aah 2 strokes

So I was riding the Mighty Scooter home from work. Fire up OK, was a
bit hesitant riding up the little hill to Epping road, seemed to
clear, then stopped.

Gah. When your motorcycle goes non-motor in the middle of traffic
it's fun.

So I got to the right side of the right hand lane I was in and waited
for the lights to change and the traffic to stop, then pushed it to a
traffic island and up the wheelchair ramp. (useful things those for
motorcyclists in need.)

On the centrestand and out with the tools.

I knew what it was going to be, it's a twoey, what else is it but "I
have decided I don't like my sparkplug"?

Sure enough the plug was a deep dark brown indicating that igntion
had not been igniting as well as it might.

Pull out the plug spanner, grab one of my 3 spare plugs[1], swap in a
reasonably clean one and... no go.

Hmm.. it sounds odd. Why does it sound like that? Well, that's the
sound an engine makes when you forget to put the plug cap back on the
plug.[2]

Fix that minor problem and it ringadings with much gusto. Back
into the traffic (after re-strapping a box onto the seat) and I
instantly notice we have more Go. Looks like that plug might have
been going off for a bit as the bike is even zippier than it was
the last week or so.

The Infamous MZ used to be a bit picky about plugs. It didn't really
care if they were new or not, it just liked a change of one now and
then. (Terrible habit of whiskering them it had.)

The RD (as befits boringly good Japanese engineering) didn't have a
plug habit although it did tend to chew through plug *leads*. Riddle
me that one...

So CC, if you want a two stroke fix just let me know. There are still
2 good plugs in the toolbag.

Zebee


[1] yes this has happened before, why do you ask?

[2] for a moment I thought it was the sound an engine makes when
there's a nice hole in the piston around about the middle where the
plug is, but when I removed my earplugs it wasn't that sound. I
should have realised it wasn't as the removed plug was dark brown, not
light brown speckled with sparkly bits. Yes, I know what that looks
like, why all the silly questions?

 

SNIP

Speaking of, I left work his morning after working 27 hours straight.
I waas knackered, walk outside and it's
thirty-fucking-seven-cunting-degrees at 11am. I've got a sore leg so
am hobbling around a lot.

Middle of Richmond there's a guy on the phone next to his scooter and
on the phone and I can hear him saying "dunno mate, it just won't
fire, not sure what's going on".

I'm thinking, "It's flooded you silly twat, can't you smell the fuel?"
I felt a bit guilty about keeping on going but I was just that tired I
couldn't be arsed going back and getting it going for him. I hope he
didn't light up a cigarette, there was enough fuel vapour in the air
to take out a few buildings. My guess is on a stinking hot day he'd
given it full choke and throttle to start it. How to drown a plug 101.

 

You're a sick bloke* Zebee,

but yeah, there is something special about two strokes**.


Bill

*A top bloke even.

** fond memories of an RD 350 and an ETZ 250.

 

I'd heard people whinging about RD's appetite for 'plugs but after feeding a
points-model H1 (500) and S2 (350) Kwakka-triple I found RDs (350s in my
case) were ASTOUNDING in their dependability!

 

I always carried four spare plugs, but then, my twoey was a twin.

Not asking. Been there.

I once replaced a dead coil on the Cali 1100 with one from a 195x Land
rover found behind the servo at Mundrabilla.

I feel a bit sorry for the younguns of today, growing up without a
shed education, but with a mobile phone. Someone needs to tell them
that the shed knowledge still works at places like Mundrabilla but the
mobile doesn't.

Theo

 

In aus.motorcycles on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:59:10 -0800 (PST)

Shed knowledge only gets you so far on modern bikes. If the Noggy
spits its electronics I dunno there's much I can do.

I've been stranded on the Devil which isn't a modern bike, but there
aren't that many bodges to fix the carby end of a throttle cable....

Zebee