Ride On

On 8/30/2021 at 8:44 PM, 1moreroad said:

Posted this before. This was on a paved road. When you make the sump out of tin foil....

I'm thinking of siliconing a piece of high density foam or rubber on the front side of my sump.  It may have prevented the damage in the picture above.  I don't like the looks of a protector or it's price or the potential case damage in the event of a hard hit.  A new sump cover can be had for $147, half the price of some protectors.

When I was a kid (supposedly a long time ago) I switched out my front sprocket on my dirt bike for one that was one tooth smaller.  You see, I had a buddy with a similarly fast bike, and I was looking for faster acceleration to consistently beat his @ss.  So I stealthy upgraded to the smaller sprocket.  A solo test ride confirmed this thing now screamed.  Fast up shifts and wild acceleration.  It was time to go ride with my unsuspecting buddy.

Unbelievably, I was now getting smoked.  Every time we accelerated.  Every time.  What seemed faster riding alone was actually an aural and seat-of-the-pants hoax.  Riding together it was painfully obvious I made a horrible mistake, my bike now much slower, much to the amusement of my buddy.  Getting roosted was my punishment for the rest of the riding day. 

My misfortune ended with the stock sprocket being reinstalled that evening.  The Universe had tipped back into balance.

Oil began spurting out of the head, just below the exhaust pipe.  I'm thinking this "hole in the head" contains some sort of pressure relief or check valve.  Anybody know for sure?  I just serviced the valves and I'm wondering if an oil port got blocked off during reassembly.

Thanks! 

26 minutes ago, nhchris said:

I need some advice...

My 6 year old OEM Yuasa YTZ-10S batt is no longer holding an adequate charge to start the C3.  Lights and horn work but relay chatters when starter is pressed.

So, I guess I need a new batt. BUT a replacement Yuasa is $190!!

Have any of you kids used a different brand batt that you would recommend?

$30 motorcycle battery from walmart will work just fine for a few years.  On the other end of the spectrum is a $260 Earth-x lithium (quality) battery that will last as long as the bike.  I've owned both, the lithium is in my airplane since 2018.  

Yuasa is way overpriced for what you get. 

On 1/15/2022 at 8:18 AM, skipperT said:

I agree, this has been a good discussion. 

Even though Yamaha recommends 8k miles, the conventional thinking is they could surely be extended to 12 or 16k miles. I’d love to see some people post up pics of their stock CPR plugs at 16 and 20k miles. My guess is that they will look clean as a whistle, but I’d be curious to see if the center electrode has worn noticeably such that the gap has increased so that it’s out of spec. Then we would have a good idea how long the stockers could go. YMMV of course. 

I’ve pushed mine to 12k without issue. 
-S

Here's my factory plugs at 22,500 miles.  Easily could have gone longer but conveniently changed them out with stock plugs when I reset the valve clearances. 8 out of 12 valves were tight, several exhaust valves down to .005".

4 hours ago, Fleng said:

Just to make things clear, you are talking about the reinforcement plies, not the carcass. No reinforcement plies are used on motor tires, so don’t mix this up.

As a Airline Landing Gear engineer, I do know.

You guys make awesome landing gear btw.  Don't ask how I know...

Nothing to do with bikes, but my previous employer's standard operating practice, and as written in our Crew Resource Manual, was to let the tires wear down through the first set Kevlar cord on the tires.  Once the second, opposing cords were visible the tire had to be replaced.  And this was on an airline passenger jet.  FAA approved.

The wear was never completely uniform around the tire.  The Kevlar that would show would usually be silver dollar in size, maybe in a couple places around the tire.  Most of the wear occurs from the tires spinning up from zero to 175 mph at touchdown.

Seems odd for sure, but completely safe.

I tried a non-dampened front sprocket on my '15.  The noise and vibration after the switch were terrible.  I went back to the factory dampened front sprocket after just 10 miles.  Much, much better.

I also switched to Rotella synthetic oil.  I was surprised that the shifting became smoother and the transmission a little less noisy overall.

22,000 miles on the bike now.  Great bike.  Still a keeper.

