Total Motorcycle Forums

Just a tip on parts that may fall off during installation, such as o-rings: I find a dab of grease placed on them before I set them in place is sticky enough to hold them there while I put things together. It also helps lubricate them if necessary.

That depends upon exactly what you mean by the cranckase. Forgive me if you already know this, but there are 2 compartments in the engine cases and they're sealed off from each other. The cankshaft runs in the one, and it is lubricated by the 2-stroke oil mixed with the gas. The clutch and transmiss...

About 9 years ago, I had an '82 KZ750 (basically the same engine) do something similar after I'd owned it for a few years. It would suddenly decide to start pouring fuel out of the #1 carb, like when I was sitting at a stoplight in city traffic on a hot day. I must have had those carbs off and apart...

I don't know of any dealears that do the shim exchange anymore. The dealership that I used to work for stopped doing that because the service department wound up almost running out of shims of the proper size neede for bikes they were working on. And my experience is that no parts department stocks ...

I had the same problem with my Honda a few years ago. I tried all thetricks suggested above. After about 4 hours of fighting with it, I went out and bought a vacuum air bleeder for my air compressor. Done in less than 5 minutes. Works great for other things too: emptying the coolant bottle on my bik...

This is awesome. I have a proper set of the cheap (no restrictors)carb balancers from Motion Pro, but they used mercury. The problem has been that each time I snap the throttles, th e bike sucks a bit of mercury in. Now there isn't enough left in there to do a proper job . I was wondering what to do...

Did they look it up in an aftermarket catalogue? It is not unknown for those to contain errors. However, as long as it sits properly in the battery holder, the amp/hour rating is the same and the posts are in the same spot so that the cables hook up properly, it will work.this type of battery does n...

If the brakes are used very lightly or dragged a bit, they will glaze within a few Kms. Sometimes, they just develop a very hard leading edge. Anytime I put a new set of brakes on, I use a fine toothed file to chamfer the leading edges of the pads slightly.

These days? The Rebel started life in about 1978 as the 185cc Twinstar. Honda just boosted it to 200cc and then 250cc and restyled it a couple of times. It is certainly oldschool.

It sounds to me like it might be time for a new Regulator/Rectifier (I had to replace mine last summer),or maybe a Stator. These fail suddenly, and prevent the battery from being charged. That leaves the battery trying to run everything until its completely drained. It could also be just a loose con...

Certainly, buying too small a first bike can be a pain. If you want something that will be big enough to enjoy for a while, and you really want something in the 600cc class, look closely at the 650 twins from Kaw and Suzi. Far more comfortable to ride, and easier to learn on. If it really must be a ...

I get ridiculed for it, but I've always believed the saying that "its more fun to ride a slow bike fast than it is to ride a fast bike slow".

Ther are 2 things that I can think of. 1 is to make sure that you get a master cylinder from a bike with the same number of front discs as yours. Yours has a single disc, so make sure that you get one from a bike with a single disc. The other thing is to make sure that you get one from a bike with t...

I'm assuming that it's the brake light comes on with front lever, but not the rear pedal when you say "rear brake light". Both should work. If it's just the pedal that won't turn on the light, it's probably the switch. It,s ususally right above the pedal, and is pulled on by a spring hooked to the p...

Here in Ontario, according to the Highway Traffic Act, anything with 4 wheels is considered an automobile, and thus this thing would have to have seatbelts, rollover protection, windshield wipers, etc. to be street legal. 3 wheelers, such as the Spyder, the Lehman conversions, sidecar rigs and even ...

Sounds like maybe the ignition coil isn't firing. if I remember correctly, #1&2 cylinders are fired by 1 coil, and #3&4 are fired by the other. It could be just that the coil's come unplugged. Sometimes, 1 bad sparkplug can stop the other from firing.

They really aren't that bad to do: I've done a few sets in my day. The only tool I had to make was a seal driver, and I used a couple of pieces of appropriately-sized ABS pipe from the local building supply store.

Aaaaaaaah. Only 5 more weeks until the MMIC bike show in Toronto.
Dreaming and scheming. Drool, Slobber, Lust....

Reliability wise, they are equal. The big disadvantage of a vtwin is that the rear cylinder does ttend to run hotter due to a lack of airflow, but materials and designs overcome that. The new HD touring bikes have electronics that shut off the rear cylinder at a stop to keep things cooler.

I don't know your location, mgold, but here in Southern Ontario, that is mostly what you'll find in that price range. But, like you said, winter is coming. So be patient and keep looking. there are deals to be had. Kijiji and Craigslist are recommended by many as sources of some good deals