82 650 Max First Bike (Warning: Novel)

Alright. Had two diaphragms that did not appreciate all the assembly and disassembly over the past few months. Cylinders 2 and 4. This made the bike seem really sluggish on the highway.

I thought it was normal, but ordered 4 jbm diaphragms just to fix the split diaphragm rings that were loosely held in place by some gray slicone.

About 50 minutes later, all four installed... The night before I am to take the bike on a 140 mile ride to a timeshare.

The ride was uneventful, but whoa the difference on the highway! I wore my summer gear, which was a mistake. 70% of the ride was in rain at about 36 to 50 degrees. In mesh textile gear, it was brutal.

All of the handling work paid off, since I was able to very easily alternate tucking fingers, whole hands, etc where they wouldn't go numb. Whole trip took about 4 hours including stopping to find shelter during periods of blinding rain and stops to revive hands and feet. Note to self: get fall gear or better under/over layers.

Fuel economy started poor (as it seems to once you open carbs) but eventually snuck back up to 35-40mpg.

The only problem the bike experienced is the speedo is now howling like an old wartime ambulance siren, but half broken. I did bring a 10mm and 12mm wrench and JIS driver. Going to try grease and maybe flipping the cable end to end.

 

Just a couple things:
It took five hours to stop shivering and feeling cold. Probably got pretty close to hypothermia. Not recommended.

I rode back on Saturday. I realized that all the things I actually wanted to do were at home. Sitting idly on vacation was driving me crazy. I am terrible at vacations.

The speedometer just needed some lube. I used my favorite, Super Lube PTFE Silicone grease. Squeezed a healthy dollop into the cable guide, threaded the cable through, used my fingers to gently pack the base of the speedometer, re-tightened the cable. After ~1 mile, a blissfully silent (and completely stabilized reading) speedometer was reborn!

Total: 317.31 miles
Total consumption: 8.547 gal (US)
Avg. Economy: 37.125mpg (US)



Can you guess where I swapped the mains back to 110s?

This is for almost entirely highway riding (maybe 15 miles surface road 35-45mph) between an elevation of 4500ft ASL and 7800ft ASL. The pilots are still fat, considering only the slightest choke is required to start the bike on 38F weather from dead cold. Between slight choke and full choke, max RPM is maybe 1500 to 2000 when warming. Again, pilots are fat. Warm idle is set to ~1100. Valvoline 20W-50 oil (conventional).

Verified mains are good if not slightly rich for elevation. At 5400ft ASL, 70mph, 5th gear, incline, throttle almost pinned, as soon as any enrichment is added, the bike stumbles massively. Factory needles, brand new JBM diaphragms, 110 mains. This represents a heavy load, mid-high RPM, full main jet scenario. It was nice to be able and test these things I have been reading about on a long ride where the engine was guaranteed to be at full operating, equilibrium temperature.

Overall, the ride on Friday was miserable. However, the return trip on Saturday was incredible. While I was trying to warm up at the Bear Lake Chevron on the night of the 20th, a local asked which way I had come in. When I divulged that I had come in from Logan Canyon via Hwy 89, he informed me that I had gone through >100 curves on the way. I did not appreciate this on that evening, since I was mostly frozen, everything hurt from exposure, and I was soaked in cold road water.

However, in the passing and riding on Saturday.... that fact did not escape me. That road is motorcycle bliss. Not only is the scenery beautiful, it's a massive entanglement of switchbacks. I am by no means an accomplished, skilled, or experienced rider. Some parts of this road had me consciously aware of, and challenging, my SRIs. Avoiding fixation, corner commitment (esp. in blind turns of unknown radius!) and braking discipline were all tested on the way down.

This doesn't even begin to show all the tight S-bends that happen along the way (scale becomes an issue).


I learned a massive amount about my own physiological and psychological limits during this trip. I have never thought while traveling by car, "I need to find shelter," or, "is my motor control and mental acuity being dulled by exposure?"

I also better understand the powerband now. I used to think these bikes were not very capable highway cruisers. Au contraire! I was just riding it wrong! On the way back, I was still riding it wrong. At 70 on an incline, there is plenty of room to downshift to 4th. In fifth, at 75 (not as much when lower, still too low in the revs), just twist the throttle even a little, and feel it go.

I fell in love all over again on this ride. This tired, neglected, abused machine never let me down. Despite my poor decision-making, lack of preparedness, bull-headed stubbornness to prove something to myself (probably I wanted to see if the bike would fail, or if I had done something to ruin it) it just worked. It just worked and it kept begging for more. I still want to revisit a sync, colortune, sync process since I wasn't able to do that between putting diaphragms in 12 hours before going to work then riding out the next morning.

I still don't know what color I want to paint it. That is wrecking me inside. Winter is coming, and I need to know what banner (color) I will fly.

If I go red, maybe metallic a few shades darker than factory and add a light orange pearl to the clear for a highlight in the sun.

If dark metallic green, a turquoise or fern pearl for a highlight in direct sun.

Dark, metallic grey? I could add a small dose of dark purple pearl, or perhaps an 'ice' pearl for the highlight effect?

What about a deep, metallic blue? Add a touch of 'ice' or light blue pearl and get something like this. That color is stunning.

 

Well thank you for answering an old muffler question for me....Is there a baffle inside a 1981 XJ750 muffler(or Not), does it come stock with fiberglass, if not could I add it to quiet things down. Because a prior owner, added pods, diff jets, I just figured he did the "heay let's make it louder" baffle removal, and welded em shut. (Thanks)
I have not attempted removing the black caps from inside the "bell" end. Looks like there are 3 spot welds. I was hoping simply removing the screw would allow me to pop em out and see if the last "rube Goldberg" removed the baffles.