Managed to crack the oil pan without riding it or having the bike fall over...  Wow.  

FWIW, I have 12,000 miles my set of Road 5's.  The center wear indicators are almost flush with the remaining tread.  I've got a new set of 5's ready to be mounted once I get a bead breaking slide hammer delivered. 

My tire life may have been helped by lots of cool weather, cool tire, Minnesota road miles.  I was also surprised that the last 3/32" of wear lasted 5,000 miles.  I almost replaced them prior to a 3,800 mile trip this spring but I'm happy I didn't! 

3 hours ago, Wintersdark said:

Hah!  You did a much nicer version of this   You're right, though, the $200 price tag on the wireless charging x-grip is just appalling.  Particularly when you've already got an X-Grip!

 

I just dropped $5 on ebay on the guts of one of these, covered it with epoxy and put it there:

Stuffed the circuit board (takes USB in, has two wires out that go to the coil) in the "console" area under the windscreen, and ran a wire with barrel plug to the X-Grip so it can be detached easily.  

 

Your solution is much nicer

 

Edit: and yeah, there are a couple specific phones - iphones in particular? - that apparently can be damaged just by being there.  I've personally never had a problem with it, and have used: Galaxy Note, LG G3, Google Nexus, S8+, and S10+ all extensively.  The S8+ died due to falling off this very X-Grip at 180kph, though, which is why the feet are gorrilla glued in place now and the rubber retainer net is in place now 😃 

$5.  Nice!  Sure beats $200.

Ram offers a nice wireless cell phone charging mount for sale but I kinda choked on their $200 price tag.  Besides, I already had an older X-Grip that I had been using for the last couple years and though maybe I could convert mine instead.  So I did.  For less than $30.

It was pretty easy.  I first removed the Ram emblem (sticker) from the center of the X-Grip.  I then siliconed a fast wireless charging pad in its place.  The one I used was 5mm thin pad so it didn't interfere with the X-Grip's holding ability, even when using a waterproof cell phone case.

Finally I used a compatable "fast" wireless charging plug to insert into the cigarette lighter.

I used Yamabond to seal the USB connections for a water proof fit.  I also used Yamabond to seal the top of the wireless charger's bezel to make sure that it's case is water tight.

3,900 miles later, and a trip half way across the country and back, I can report that this mod worked great!  I used Google Maps the entire time on full brightness and my phone (SGS9+) still received a wireless quick charge through a water proof case.

I will note that I've seen some reports of cell phones being damaged by vibration (or rain/water damage?) from being mounted on the handlebars but that has not been my experience with my Galaxy S9+.  14,000+ miles (with and without a water proof case) and it still works like new. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07FM8R7J1?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08CBFD5ZV?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

If you're up for a small project, here's a really effective pannier option for a little more than $100.

https://www.tracer900.net/topic/8466-so-i-made-my-own-luggage-brackets/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-103920

I've used kitchen aluminum foil for years.  Cheap and throw away when done. 

It's well known in the aviation world, where the pilot controls the fuel/air mixture, that lean of peak operation (lean of peak exhaust gas temperature (EGT)) results in a cooler and a more efficient running engine. 

The maximum cylinder pressure and cylinder head temperatures occurs at peak EGT (14.7:1), but we're prohibited from running aviation engines there, (5,000 foot elevations and below) even though that's where the most horsepower is made.  Instead, and at a slight horsepower penalty, these engines are required to run at a minimum of 50 degrees lean of peak, or 50 degrees rich of peak, but never at peak EGT.   Many aviation engines don't have a balanced fuel delivery system though, and can't run smoothly lean of peak, so those engines are limited to operating at the more inefficient rich of peak operations. 

For years I flew behind a turbocharged, 520 cubic inch Continential.  Once reaching crusing altitude, I'd push the throttle wide open while simultaneously pulling the mixture control through peak EGT and immediately leaner by another 75 degrees or so, just before the engine ran rough.  This saved about 3 gallons per hour compared to running 50 degrees rich of peak, all while making the same horsepower and at cooler cylinder head and exhaust gas temperatures.  You would literally see the immediate temperature drop on your instruments as you go lean of peak, and also relative to operating at 50 degrees rich of peak.  Operating lean of peak was actually learned in WWII, when bombers were trying to extract every last drop of fuel efficiency to make it back to their airfield. 

