WOOOHOO First day out!!

Went and wrote my M1 this morning, got insurance and plates. First 100km is on the bike, YAY what a fun ride. Only thing that kinda sucks, is i get massive vibration from the engine through the handlebars. Would gloves help this? She runs at 5k rpm doin 85 km/h in 5th.

Overall the bike ran awesome!! hauled my 300 pound tail up a 45 degree, 300 meter grade without downshifting, I was quite impressed!

Any suggestions for the vibration?

 

As Chuck Maggione would say "Feels So Good"!

Vibrations - what do they correlate with? At a certain speed?

Are the wheels balanced?

 

It's definately not a wheel balance thing, it's a buzzing from the engine, it's worse at 3-5k rpm, could just be somethin i have to live with hahah

 

pump you bars full of silicon, if they are the hollow type.

 

I'm pretty sure they are hollow, thanx wiz!

 

One other thing that i noticed, after about 70 km's, the bike started to run a bit bad, idle was real low, seems to be missing here and there. I did put in half a bottle of seafoam to 10L of gas.

Would the seafoam be causeing it to run a bit worse?

I'll check the plugs tomorrow morning before goin out and report what they look like here. It's possible i've got her set a touch lean, but it was running awesome before the seafoam. Then again, this is the first i've had her out to stretch her legs since i bought her so..

Any thoughts?

 

I don't think it will be happy with that much seafoam in the tank. (but it's good for cleaning the carbs)

If you can, run it down to reserve and fill with fresh gas.

Then pull the plugs and clean them (or simply replace them)

Fire it up and see if you are back on happy street.

 

Yep, will do. I've been reading that seafoam isn't as combustable as gas so it may run a bit worse if the concentration is too strong, which i could have made it. I'll run through this tank tomorrow (hopefully, this thing is good on gas) And let eveyone know how it works out.

 

Good idea Wiz >> Silicone in the bars.

Mine has a couple loose weights inside the bars just under the grips with rubber grommets at the ends, but the silicone would probably be helpful in the middle.

I also just put a new set of grips on >> Paid a whopping $3.98 for them off the clearance table. There are LOTS of different flavors to try and they are the only link to transmit the vibrations to your hands.

We'll see how I like them but I can't go wrong for the price.

 

Today I got that tank of seafoam all ran out and filled her up. It is running better now. Got a bit over 200km put on her today, over 100 yesterday. Gunna pull the plugs tomorrow and see how they look, i think it may be running a touch lean, so i need to confirm.

BUT DAMN what fun couple days lol

 

gosh i want my cycle endorsement soo much, im in a bad situation too, he needs 4 people to host the class, he has 3, and the class starts on the 12th, i hope there is a fourth

 

So i pulled the plugs this morning and found blinding white ceramic... grrr so i gave the pilots a 1/4 turn hopeing they'd be black and i'm in the 1/4 turn zone of sweetness. Went out for a quick 10km ride, coming back in the drive way i did a 10 second 5k rpm plug chop in 2nd. Pulled the plugs and they're not much different. Left side had tiny black spots, right side was starting to show a touch of tan at the tip of the ceramic.

Now the left side with the spots was running quite a bit hotter than the right side, i could pull the plugs without burning my fingers easier than the left side. Mind you both were fricken hot but the left was hotter. Spotting tells me preignition, but this is the first time i've seen it on the plugs.

I've got the pilot screws out 3-1/2 turns, so i'm thinkin i'm gunna have to just turn those screws out till i get a nice colour till winter when i can throughly clean them.

I know the pilot screws don't do much for anythign over 3k rpm, but the bike has stayed at the same sealevel since new (gotta love Canda's Used Vehicle Information Kits) so i'm pretty sure without looking that the jets are all orginal size (bad to assume i know)

Any other thoughts except that i need to go through the carbs

I really don't wanna have to pull them till winter (especially when i'm on a weeks holiday, and would rather ride)

 

Interesting note: I have (2) 550 Secas, and replaced the stock handlebars on both. The stock bar on the '83 had the ends filled with some sort of epoxy and weight, the '81 was just a standard tubular bar. Methinks Yamaha was fighting "buzziness" thru the bar on the 550's as well? Oh, and I personally prefer the "old-school" Gran Tourismo style grips, great vibration insulators. As for the apparent lean condition, you might want to check the other components of your fuel delivery system...

 

Seems to me if there was any kind of noticable issue with the non-carb part of the fuel delivery system, slightly lean would be the least of his worries.

KrS14: My bike was doing much the same thing, lean-wise. The little ports in the carb throats (head side, not airbox side) where the pilot jets feed gas in were clogged on mine. Don't know if that helps, but it took care of my issues. I just poked around in them with a single strand from a piece of electrical wire I found in the garage. Small amount of goop came out, but then when I sprayed carb cleaner up into the pilot circuit, it actually came out the port instead of coming out under my finger blocking the mix-screw hole, lol.

 

On a side note, I get about 210km when I hit reserve from completely full. I'm not too sure on how much gas is left when hitting reserve, or how big the tank is (hard to find concrete specs on my year/model) so i'm not sure on the mileage. I'd guess about 50mpg

Does that sound about right for my 400? I thought it would be higher.

 

Confirmed 50 mpg or 4.73L/100km. I guess i have to realize as well, that the bike is carrying my 300 pounds around hahahah so it's gunna be a bit less than a skinny guy gets