SacramentoMike
Not Safe For Work
As they say at the beginning of shows like "24" and "Sons of Anarchy:"
PREVIOUSLY on the FJR Forum. . . Sacramento Mike suddenly finds his bike hard to start and keep running at low rpms late on Friday (of Labor Day weekend) on the Nevada/Utah border. And a LONG way from the nearest Yamaha dealership. Hoping it's a matter of something like bad gas, spark plugs, wires, etc. (i.e., something simple), he keeps riding. All the way to Taos. While riding, by the way, the bike felt almost perfect. It was a bit rough and underpowered, but I felt fine about continuing to ride. Once I got Into Taos, though, I consulted with a couple of knowledgeable fellers (Hycle and FJRob) who advise getting it into a shop. Now. As in, don't ride it to a shop. Tow it to a shop. That's Albuquerque, about 150 miles.
I figured I'd already put about 1500 miles on since the problem began, so I pushed my luck a little farther and rode to ABQ anyway, to Bobby J's Yamaha, per local boy H.R.Zilla's recommendation. They find zero clearance on at least one valve, valve(s) probably burned, needs serious work, but they do enough to make it fairly safe to ride home ('don't take the scenic route'), shim the valves or something. Hell, I dunno. Got it to Roseville Yamaha (after a sort of scenic ride home anyway. Hell, it was pretty long either way.)
Well, I chose to have them do the work, mostly because it was the best route for peace of mind for me. Couldn't do it myself, or switch out an engine, or know who else to have do it that might have been cheaper, etc. Diagnosis: burnt exhaust valves. Badly burnt ones. Definitely made it worse by riding so far after the problem began, no doubt with one or more valves not closing completely. I did not have a valve check performed at 24K miles, but mileage now is just over 50K, so if they were out of spec, it could have developed much more recently than at the 24K point. That's what I tell myself so I don't feel so bad about blowing off the 24K mile valve check. I do not know what may have caused the valve(s) to get out of spec at this 50K plus point.
Anyway, they've had the bike for two weeks of the three weeks estimated to get it fixed. The cylinder heads are out to a machine shop getting re-milled, they'll replace the valves, the guides, the springs, the whatchacallits and all the other stuff down in there. CCT, chains, etc. too. When it's all done, I'll have pretty much a new engine that should be good for at least as long as I am, and while gruesomely expensive, much cheaper than buying another FJR, so I'm putting a happy face on it and just looking forward to getting some riding in soon. The weather around here, by the way, has been freaking GORGEOUS lately.
By the way, with that one little exception, the ride to and from Taos was EXCELLENT. Completely avoided the dreaded desert heat and daily mountain thunderstorms I was so worried about before leaving, saw incredible and new-to-me scenery, met some cool people. Yeah, I'm still pretty glad I went. See you on the road.
PREVIOUSLY on the FJR Forum. . . Sacramento Mike suddenly finds his bike hard to start and keep running at low rpms late on Friday (of Labor Day weekend) on the Nevada/Utah border. And a LONG way from the nearest Yamaha dealership. Hoping it's a matter of something like bad gas, spark plugs, wires, etc. (i.e., something simple), he keeps riding. All the way to Taos. While riding, by the way, the bike felt almost perfect. It was a bit rough and underpowered, but I felt fine about continuing to ride. Once I got Into Taos, though, I consulted with a couple of knowledgeable fellers (Hycle and FJRob) who advise getting it into a shop. Now. As in, don't ride it to a shop. Tow it to a shop. That's Albuquerque, about 150 miles.
I figured I'd already put about 1500 miles on since the problem began, so I pushed my luck a little farther and rode to ABQ anyway, to Bobby J's Yamaha, per local boy H.R.Zilla's recommendation. They find zero clearance on at least one valve, valve(s) probably burned, needs serious work, but they do enough to make it fairly safe to ride home ('don't take the scenic route'), shim the valves or something. Hell, I dunno. Got it to Roseville Yamaha (after a sort of scenic ride home anyway. Hell, it was pretty long either way.)
Well, I chose to have them do the work, mostly because it was the best route for peace of mind for me. Couldn't do it myself, or switch out an engine, or know who else to have do it that might have been cheaper, etc. Diagnosis: burnt exhaust valves. Badly burnt ones. Definitely made it worse by riding so far after the problem began, no doubt with one or more valves not closing completely. I did not have a valve check performed at 24K miles, but mileage now is just over 50K, so if they were out of spec, it could have developed much more recently than at the 24K point. That's what I tell myself so I don't feel so bad about blowing off the 24K mile valve check. I do not know what may have caused the valve(s) to get out of spec at this 50K plus point.
Anyway, they've had the bike for two weeks of the three weeks estimated to get it fixed. The cylinder heads are out to a machine shop getting re-milled, they'll replace the valves, the guides, the springs, the whatchacallits and all the other stuff down in there. CCT, chains, etc. too. When it's all done, I'll have pretty much a new engine that should be good for at least as long as I am, and while gruesomely expensive, much cheaper than buying another FJR, so I'm putting a happy face on it and just looking forward to getting some riding in soon. The weather around here, by the way, has been freaking GORGEOUS lately.
By the way, with that one little exception, the ride to and from Taos was EXCELLENT. Completely avoided the dreaded desert heat and daily mountain thunderstorms I was so worried about before leaving, saw incredible and new-to-me scenery, met some cool people. Yeah, I'm still pretty glad I went. See you on the road.
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