Passes & Canyons Blog

We’re home now from this year’s OFMC ride and while I’m eager to tell you all about the trip, if you’re really hard-core your number one question would be, “how did the Kawi run?”

I can’t give a one- or two-word answer to that. So I won’t.

It ran well. It ran a lot better than it did before Joel worked on it. It did not run perfectly and at times it ran alarmingly. Details:

Ever since this bike has been giving me problems it has been hard to get it going from a start. Once in motion it has run OK, other than dying when I’m coasting to a stop. Those problems are gone. There are new ones.

All Kawasakis, as far as I know, are cold-blooded, meaning you need to fire them up and let them run a few moments before you take off. This one is no different but now it responds more readily to a twist of the throttle than it had been doing. The flip side of that is that when I roll off the throttle the engine does not immediately back off as it should. It continues to run hot for a moment and then fades.

Or worse. At times, though fortunately not all the time, the throttle seemed to stick and every time I would pull in the clutch the engine would race. Imagine pulling up to a red light, pulling in the clutch to stop, and having your engine sound like you’re screaming down the highway. I suspect that at its worst that kind of thing could damage the engine. What I would do is let the clutch out just a tiny bit and hold firmly on the brake. That reduced the screaming. It was probably hell on the clutch.

The rest of the bike was great. I knew there was enough rubber on the back tire for the trip but that I would need a new one when I got home. We actually rode about 400 miles more than I anticipated so let’s say I was definitely correct about the tire, in both ways. When I give the bike back to Joel to put in the needed carb parts and get the bike running the way it should I’ll also have him put on a new tire.

But the bike did me well on the trip and that’s the most important thing. And it was a great trip–can’t wait to tell you about it.

Biker Quote for Today

Life is a big road with lots of signs, so when riding through ruts, don’t complicate your mind, wake up and live life.

I’ve had this ongoing issue with the Concours not running properly, where I’ve used carb cleaner to much benefit but not total. Every time I had ridden it lately it had run better so when I took it out the other day I was hoping for it to perform perfectly.

It did not. In fact, it ran much more poorly than before, needing me to rev the engine before taking off from a stop and dying repeatedly as I came to a stop. At least that settles the question of whether I’m going to be able to address this myself or if I need to enlist professional assistance.

This business of the bike not running properly matters for several reasons. First, I want the bike to run right. That’s a no-brainer.

More pressing, however, is the fact that it is now July and that means the annual OFMC bike trip is coming up in just a few weeks. Having gone through all the hassle with getting this new top bag mounted I was really hoping to take the Kawi this year. I’ve tried to reach Joel, my mechanic, but I suspect he is up in Montana at the family farm for an extended period.

The issue here is that if I can’t take the Kawi, I’ll need to take either the V-Strom or the CB750. And both of them need new rear tires before they can go on an extended trip. So obviously, if I need a new rear tire I need to get cracking on that.

Why not just get new rear tires on both of them if they are in need anyway? Well, regarding the Honda, as little as I ride that I can probably pretty easily put that off until next year. It’s only if I want to take it on a long trip that I’ll need a new tire sooner. But the V-Strom could use a new one now. Except that, to cover my bases, I contacted Ron, my sometimes V-Strom mechanic, to see if he would be available to get a tire on this bike and he is out of the country until August 3. Ouch.

Now it’s getting serious. Frankly, I’d rather just put off new tires till later if there’s any way I can take the Kawi on the trip. So it hinges on Joel. Who I have not heard back from.

Calling Joel: Please get back to me ASAP. Meanwhile, I better find somebody to put a new tire on the V-Strom.

UPDATE
OK, this has been evolving as I’ve been writing. Joel just got back to me and will be back in town in a couple days and can get the Kawi running good before we’re scheduled to leave. In the meantime, I spoke to Bill, who directed me to a shop he and Dennis like for getting new tires put on and I’ll go ahead and get a new rear on the V-Strom just to play it safe.

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycle mechanic only because freakin’ awesome is not an actual job title.

As I try to figure out the problem with my Concours I have visited some forums on the bike. As something of a surprise to me, after owning the bike for more than 20 years, there apparently is a common, known issue with Connies, and that is called hydrolock. One thing I read the guy said the two main causes for the deaths of the Concours are crashes and hydrolock.

So what the heck is hydrolock, and what causes it? Let me tell you a little about the Concours.

On my Honda CB750 Custom the gas petcock has three positions: On, Res, and Off. Pretty simple. On the Concours there are also three positions: On, Res, and Prime. Prime allows gas to trickle into the cylinders. I have never understood the purpose of Prime, but I do know from experience what can happen if you leave the petcock in that position.

