The weather was pretty good this past weekend so it gave me an opportunity to do a couple quick hit things to the bike. The first was to really dial in the carb sync with the new sync gauges I bought and the 2nd was to finally change the oil to a synthetic that I’d been hearing good things about. Neither of these jobs are particularly tough but they do take a little time and given the 90+ degree heat we’ve been having it was pretty miserable to do anything out in the garage. Add in the heat off the engine and it’s not work I looked forward to doing.
On Saturday I did a few chores around the house then rolled the bike out to work on it a bit. I’d read up on the “proper” way to use this gauge…and I must say I think it was worth what I spent on it. I hooked the tubing up to the front and rear jugs, wound up the bike and watched the magic happen. It was bouncing around pretty good, but after I adjusted the valves on the gauges the needles were over all pretty steady and it was easy to get an accurate reading. I was pretty close on the sync from using my oil in a tube “tool” but with these gauges I got it dialed in as exact as any one can. I reassembled and took her for a ride…she seemed to have a little less vibration on the upper end…and that’s what I was going for so we’re set.
Sunday I decided to finally make the switch over to synthetic oil. I had been running dino oil in her I wasn’t sold on the cost/benefit ratio of synthetic. I’ve noticed that she has been shifting a little harder. I’d read that shifting was suppose to be smoothed out with the synthetic so it was finally worth the shot. I picked up some shell rotella t6 at wal-mart for 20/gal, I had to hit fleet farm for the correct oil filter though. I wasn’t sure it was going to fit so I only bought one…after seeing that it is in fact the correct filter I’ll pick a couple up next time I go out there so I have them on hand. Drop the oil, swap the filter and fill it back up. Last time I filled up the oil I dumped a straight 3 quarts in there and didn’t think twice about it. What I read in the manual looked like the oil pan was something like 2.8 and the filter should take up the rest. It was a little over full…but over all not too bad. This time I watched things very closely, got the level up to the “full” mark, ran the bike to circulate oil, then filled again..rinse repeat. I did this about 3 times and finally the oil settled at the full level right where I wanted it.
Taking her out for a little cruise around the block, the shifting was noticeably different. She rolls through the gears easier, it doesn’t take near the effort it took before to shift. It’s possible this is a placebo effect, but I really don’t think so. I’ll run it around a bit more and might take a bit of a ride up to a lake this weekend to give it a full shake down. I said earlier the rotella was 20/gal so it’s on the cheaper end of synthetics. Regular bike oil (little different than car oil because it lubes the engine and tranny) runs around 5/quart anyway. In the end, I didn’t end up spending more money.
I’ve been looking through craig’s list on and off to drool and gauge what I’m going to be able to buy when I finally have the cash together for a different bike. I’m getting more and more interested in a harley road king, but I’d be looking at one about 10 years old with 50k or so on it. That’s quite a few miles and I’m pretty turned off by the “engine just rebuilt!” comments on the ads for these bikes. I want something to last for quite a while and I don’t want to have to turn a wrench on it other than changing oil. I did see one on the Minneapolis CL that is pretty much what I’d be looking for. It’s a Roadstar, which is fine…but it’s got an impressive story:
MINT 2005 Yamaha Roadstar Silverado**VERY LOW MILES**Many Extras! – $6500 (Cottage Grove)
Date: 2010-08-15, 9:57AM CDT
Reply to: sale-68g5q-1899826999@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
This is a BEAUTIFUL bike that has been well taken care of and babied with ONLY 7,646 miles. We are selling only because we do not need 2 motorcycles. You will enjoy this ride…very smooth and sounds awesome!Silverado Package, 1700 cc, V-twin
Over $3,000 in extras:
*Pipes
*Hyper charger
*Driver back rest
*Luggage rack
*Engine guard and foot pegs
*Pa*enger floor boards
*Lots of chromeCall Ryan at 612-849-8208 for questions or to schedule a showing
- Location: Cottage Grove
- it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
It doesn’t have -everything- I was really wanting in a bike, but it’s got a couple extras that would be nice to have. Over all I think the one thing it’s missing (lockable hard bags) are offset by the extras (hyper charger, driver backrest, soft bags) and it’s extremely low mileage. I’ve seen a few guys on enthusiast message boards selling hard bags. New they go for around 800 shipped, used I could get them around 400 shipped. It’s enough, and I’m not sure it’s entirely worth it when it already has soft bags…but we’ll see. For this deal I’d be willing to give it up. If it was a year from now, I’d give this guy a holler, right now though it’s only a pipe dream. What would be ideal, is this bike with about 10-15k more miles. Hopefully that would knock 1k off the price and I could look at dumping that grand into the v*/chopper project.