Service
SERVICE
PAUL DEAN
Meter reader
Q A couple of months after reading CW's "Crossover Hits" comparison in the September, 2006, issue, I purchased a 2006 Suzuki 650 V-Strom at a great end-of-season price. You guys were right on: This bike is a "most shockingly competent machine." It's also loads of fun and very frugal with regular-grade brontosaurus juice—but perhaps deceptively so. Online sites report that the speedometer is off approximately 8 percent so that an indicated 75 mph, for instance, is really 69 mph. Does this mean that the odometer is also off? When I got 52 mpg from my last tankful, was I really only getting about 48 mpg? And when the odo eventually shows 12,000 miles, will I have actually ridden only 11K? S.R.Lewis Oak Hill, Virginia
A The short-test format we used in that comparison did not require us to calculate speedometer error, so I can’t speak to the accuracy of the 650 V-Strom’s speed and mileage meters. But I do know that speedometer error and odometer error are not always the same. I’ve ridden some bikes on which the speedo was optimistic while the odo was spot-on, and others that were just the opposite. Usually, the two are close in accuracy, but not always.
There are several ways to determine how far off the mark your V-Strom’s instruments might be. The easiest, if you own or can borrow a GPS receiver, is to let Uncle Sam’s satellite system do the work. GPS receivers can display both mph and mileage readouts that are extremely accurate, so comparing their readings to those of your bike tells you what you need to know.
If the GPS method isn’t an option, take a ride to the closest roads in your area that have posted mile markers, which easily allow you to match your odometer readings to their locations. You can also use them to calculate speedometer error. To do that, find a place where you can ride at a steady 60 mph (which is a mile a minute) and time how long it takes you to go from one marker to another; the number of seconds in excess of 60 is exactly the equivalent of the speedometer error. If, for example, it takes 63 seconds at an indicated 60 mph rather than 60 seconds, that’s a 5-percent error (3 ■*60 = .05), meaning the speedo is 95-percent accurate. If you multiply 60 mph by .95, you get 57, the actual speed, which is 3 mph below the speedo reading. Similarly, if it takes 65 seconds to go a mile at 60 mph, those added 5 seconds are equivalent to the speedometer
error, which would be 5 mph. There are, of course, other methods of determining speedometer and odometer error, and these are just two of them.
The little lifter that isn’t
QMy ’95 Kawasaki Voyager XII makes an intermittent upperengine tapping noise. The Voyager has hydraulic lifters, and the noise sounds just like a bad lifter, radiating a metallic tapping noise that comes and goes with no predictable pattern. Sometimes it will do it right from first startup, and sometimes I can ride for 100 miles with no problem. Nothing seems to cause or alleviate the problem. Occasionally, if I crack the throttle hard when the tapping is occurring, the sound will disappear. The bike has only 29,000 miles on the clock. I have tried 20w-50 oil with no change in symptoms. My dealer suggests going to a lighter oil. Any thoughts? Frank Taylor
Whitewater, Wisconsin
Aí don’t think that switching to a lighter oil is the answer. As I described in “H-D mystery valve” in the June edition of Service, hydraulic lifters make a ticking sound when the little check ball in the lifter body fails to maintain a complete seal. So, instead of the lifter sustaining zero valve clearance when the valve is closed, it instead permits enough freeplay to result in a ticking sound as the valve is pushed open by the cam lobe. The culprit can be a small piece of contamination in the oil that has gotten stuck between the ball and its seat, or the leakage could be brought about by a tiny nick or defect in either the ball or the seat.
When the former is the cause, the movement of pressurized oil flowing past the ball and seat sometimes dislodges the contamina-
SMLIV I Zippers F.nd
tion, allowing the lifter to resume normal operation.
But since your Voyager apparently has been afflicted with this problem for hundreds of miles, it’s unlikely that the problem would fix itself in that way. Neither will it selfheal, obviously, if either the ball or the seat is defective. So in either
case, making the noise go away for good is going to call
for replacement of the affected lifter.
Just for the record, the device in your Kawasaki’s engine is not actually a “lifter” or even a “tappet.” Those terms describe components in a valvetrain that are moved by the lobes of a cam and thereby transmit opening motion to the valves, usually via pushrods. But in your Voyager (as well as in several other Japanese motorcycle engines), these devices do not move and are instead called “hydraulic lash adjusters.” They are
stationary in the cylinder head and serve as the pivot points for finger-type cam followers. One end of each follower sits atop the
lash adjuster, the other end contacts the top of the valve stem and the cam lobe pushes downward at about the midway point. The lash adjuster functions just like a lifter in that it uses engine oil pressure to maintain zero valve clearance; but unlike a lifter, it never moves.
Candid Cameron
QA friend of mine is getting into go-kart racing, and he is using a Briggs &
Stratton 5-horsepower engine. When we talked about engine balancing, I told him I think that the rod, piston, rings and wristpin are weighed, then 1/2 of that weight is attached to the crankpin so the crankshaft can be balanced. Am I right about the weight?
Reggie Favre Posted on www.cycleworld.com
A A single-cylinder engine (or a parallel-Twin with a 360-degree firing order) can have its along-the-cylinder-axis shaking force reduced by 50 percent as you describe-that is, place at 180 degrees to the crankpin a counterweight equivalent to 50 percent of the mass of the piston, rings, wristpin and small end of the connecting rod. This causes the imbalance to become a rotating shaking force, half as large as the original and rotating opposite to the crank. V-Eights are balanced at this 50-percent factor, plus a little extra to allow for oil in the crankpins.
