XS400 Pics

I was feeling like a slacker for my lack of decent pics. I finally got around to taking some pictures of my motorcycle with the euro handlebars. Here they are:

Colortune rocks my socks!

Have you noticed a trend on my blog? My "bike's idle sucks", "my bike's idle is a little better", "my bike runs great, but the idle is still a little sketchy...".

Well, I got sick of all that, and finally broke down and bought a Colortune. Colortune is basically a clear spark plug that lets you see the color of the flame in the combustion chamber. A white flame is lean, a bunsen burner blue flame is perfect, and a yellow flame is rich. I've always wanted one, but they are a little pricey -- like $70-$80 or so. Luckily I found one on ebay for $40! So I bought it, screwed it in, and BOY was my bike lean at idle. Once cylinder was so lean that I at first I could just see the spark and a hint of white...like it was barely firing. After turning the idle richness screws out like 3 or 4 turns, the difference is dramatic! Check it out!







I shutter to think how darned lean it must have been when the engine revs weren't even dropping cleanly. The lessons of all this are: 1) When the idle mixture is just barely rich enough for the RPMs to drop cleanly, it's still WAY too lean. 2) Tracking carburetor settings without a tool like Colortune or an exhaust gas analyzer on each cylinder is darned near impossible for someone with less than sage-like experience. 3) Colortune is one of the best tuning ideas I've ever come across and the best $40 I've ever spent on my motorcycle.

To the makers of Colortune, THANK YOU!

I rode to work today, and it is SO nice now. It is as happy as can be at idle and under load. Whoever thought of Colortune is a genius! I'm so glad that I finally have one.

Rist Canyon

Last night I rode my motorcycle up Rist Canyon to meet my family at some friends' house.

I was amazed how much concentration was necessary to competently drive a motorcycle up a road like Rist Canyon. It is a twisty two-lane road full of such tight bends that the speed limit is around 25MPH. A lot of the turns are difficult to read because they go up steep grades, around sheer rock faces. A lot of the curves have decreasing radii. The road surface itself is uneven often negatively banked through curves.

I'm glad that I have some miles under my belt and that I attended the advanced rider course. Roads like Rist Canyon demand proper technique. I felt all of the negative behaviors that I have read about and tried to condition myself to avoid.

One behavior that I have tried to condition myself against is target fixation. Whenever you focus on an object, you unconsciously head toward it. This is especially noticeable when skiing, mountain biking, and motorcycling. On my ride up Rist Canyon, an oncoming car surprised me when I was banked over on a tight right hand curve. As soon as the car came into my field of vision, my line in the corner subtly twitched toward the car. I consciously looked at the corner's exit. I smoothly completed the curve with a wide safety margin, but it was worrisome to see that my line had been disturbed.

Also once, I started to get set up for entering a curve, worried that the curve would get tighter, so I scrubbed off some more speed before entering. I was very slightly leaned over when I hit the brakes to scrub off speed. Of course, as soon as I hit the brakes, the bike stood straight up. I know this happens. I've felt this happen before. It was still a little startling to feel it so distinctly - especially right before a treacherous curve. Again, I had an ample safety margin and entered the curve and completed it successfully.

Don't get the impression that I was burning up the road, or that I'm a totally clueless rider - I was just humbled by the amount of real world bike handling a ridiculously twisty treacherous mountain road can teach a rider, and I was thankful that I was properly prepared.

When we left to head home, it was dark. Really dark. I followed my wife in the van. I'm glad that I had her in front of me so I could judge safe corner speeds, see to the edge of her headlights, and get any deer plowed off the road before I hit them (actually we didn't see any deer, but hitting a deer on my motorcycle in the mountains at night is one thing that really scares me).

It was also cold - it was 38 degrees in town, and probably closer to 28 up towards the top of the canyon. At first I got really cold, but then my thighs got kind of numb and I started to feel much better. I think my ride to work often feels painfully cold because it's just long enough to get fully chilled, but not long enough to acclimate to the cold or become numb.

So, I don't know -- should I stop riding my motorcycle because it's challenging and difficult, I rarely do it, and I almost never ride long enough to even become acclimated to the cold? Do I want to ride more often on challenging roads to hone my bike handling skills? Do I want a different bike?

I don't know. I *do* enjoy riding. I don't know if I enjoy riding enough to pursue motorcycling as a skill for its own sake. I don't know if I want to assume the risk of riding up and down Rist Canyon just to get better. I basically like my motorcycle, but when I'm underutilized at work, I often check out the motorcycles on Denver's and Fort Collins's craigslist sites. When I want to veg out, I enjoy reading Classic Bike and Performance Bike magazines (although I almost never buy them because they're horrendously expensive).

I mainly got back into motorcycling because my brother-in-law was planning a motorcycle camping trip for his bachelor's party. I don't think this trip is even going to happen. I've thought about taking a little motorcycle tour by myself this summer, but I don't really feel the need to get away from my wife or family -- all I really want to do is spend time with them anyway.

We'll see what comes. In the mean time, I don't have any immidiate plans to sell my motorcycle, but I also drove my car to work today because it's supposed to start dumping snow this afternoon.

More tinkering

I finally ordered new pilot jets and installed them.

My bike's idle was noticibly smoother and more consistent. It also starts A LOT more easily when cold...I pull the choke, barely hit the starter button and it explodes to life. (vs. the old "yadda-da-yadda-da-yadda-da-Brum. yadda-da-yadda-da-yadda-da-Brum-Brum-Pop-Pop. yadda-da-yadda-da-yadda-da..."). I really prefer using the kick start, though.

It's still a little cold blooded. Before it is fully warm, it takes some coaxing to rev up but then it kind of takes off once it hits about 3500 RPM. So, for the first six blocks or so, it is kind of like the engine is a reluctant on/off switch, which makes it hard to ride smoothly.

Once it is warmed up, it runs pretty darned well. When sitting at the very longest traffic lights, the idle does eventually start to decline and I have to blip the throttle, but it's more of an occasional thing. I wonder if it is running rich at idle and it eventually starts to foul the plugs. However, this might not be the case because I currently have the idle mixture screws set to the leanest setting that results in the engine RPMs dropping cleanly, and my plugs look like I have the mixture about right. Maybe I'll check the carb balance once again now that I have the new pilot jets installed.

The headlight dims at idle, and the blinkers blink slowly at idle, so I was also thinking that I might also have a charging problem, causing weak spark at idle. I checked the voltage at 2000 RPM. The manual said it should be around 14-14.5V. I instead got about 13.5 volts, but the high beam was on and the battery was a little low. I charged up the battery and might test it again.

I also checked the charging system components.

• Secondary winding: Good.
• Primary windings: Should be 600 ohms +- 15% @ 68 degrees. All three were actually 900 ohms at 50 degrees. Is this actually a problem? It's clearly not fully broken (not grounded out or fully-open). Is this enough difference to cause a problem? Did the electrical specs change when Yamaha went to a solid-state voltage regulator?
• Rectifier: Good
• Voltage regulator: This is solid state, so it isn't testable or adjustable like the old electro-mechanical unit. If I don't get better voltage readings with the high beam off and the battery fully charged, I might throw in an electromechanical voltage regulator from an old VW bug/bus/type3 and see if that makes a difference

On the open road, it runs beautifully! Last night, after work I met my wife for dinner at some of our friends' house up Rist Canyon. Rist Canyon is a crazily steep, maze-like twisting two lane road in the mountains. My bike just sang all the way up there.