Probably within the first year after I bought the bike I had cause to go to reserve. After getting gas, without looking at the markings, I pushed the lever all the way in the other direction. That’s what I would do on the Honda. All the way one way was On, all the way the other way was Res, and in the middle was Off.

That’s not how it is on the Concours. On the Connie, On is the middle position. Switching to reserve, if you go the correct direction you move to reserve. If you go the wrong direction you go to prime. And apparently the bike will run on prime.

But when you stop, if you leave it on prime it will allow gas to trickle into the cylinders but because it is not getting burned it just seeps past the rings into the oil pan. And the bike does not run well with gas mixed with the oil. It was after the second time I did this that I figured it out. And apparently I’m nowhere near the only Concours owner who has made this mistake over the years, although from most of the discussion of hydrolock that I’ve seen the larger problem is failure of the petcock, not carelessness.

Well, all these years, I thought the only issue with inadvertently switching to prime was the engine not running well and that the solution was to dump the oil/gas mixture and put in new oil. That has always worked in the past. So this time, when I apparently had a brain fart and pushed the petcock to the wrong position I assumed changing the oil would solve the problem.

And it sort of did solve the problem. I could now fire the bike up and ride away on it, but it doesn’t run well at first. Which is what brings me to where I am now.

So trying to figure this out I go looking and for the first time I start seeing all this discussion of hydrolock. Hydrolock occurs when there is fluid in the cylinder and you fire the bike up. On the up stroke the cylinder is compressing the fuel/air mixture. Fluid does not compress as well as gas (as in oxygen, not gasoline). And what can result is that the connecting rod that links the cylinder head to the crankshaft gets bent. Not good; not at all.

Is this my problem? I’m still not sure, though I sure hope not. I need to find out one crucial thing. With all the discussion I’ve read I still haven’t seen definitively whether the bike will still run after a hydrolock event. I get the idea it won’t, and if that’s the case then that’s not my issue because my bike does run.

Judy says just call Joel and let him figure it out; that’s the purpose of money and we have money. To which my response is that the only thing worse than doing something stupid is having to pay a bunch of money to correct for your stupidity. But unless I get real smart real soon I guess that’s exactly what I’m going to have to do.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if one area of your house (other then the garage) is decorated in a motorcycle motif.

OK, me, the non-mechanic, trying to trouble-shoot my Concours. I looked into what would happen if you had too much oil in the machine and my first lead was to the air intake, which is where excess oil presumably would be pushed out. Is the air filter saturated with oil?

First I had to figure out how to get to the air filter. I was going to change the spark plugs on this bike once but then I found that to do that I would have had to lift the gas tank. To do that would have required sealing off the gas line and who knows what else. I left it for Joel to do once I finally got around to having him do a tune-up. Would I need to lift the tank to get to the air filter?

Happily, the answer was no. I have a shop manual and looking in there I found that all I had to do was remove the left side panel, then take out two screws to remove the plate to get to the filter. Easy enough. So I pulled out the filter and found myself with a definite maybe.

The thing is, I don’t know what a new Connie air filter should look and feel like. This thing, seen in the photo, seemed to be a bit oily, but not so much as to be anything close to saturated. Is that normal? Plus, there was certainly no oily residue in the air box.

The only thing I know to do is take it over to Vickery and ask them if this is how it should be, and if they have one in stock, compare it to a new one. It is Sunday as I’m writing this so it will be Tuesday before I can do that. Nothing to do but wait.

If this proves to be the answer it will be a godsend. Because if it is not the answer I have no idea what to look for next. Of course I can always give Joel a call but man, I’ve really been giving him a bunch of my money lately. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

A little later: Nope, I did some more reading in my shop manual and it says to lightly coat a new air filter with oil. I guess my next move will be to go to the Concours Owner’s Group forum and see if I can find answers there.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you have at least one ashtray that is actually a motorcycle part.

We had some fabulous weather to start off February so I got out on all three bikes right away.

Of the two bikes I’ve recently had issues with the situations varied. The V-Strom, which I put a new battery into, started and ran just great. It still drips something but that is a longstanding issue that I’ll just continue to live with.

The Concours is a different matter. It fired right up and I ran it a good while to make sure it was warm. That bike has always needed to warm up before heading out.

Previously I had apparently left the reserve lever in the Prime position, an error that led to gas trickling into the cylinders and seeping past into the oil pan. In that state the bike wouldn’t run and I ended up making a real mess changing the oil. And once it was changed, although the bike fired up and ran, it didn’t initially run well. I rode around the neighborhood to be sure it didn’t crap out on me a long way from home, but eventually it did fine.

