Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Ok, the new bike has developed a bit of an issue with legal speeds (yes, please leave all jokes at the door ).

Basically, I can't pot around smoothly doing 20, 30, 40km/h - the bike just refuses to behave. Imagine the feeling you get in a car or on a bike if you don't pull the clutch in when you're coming to a stop... well that feeling exists on my bike up to about 4,000RPM, whether I'm accelerating, maintaining speed or slowing down.

This only occurs while the gears are engaged... it can quite happily coast when the clutch is in. So that sorta suggests to me a fuelling issue. Doesn't smell rich from the exhaust, though it's not lean either (winding on the choke made it worse, not better). Chain seems fine (it's only 8,000km old), so I'm just wondering what you guys think it might be?

It's time to balance the carbs

Is it a hunting/surging type feeling ????
It may be fueling or it may be that your chain is over tight and/or stretched in sections rather than evenly over the whole chain.

Rossi wrote:It's time to balance the carbs

Already!?! It's only done 2000 clicks since it's last service, and just under 9000 since new. How often do I have to do it? Might be trading sooner than I thought, if I have to balance the carbs every 3 weeks.

mfzx6r wrote:Is it a hunting/surging type feeling ????
It may be fueling or it may be that your chain is over tight and/or stretched in sections rather than evenly over the whole chain.

More like a running out of fuel feeling... but similar, I suppose. The chain seems to be evenly worn, from what I can tell, and play seems to be within spec too.

Just because you had it serviced does not mean the carbs would have been balanced........unless like me you do it yourself.

As I have said before, the only way to know it s done right is to do it yourself

Buy a Honda.....Did I say that out load

Rossi wrote:Just because you had it serviced does not mean the carbs would have been balanced........unless like me you do it yourself.

As I have said before, the only way to know it s done right is to do it yourself

Wot 'e sed... get yerself a set of vacuum gauges, a low-range torque wrench, a set of feeler gauges and a magnet and, provided you have a socket/hex/screwdriver set, your bike pretty much never has to see the inside of a workshop ever again.

You'll save thousands.

could it be the coils....sounds a little like what happended to ty a while back ??

and i have a good mechanic balance my carbs and check the valves every 10K, only costs me about $200-240 depending.

Mark wrote:Buy a Honda.....Did I say that out load

After how long we spent in you garage today getting the 'blade running I think you'd better take that comment back hehehehehe

Yes, you are right I TAKE IT BACK!!!!

if it is a fuelling issue, it would be a problem in the pilot circuit and/or float circuit


find out if the carbs were balanced on its most recent service, good chance it was not done. also find out if the spark plugs are fresh. if you rev the bike right out, does it still have the same symptom if you go straight back to cruising at 4k?


also, maybe try running the bike in the troubled rev range for a little while, then kill the motor at the same time as pulling the clutch in and perform a roadside sparkplug-ectamy its colour would indicate any fuelling issues



or, maybe just take it back to your mechanic and ask them why its running like ass, maybe they left a stick coil only half plugged in... my bike was like that when i got it and it had only just been serviced by a very 'reputable' tuning house in melbourne that loves to put stickers all over peoples bikes

Okies... well it'll have to take a trip to the mechanic, for sure. It ain't getting any better.

As an indication, how often would you be balancing carbs and tuning on this bike?

for 98/99 zx9r's the manual says to check carb sychronisation every 12000km

as phil said sounds similar to my recent troubles.
The coils were within spec, but once replaced the problem went away.
So though they were within spec they were off enough to cause trouble. Worth looking into.
ty