Alright, that's it! I have a few things to say here. This reminds me of my Dad who helped me buy our 83 Shadow. He kept buying stuff like windshields and saddlebags for it. I just wanted him to just keep it naked and ride it. The idea was that I would pay for part and he would pay the other part. Eventually, it got to the point that I wanted to pay my half in order to keep him from messing with the bike. For that reason, amongst others, he decided to put the bike in his name and not let me pay for it. Funny thing is that he doesn't even have his learner's permit yet, much less his license, and he's in his mid 60's
.
Anyway, now the shoe is on the other foot. I am entertaining the idea of tinkering and talking about physics and theory, you know, all that interesting stuff, and now I am being told, especially by Dave, to just forget about it and ride. Do x, y, and z, and ride--- we're not going to talk about the rest. Well... considering that I have been laying around the house with a cold recovering from my mildly injured knee in the mildly chilly, wet November weather, does it surprise you that I am not riding? For goodness sakes, I just learned that I am off from work over this cold. I work at a restaurant, and I am not allowed to work with a contagious disease. Ehhh... What the heck, I was only going to work 2 days this week anyway. I usually get 3 days and around 10 hours per week anyway, and that's at minimum wage. Yeah, It sucks.
The point is that thinking about tinkering and theory is kinda fun and keeps the boredom away. I'm used to it. I have considered mechanical engineering often because of it. It's also encouraging to think that there is something to be done to my bike. If it was all said and done, wouldn't that be a bit boring? If you are wondering why I ask so many questions, it is because that is my nature. When I was in college, I used to ask a lot of questions, even to the point of tiring the professors and annoying the students. To beat all, many of my questions were not on the test, if you know what I mean.
I guess I liked learning or something of that sort.
This is a forum, where people talk about stuff. If anything, I would think that I would help keep this forum alive. I'm sorry if I am a problem here.
Furthermore, there are certain reasons I ask some of the questions I do. First, with A/F ratios, I want my bike at its optimum. I don't really want to go around polluting the environment and getting crappy gas mileage just to squeeze that extra bit of torque from running rich. That's why I asked that question. As far as Kevlar clutches are concerned, you need to understand my situation. For one thing, the Savage clutch, as we all know, is naturally weak and prone to occasional slippage. For another thing, I
will need to open the case sometime soon in order to replace the bad neutral switch, which I have lived with so far. The most important thing that I must do is check the cam chain tensioner to make sure the engine is not preparing to grenade itself
. While I have the exhaust off and the case open, I have the opportunity to work on the clutch. I can either shim it, put in extra plates, kevlar it, change the rod, do something else, or do nothing at all.
I appreciate your take on carb tuning, It's not quite the same old stuff. Some good ideas, like the Allen screws. Those Phillips screws can sure be a pain.
As far as surging is concerned, when its good and warm, I don't notice much of a problem. I assume surging is that "Oh no, I'm running out of gas" feeling. Ya might call it "missing"? Or am I mistaken?
What you describe reminds me of what I call "lurching," where you have a manual transmission machine (car, bike, or whatever) with a short stroke and very short gearing that yanks you back and forth in the lower gears (or med-high gears in low speed machines). I don't think the Savage ever has that problem with the nature of its engine and its gearing. Those little 250s, though, lurch like the dickens, even the EFI ones. Even my EFI Subaru can do that
Gas engines in general seem terrible for it. Diesels don't seem quite as bad for it. Maybe it's the heavier flywheel smoothing things out?
There is the idea put out sometimes that one needs a lower first gear for low speed maneuvers. Turns out that when you get short gearing like that the 250 class uses, you're slipping the clutch just to keep it from jerking you around. Whereas the bigger bikes use the friction zone to slow down and stay smooth. There's really no escape from the friction zone. Of course, that's a discussion for another thread.
Before I joined this forum, I was a lurker. I would visit various forums to gather opinions on various things, but I would never join them. If I remember correctly, I found this forum and went through some of the threads before I ever bought my Savage. If I wanted to go through the same ol'--same ol'. I could have simply read what was already posted. Now there was a particular reason why I joined this forum-- I was having a technical problem and needed help-- but I have found this forum to be pretty fun
. There are times when I can't wait to see the next reply
.
Not wanting to talk about things is a bad sign for a forum. Eventually, people will decide there is nothing left worthwhile to talk about, and then the forum will die
. Imagine, nothin' left but a bunch of decade old threads about a simple little motorcycle that was all said and done
.
Now, if I'm wasting everyone's time and missing an experiential learning lesson by not just guessing at everything-- if I'm just beating a dead horse-- maybe I should just take what I know and just tinker with it and waste money until I figure something out. After all, that's the old fashioned way
. Maybe I'm spoiling all the fun by asking for others' opinions. Maybe I should have done it all by myself
Makes me wonder sometimes, if you know what I mean
Pages: 
