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.
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.
posted by veloandy at 9:29 AM
2 Comments:
what size in MM did you get? I'm trying to get the same thing as you for tuning. Andy from Penrose, CO
Hi Penrose Andy,
14mm :-). Good Luck!
- veloandy
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