Well, same thing this time. I pulled out of the driveway and there was very little power. Again I rode around the neighborhood until it seemed to be doing OK and then I took off. This time, however, in two instances when I was coasting downhill and not revving the throttle at all the engine died. Now, it started back up right off when I pushed the starter button but this bike has never just died on me before. For the rest of the ride, anytime I was slowing down I made sure to give it a little more gas so it would not die. That’s a pain.

Maybe the business with dying could be remedied by just cranking up the idle speed a bit, I don’t know. But what the heck is the issue with the poor running in the beginning? Could there still be gas in the oil? Certainly not much–would just a tiny bit have that effect? Is there some other issue? I’m convinced that my mechanic put too much oil in when he changed it back in June. Could that have blown out a seal? What happens if a seal is blown? I just don’t know the answer to these kinds of questions. I need to do research.

Of course I could change the oil again–it certainly helped to change it before. I hate to do that because motorcycle oil is not cheap and changing oil on this bike is not a simple operation. And if I did that and it still was not running right, then what?

I just did a quick Google search and it appears I ought to check the air filter to see if excess oil has been through out that way. Now I need to look into how I get to the air filter. Sigh. I’ll let you know what happens.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: Disassembling the motorcycle is done out of pleasure rather than need.

Joel, my mechanic, came by and checked out the V-Strom, then went and got his volt meter out of the truck. The battery was gone.

I had intended to look at my records and see when I last replaced the battery but had not done so. I looked then and found out that amazingly, this was the battery that came with the bike when I bought it in 2014. Wow.

So the charge I thought I gave it was of no use. There was enough to turn on the lights and try to turn the starter but with the reading Joel got he was surprised it could even do that.

A couple days later I got out and bought a new battery and once I got it installed (more about that in a moment) I turned the key and pushed the starter button . . . and it didn’t want to start. At first. Then it did. OK, that’s good.

Our road was still covered in ice so I couldn’t take it for a ride but on Wednesday things were clear and I figured I’d head out. I pushed the starter and it didn’t want to start. And then it did. This is not instilling me with confidence.

I was cautious about getting far from home but as I rode it and it continued to run, and in fact to run better, I did eventually take it out for a real spin. And when I got home I turned it off, opened the garage, moved Judy’s car, and then started it again to ride it in. This time it fired right up. So at this point I’m just going to keep a wary eye on it.

Besides that, while it had previously seemed like there was a fuel line leak or something, the paper I had underneath it showed no sign of a drip. Joel had checked what was on the floor of the garage and said it appeared to be coolant, not oil or gas. All in all he told me to put in a new battery and then let him know how it did and whether other problems persisted. We’ll see how that goes.

As for putting in the new battery, what a pain. Taking the old one out had been easy, just back out the bolts and lift it out. Why couldn’t putting a new one in be so simple.

The first problem was that the cable ends that connect to the battery were form-fitted to nest over the posts, but the new battery had larger posts and no nesting was going to happen. If I could have reached the vise with the cables I would have flattened them out but that was not possible, so I took pliers and bent them enough to get the metal in contact.

Next, the bolts were not long enough to reach down and thread into the nuts. I had some longer bolts but when I tried using them they were too long and I couldn’t get them tight. So I tore off some stiff paper and stuck that in the space below the bolts, to elevate the bolts, and finally was able to thread the bolts into the nuts and tighten them up. What a pain, but I’ve had to do that before so it didn’t require any new creativity.

So the V-Strom is running again. But now I’m going to be nervous every time I ride it for awhile until it proves itself trustworthy again. And what the heck is the deal with this leak and the fuel?

Biker Quote for Today

The keys to success: Waking up in the morning. Going to bed at night. Riding a motorcycle in between.

Somebody clue me in here if you know something I don’t.

I went riding with the RMMRC Tuesday, the standard ride out to Kiowa to Patty Ann’s. Bob was leading, which is something he has done many times.

So we headed out Parker Road, which is about six lanes. We were in the left lane. Bob was in the lead, Kim was on her Spyder, Val came next on her KTM, and I was behind her.

We always ride in staggered formation and in my experience and understanding, the leader should take the left position and everyone following staggers, although with the Spyder you sometimes see those take the center, so whoever is behind them gets to choose either side.

