After an exhilirating afternoon ride through the woods around Amsterdam (including the beautiful 1928 Olympic rowing track), I dropped my bike off at a small garage that was recommended to me by my downstairs neighbour, who also rides. My experiences with the nearest official Yamaha dealer have been so-so: decent work, but pricy, and with a bit of an attitude. This small garage I took it to now is non-affiliated: just one guy in a small cellar shop somewhere in West-Amsterdam. Really nice guy, good shop, good tools by the looks of it.
The Divvy will get its starting problems sorted (probably a combination of spark plugs and a new battery - the bike still has the original one, and is 8 years old). Oil change, brake check. It had the valve trim last year at 22,000 km’s, so that ought to be OK still (it’s got about 26,000 on it now). And: two brand new tires. It still had some profile above the legal minimum, but not for more than about 1,000 km’s or so. Plus, it had a Pirelli on the back, and a Dunlop on the front, which is far from ideal. Upon his advise, I opted for the Bridgeston Battlax tires, front and back.
All in all, it’s gonna be slightly over 400 Euros, or some $500. Better than Johnny, but then, I still got my pipes on it.
Yup, all done for 425 Euros. The Bridgestones kick ass, Johnny, way better than the Pirelli/Dunlop setup I had before. Much more confidence in the curves! Then again, the climate’s different here, and Bridgestones might work better in lower temperatures (although it was easily 23 degrees Celcius today). Braking is a joy now! It locks up VERY late, providing yet more confidence. You can make it stop at an insane pace now (the Yamaha brakes are pretty good for a “cheap” bike to begin with).
It starts well too: the new battery does the trick. Hey, any 6 Volt battery on an 8 year old bike is going to give you problems. It didn’t even need new spark plugs! Starts like a charm now, although the “warm start” remains a problem. It’ll start, but it needs a lot of convincing, and it’ll idle very low for the first few minutes (substantially under 1,000 RPM) whilst fully opening the throttle right after “warm-starting” it will “drown” it, if that’s the correct translation. Anyway, it cuts out if you do that. Leave it on idle for 1 or 2 minutes, and it runs fine. No biggie, just something to keep in mind when you start her up after a coffee break.
Just thought I’d keep Johnny (and whomever else cares ;)) posted!
I never have any trouble at all with warm starts. I have the problem you describe with cold starts though. I engage the “choke” (Yamaha calls it something else) and start the engine. Then I have to very carefully tweak the throttle to stabilize the RPM. If I don’t do it right, it stalls. If I just stabilize the RPM, then it will idle for a while before it revs itself up to about 3,000 RPM. If I boost it with the throttle it will reach its 3,000 RPM sooner. At that point I reduce the “choke” to half. Maybe I should let it rev up on its own? It’s a strange machine.
I let it rev on its own. It starts, and idles at about 1,000 RPM for 5 seconds, then climbs to 3,000 in about 30 seconds. That’s when I usually put the choke at half, since I live in a decent naighbourhood, and revving your bike is frowned upon.
I never mess about with the throttle when it’s still on the way to 3,000, though. That’s one surefire way to stall it straightaway.
Yeah, they’re temperamental little bastards. But as with women, we wouldn’t want it any other way.
I drove the Cherokee to work yesterday because rain was forecast. When I came home and parked, I got a space right in front of the building. Sweet!
But.
Today is street-cleaning day. There’s no parking available on the other side of the street, so I’ll have to drive to work again today. And rain is forecast for tomorrow.
I like rain. I really, really, really like rain. I wish it would rain more. But when you only have a single carport and it’s already occupied by a Willys Jeep, a motorcycle and a kayak, and when there’s a fine for parking on the wrong side of the street and when gas prices are so high, it can be a small pain.
