into an 16 gallon tank. Gas gage still was reading 1/4. Got back from the trip took apart the dash. Found a card from a repair shop slid down under the needle & jammed it at 1/4.
 
it's weird how the reserve is such a large portion of the tank, seriously it's more than 1/3 with me... I say design flaw!
 
willem said:
it's weird how the reserve is such a large portion of the tank, seriously it's more than 1/3 with me... I say design flaw!
Click to expand...
It is annoying but I think it's a design for small-town North American. The next town and the next gas station can 50 kms away in the East, much farther out west. I am planning to use a couple of empty SeaFoam bottles to take an extra litre of gas with me on a long day trip I am planning this summer - just in case.
 
willem said:
it's weird how the reserve is such a large portion of the tank, seriously it's more than 1/3 with me... I say design flaw!
Click to expand...

Then change it! Remove the petcock and shorten the tube. Just keep in mind that your total mileage per tank won't change, just how far you can go before switching to reserve.

And you should be happy with your 15+L Seca tank. The tiny Maxim tank is 13L. I'm still dreaming of a 20L tank...
 
Looks to me that large numbers of smaller bikes are used as commuters. Short hops to work the store to friends etc. There's not much need for large fuel reserves and it has a weight saveings as well. Less fuel = less weight. I'd personally like a 4-5 gal tank. You'd be able to put some serious miles behind you at 40-60 mpg with that load of gas.
 
I just wish our tanks had fuel guages so we dont have to guess how much gas we have.Oh we do its a ruler that you just dip in the tank through the fill spout:laugh:
 
I fill mine after every ride:wink2: Even after a 100+mile ride there still a half of tank. I love having a almost 4 gal tank:)
 
I still have a odometer, and reset it on every fill, (my wife doesn't) so somewhere near 140 miles, I start needing to switch to reserves. or finding a fill up place. Here locally there is a spot that covers Non Oxygenated fuel, it was posted, its suppose to read Drill Now Here, my first glimpse was Drill nowhere :) Its got a complete Minnesota, which includes Hudson Wi (okay in my book) then the Wisconsin page, has one location in Superior.
http://www.xs400.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7574
It does have a link for you to help the list, or the fuel station to help update the list. I think its suppose to help keep the list up to date.
http://www.drillnowhere.com/non-oxy-fuel-list/minnesota.html
Hope that helps
Tobie
 
yea I might change it. Definitely here in the Netherlands there is absolutely no need for a 50 mile radius on the reserve. There's a gas station about every 10 km at least :p

Wouldn't be bad to check out my petcock anyways, haven't done that yet. Cleaning the tank might also be smart, I always see crap flying when I've just put in fuel. Good thing I have that fuel filter installed haha
 
petcock started leaking today...and by leak i mean exploding fuel out the back by the slot in the plastic spacer like mad. so i smeared some gas resistant gasket maker on it to temporarily seal it. the tube said 20 min cure time, i waited an hour thought that was enough, started the bike and the petcock blew a bubble in the gasket maker like bubble gum. I didnt even feel it to see if it was hard:banghead: stupid wisconsin humidity! everything takes longer to dry, i should have waited 24 hours(and felt it) but i just wanted to ride!!! stupid stupid stupid:doh::banghead:
 

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