On bikes, where the rider feels up-and-down vibration more than fore-and-aft, Singles and parallel'-Twins have often been overbalanced at 65-80 percent because this reduces perceived vibration; actually, it just shifts the shaking to fore-and-aft. This might be worth considering on a kart, which is much more flexy up-and-down than it is fore-and-aft.
-Kevin Cameron
Viva lost wagers
QI answer, have a but question I’ll ask I bet it anyway. you won’t Why are bike manufacturers sometimes so reluctant to acknowledge that they have a problem with a model, even when owners of that bike tell them otherwise? I personally went through this with a bike I owned a couple of years ago, and several of my riding friends have had similar ex-
periences. Most of the time, those manufacturers eventually admitted to the problems and took care of the repairs, but not until after they dragged their feet for too long. Do you have any idea why they so often react this way? Kevin O’Keefe
Downers Grove, Illinois
AI hope you didn’t have a lot of money riding on your bet, Kevin, because you just lost. Before going any farther, though, I need to make something very clear: I don’t work for the manufacturers, I don’t speak for the manufacturers and I am not in the business of defending the manufacturers. I, too, have witnessed quite a few instances in which a company disavowed any knowledge of a problem long after word hit the streets-or the internet-that a problem existed.
But there very often are reasonable explanations for those delays. For starters, a company needs to make certain that a widespread problem does indeed exist. If they sell, say, 5000 of a given model in the U.S. and get reports of a dozen or so with a possible problem, that represents just one-quarter of one-percent of all the units in servicenot exactly reason to hit the panic button.
Still, if enough of those reports seem credible, the company usually will have its tech people investigate the matter, perhaps diagnosing some affected customer bikes to understand the exact nature of the problem. You can’t properly fix something until you know how and why it failed in the first place. If the bike is an import, the tech people here in the U.S. will have ongoing communication with the factory about the problem. The engineers who designed the bike usually are best equipped to come up with a remedy.
When it has been firmly established that a problem exists, solutions have to be designed, implemented and tested; no sense in prescribing a hastily decided fix that doesn’t work or creates yet another problem. Once a remedy has proven effective, it usually requires the installation of new or redesigned components on each affected machine, so those parts have to be manufactured, delivered to the distributor and, eventually, shipped to the dealers. Meanwhile, the distributor must put together a program that informs affected customers of the problem and notifies dealers of their obligation to handle the requisite repairs. The dealers also might have to be educated about the proper procedures for implementing those repairs, requiring the distributor’s tech people to write and deliver service bulletins that contain detailed instructions. And while all this is going on, every step along the way has to be run
through the company’s legal department for constant assessment of any liability exposure that the problem or its proposed remedies might incur.
As you can see, dealing with a motorcycle’s functional problems is not always a quick, simple process for manufacturers or distributors. Are these companies
often slow in responding? Yes. Do they sometimes stonewall owners who report problems? Absolutely. It would be wonderful if such matters could be handled without delays, but that’s not always realistic in today’s world of global manufacturing, departmentalization and the everpresent specter of litigation.
Besides, the biggest aggravation faced by most owners of a motorcycle with an inherent problem is not necessarily the manufacturer’s reluctance to ultimately fix the problem; in far too many cases, it’s the unwillingness of that company’s customer-service representatives to even acknowledge the legitimacy of the problem. In my opinion, that’s the area in which most manufacturers and distributors desperately need improvement.
Love me Tender
QI have 1995 Suzuki RF900R that I bought new in 1997. Since Day One, I’ve had a Battery Tender connected to the battery whenever the bike is parked. Now, 11 years and 15,000 miles later, the original battery is still in the bike and not showing any signs of quitting. Should I be concerned that the battery will just die on me given its age or is there more life left
in it? James Graven
Posted on www.cycleworld.com
A Good Lord, James, are you serious?
Your Suzuki has had the same battery for 11 years and you’re concerned? Batteries just don’t last that long, Battery Tender or not, so the one in your bike belongs in the Electrolyte Hall of Fame. Obviously, you have maintained it wonderfully, adding distilled water when necessary to replace that which is gradually boiled off by the Battery Tender.
Nevertheless, because of its age, your battery could unexpectedly croak at any time. So if you’re really concerned, buy a new one. After all, 11 years.... □
Got a mechanical or technical problem with your beloved ride? Can’t seem to find workable solutions in your area? Or are you eager to learn about a certain aspect of motorcycle design and technology? Maybe we can help. If you think we can, either: 1) Mail a written inquiry, along with your full name, address and phone number, to Cycle World Service, 1499 Monrovia Ave., Newport Beach, CA 92663; 2) fax it to Paul Dean at 949/631-0651; 3) e-mail it to CW1 Dean@aol.com; or 4) log onto www. cycleworld.com, click on the “Contact Us” button, select “CW Service” and enter your question. Don’t write a 10-page essay, but if you’re looking for help in solving a problem, do include enough information to permit a reasonable diagnosis. And please understand that due to the enormous volume of inquiries we receive, we cannot guarantee a reply to every question.