Back to present day...  On takeoff and climb through 5,000 feet (as opposed to crusing altitude outlined above) a different strategy is used, and we are required to run the mixture full rich at full throttle.  Though maximum power is available at peak EGT, operating there is prohibited by all aviation engine manufactures due to the risk of preignition and excessive cylinder head temperatures.  Running full rich is for engine cooling purposes and insurance against preignition even though there's a horsepower penalty.  Efficiency here is terrible.  In my case I'd burn 34 gallons per hour at takeoff.  That compares to 15.3 gallons per hour at cruise, set lean of peak (approximately 70% horsepower).

That's the aviation world.  I suspect the engines in our Yamahas are set up similarly.  If so, then under wide open throttle Yamaha mapped the engine to run rich, at a small horsepower penalty, for reliability purposes.  An ECU tune can get that performance penalty back but, the question is, at what cost to long term reliability?

Used FJ09 engines can be had on eBay for about $1,500.

The CP3's have been out quite a few years now.  Not a dead engine yet from 87 octane.  91 octane seems to cure a "problem" that does not exist in the CP3.

I ride at near sea level elevations and sometimes on hot days, with a passenger, running hard, on 87 octane.  Stock engine.  No knock.

As long as the combustion chamber temperatures (piston, head, valves, spark plug, carbon deposits) remains below the autoignition temperature of the fuel then there's no preignition, no knock.

Compression ratio, timing advance, air/fuel ratio, spark plug heat range, density altitude, intake air temperature, engine cooling and exhaust efficiency all effect combustion chamber temperatures.  Mess up on any combination of these and you can get preignition, on any grade of pump gas.  In a stock engine though, the experience of many, and the test of time has shown 87 octane won't harm it.  If it does, where are the dead engines? 

Agreed.  The real issue is engine knocking (preignition).  If your engine is knocking you need a higher octane fuel.  If it isn't, you don't. 

Don't forget... the Owners Manual also calls for, "After extensive tests, only the tires listed below have been approved for this model by Yamaha".  And those tires are, drum roll please... the stock tires. 

There's a lot of other b.s. stated in the Owners Manual, another such item is chain tension requirements.

No doubt one can adhere to every statement made in the Owners Manual, but life experience often leads one to acceptable, even better, alternatives.

I installed the Scottoiler X System and, so far, have run it about 2,000 miles.  Other than two slack adjustments (the chain is new), I haven't touched the chain since.  It's always got a fresh oiled appearance to it.  I’ve topped off the oil reservoir once.

I'm pretty happy with this set up.  Riding with a chain drive couldn't be any easier now. 

The chain links are a little grungy.  I was using their red, or higher temperature oil, as it got cold and the riding season ended.  It normally looks a little cleaner.  The rim hasn't been cleaned in about 800 miles or so. 

20 hours ago, nevada72 said:

Excellent work! I also drilled the angle bracket (giving the JB weld something to grab on to) and used Saran Wrap to form the JB Weld inserts. If there is one thing I would like to change, it's that. But honestly, it's held up well and once inserted, you don't see it. 

The other thing I would consider is using steel for those same brackets vs aluminum, which could conceivably fatigue. But in quite a few miles everything looks pretty much the same as the day I put it all together. 

Thanks Nevada!

No worries about the aluminum brackets.  Fatuige life is a function of the extent of the flexing, times the number of cycles.  I'd expect these brackets to outlast several motorcycles.  (The two aluminum bars holding the wings on my airplane are made from 1" wide by 1/8" thick 6061T6 aluminum and are under significantly more stress!)

Here's one of the completed bags...

Nevada72 had a great idea here and I decided to build my own set of panniers following his lead.  You can too.  Nothing here is particularly difficult and the end result seems to be extremely durable.