carb question

[STEPPENWOLF]

Not your normal question....'80 SG..77000 miles,carbs have never been cleaned or taken apart...I read soo many posts about carb problems and rejetting...what am I doing right to keep them humming? I just run cheap regular gas,used some Sea Foam last year for the first time,sure did smoke for about five minutes...nothing on the engine has been touched,original clutch,second gear etc..so am I on borrowed time or since I am the only owner since day one the bike likes me.

[bikerphil]

Most carb problems start with letting the bike sit for years with gas in it. Obviously, you've taken good care of it. As for 2nd gear and such, consider yourself lucky, or you baby it while riding. I hope you knocked on wood before starting this thread!

[3Phase]

What Phil said

and keep up the good work! You've taken better care of your bike than some folks' that were run to death. The original owner of my XS launched it like a proverbial rocket to work at Rocketdyne every day for twenty years. They're great bikes but even Yamaha's excellent engineering and the mighty XS1100 begin to show a little fatigue after a couple of decades of commuting every day up and down a twisty canyon road set on a grade that goes up close to 2,000 feet in elevation in about a mile.

For some peculiar reason I have to replace the clutch this week instead of making yet-another thousand-mile road trip....
<chuckling>

Click for Flickr Map


If you have Google Earth here is the KML file.

The second owner rode it hard and put it away wet into 7 or 8 years of storage. Personally, I think it's a miracle my poor bike even starts and runs at all but I really am glad to read that you're enjoying a relatively trouble-free OEE (Original Owner Experience).



Regards,

Scott

[oldyam80sg]

You are not alone as far as being lucky with the carbs.The last time my carbs were touched was back in the late 80's.That's when a mechanic put one of those carb re jetting kits in because i went to a Kerker exhaust and installed individual air filters.Performance back then was great.My SG was problem free for years,then when i came back home from Germany,work did not allow me enough time to properly store it for the winter.All it took was 5 months of sitting with gas left untouched in the tank to begin the problems.Bike did not want to crank,brakes squealed etc.If it was not for this site,i probably would have scrapped the bike which i was not looking forward to.

[STEPPENWOLF]

Well I have never winterized my bike,try and keep riding year round. Have pulled the tank a few times and cleaned it and the petcock filters.I don't ride it hard but just a steady hand....from things I have read it looks like letting them sit is about the worst thing you can do to the bike.I take care of it but not to extremes,just fluid changes as needed.

[jeffe]

You said that you don't winterize. My concern is if you don't ride every couple of weeks that even sitting that short of a time could gum up the carbs. The guy that I have work on mine when it is either something I don't feel comfortable working on[Like carbs] or because of my lack of time, says that todays gas will start to go bad in a couple of weeks. He recomends the use of a product like Stabil if the bike is going to sit for even a couple weeks. He gets lots of work from bikes that just need a basic carb cleaning done and have only been sitting for a month or so. He is someone that I trust and is actually a good mechanic. He did a thourough cleaning and go thru on the carbs of my 78 when I got it four years ago. Other than a float that sprung a leak I have had no carb problems at all. I run a few ounces of Seafoam thru it about once a month and put Stabil it a the proper rate when I store the bike. I know every one has a differnent opion on the next thing. I put the Stabil in the tank first, fill up the tank, run a couple of miles and park it with out draining the gas from the carbs. I did the same thing with my 650 Seca, the little brother of our XS11's and never had ANY carb probelems in over 100,000 miles. You saw at the SWOKZ rally that my old 78 still runs pretty good.

[STEPPENWOLF]

Hey Jeff,your bike sounded and ran good for sure.I guess I get out enough in the winter to keep things working.Usually it sits for no more than two weeks in february while I am out of town.I guess luck plays a role in these things
Look for a pm......