So Bob settled in the right hand position. Huh? Kim did stagger to the left on her Spyder so Val was right and I was left. That was fine, but why was Bob to the right? Is there some protocol that on a multi-lane highway the leader takes the position where they can see clearly in the adjacent lane? Or something else like that that I’m not aware of?

Once we got onto the two-lane Bob took the spot on the left, and Kim shifted and the rest of us did, too. So what the heck was he doing on the right previously? Yes, of course–I should just ask him. I’m just hesitant to appear to be criticizing someone and there wasn’t any time he and I were alone together. Maybe I’ll have the chance some other time.

On another subject, my V-Strom crapped out on me that day. I was going to ride it and I geared up and rolled it out and it would not start. It ran fine the last time I rode it a couple weeks ago.

But it appeared to be completely out of gas. Completely. How does that happen, except if you have a leak. And there was a new drip spot on the garage floor underneath it, though not particularly big. Anyway, the engine would turn over briefly but it would not catch and then it would quit turning over.

I had just a little gas in a can and I put that in but that didn’t help. The way it would try and then die I thought maybe the battery was failing so I put it on a charge and the next day I got more gas. I put that in and then with plenty of gas and good charge I tried again. The very same things happened. Wow, now I really have no idea what the matter is, although whatever else it may be it does seem I have a gas leak.

I put some paper under the bike to catch the drip and see how much it really is dripping and I called Joel, my mechanic. I’ve been keeping Joel busy. I have three bikes and this is the third one I have turned over to him in the last six months. We’ll see. I’ll let you know.

Biker Quote for Today

Hobby is when you buy a new bike. Passion is when you keep the old one running.

December 24 was very warm and the ice had finally melted off our street so I wanted to take the Kawi for a spin. I geared up, rolled the bike out and started it, and when it was warmed up I got on and headed out.

I got about 10 feet out of our driveway. Then the engine died. I started it again and tried to move forward and it died again. I tried a number of times. Finally I rolled it backward to where I could go forward into the driveway, revved it up, and managed to get right back where I had started from a few minutes earlier. What the heck is the matter?

I’ve been riding this bike for 21 years now and I’ve got experience with it. This seemed similar to something I had encountered a long time ago. You have to understand the Reserve lever on this bike. It has three positions: On, Reserve, and Prime. Normally you run on On, flip to Reserve when necessary, and I have never really known what you would use Prime for. But I know what happens if you move that lever to Prime. It drips gas into the cylinder and if the bike is not running it will continue to drip and that gas will seep past the valves into the oil pan. Motorcycles do not run well when you have gas mixed with the oil.

Yes I know that from experience. And this seemed to be acting very much the same way it did when I inadvertently left the lever in the Prime position. So how to confirm this diagnosis? Change the oil. That’s a major pain on this bike because you have to remove some of the bodywork to do it. Guess how I spent a big chunk of my day on December 24.

Of course it wasn’t all that straightforward. Things have to go wrong, don’t they.

I had wondered since I had the bike in for a tune-up whether my mechanic had put too much oil in. Looking at the sight glass all I had ever been able to see was black. The Concours is supposed to take a little less than one gallon of oil so I knew if what I drained out was too much to fit into a gallon jug that there was an issue. But that could happen either from over-filling or gas dripping in with the oil. Not sure which it was but I definitely couldn’t get it all into a one-gallon jug. And once it was drained I could see into the sight glass–it was no longer just black.

So I put new oil in, checking repeatedly as I poured to see when the sight glass showed it was enough. But I must not have looked soon enough; it always looked the same and I kept pouring oil in. When I concluded this had to be too much I looked hard at the sight glass and concluded that it was full of clear, clean oil. I had put too much in.

I needed to drain some out, but I didn’t want to drain it all and I didn’t have anything clean of the right size to catch it all. So I got a glass jar and tried to drain some into the jar without spilling a whole bunch. I was not successful. It didn’t all pour out but I had really big mess on my hands. Things have to go wrong, don’t they?

At this point I was sure I had drained enough but the sight glass still showed full. So I started the bike and ran it for about 30 seconds and then let it settle. Hallelujah, it was right where it needed to be, and I could clearly see the oil level.

Then I cleaned up this entire mess. Finally I started the bike. It started and ran beautifully. I got on and eased out of the driveway. It ran beautifully. I went just around the block and it ran great so I parked it. That’s all the riding I did that day.

So I guess I must have screwed up. I knew the bike was nearing Reserve last time I rode it so I must have turned that lever the wrong way. And while I already knew what happens when you do that, I’ve just had my memory refreshed.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you have a heater in your garage so you can work on your bike(s) when it’s cold.