1200 GoldWing Float adjustment ?

No, my experience is the same as yours. Like I said, the only carbs I
fiddle with on a regular basis are those on the the 400 Four, and those
had a reputation for being finicky when the bike was new, over 30 years
ago.

Polished it up at the weekend and Hog, of ukrm, took it for a thrash,
with stict order snot to put less than 10 miles on it, to get the oil
nice and hot. He returned smiling and commented on how well it coped
with modern roads and traffic.

 

Thanks for confirming what I said. BMWs haven't used carbs on their
bikes for over a decade.

Brand new, right out of the box? OK, so you got a rogue. Nobody else has
these problems.

Do you get Lister diesel engines in bikes?

 

Strict orders not. FFS.

 

In my experience, they do. Things like ignition timing and carbs (where
fitted) setting are done at the factory and again, in my experience, are
done properly.

I want him to explain how dealers can screw up ignition timing on a
brand new bike, before shoving it out the showroom door, but I'm not
anticipationg an early or coherent answer.

 

Actually, BMWs of a certain era *all* blued their header pipes,
because they used single-skinned headers. Jap bikes(by and large) used
double-skinned headers, and didn't.

 

When setting up a brand new motorcycle, the mechanic just has to take
it out of the crate, install the front wheel, handlebars and mirrors,
and install the battery.

The $tealer$hip doesn't mess with the carburetors or valve adjustment.

I was watching the lot boy at the $crewzuki $tealer$hip unload a crate
containing a
brand new motorcycle from the bed of a mini pickup truck.

The motorcycle + crate must have weighed about 550 pounds or so, and
the
kid flipped the crate end over end to get it out of the truck.

I had just bought a brand new Suzuki from that a$$hole $tealer$hip,
and figured that my machine had received the same lack of loving care.

The other time I bought a motorcycle from them, I rode it down the
street to get enough gasoline to get home and heard a strange rattling
coming from the side of the engine.

The bolts holding the generator sidecover were loose, so I had to ride
back to the
$tealer$hip to get that fixed immediately.

I never trusted that $hop owner or his mechanic$. I had to take the
2nd machine back about 6 times to get the front wheel replaced under
warranty. It was machined improperly, causing the front brake rotors
to wear unevenly in a pattern that resembled warped rotors.

 

Depends on the bike. Some have a lot more to them than just that. And
then there are the PDI checks as well.

 

Not a rogue, but run-of-the-mill. It seems the motorcycle
dealers in the U.K. must be much more conscientious than those in the
U.S.

No, I worked in application engineering at Lister in the
States for 25 years. We routinely had to correct factory
maladjustments and defects. Lost a nice account with the makers of
DitchWitch machinery, because the bastards at the factory kept
shipping them shit-in-a-box.

 

It's not the dealers who set the timing, but the factory
assemblers. Ever seen a production vehicle assembly line? The
workers have only a few seconds to perform any given operation. If
it's "close," it's "close enough," and out the door it goes.
If you know of any dealer that checks timing, carbs, etc., or
does ANYTHING that can reasonably be called a PDI, that's a business
worth supporting. Here, it just does not happen.

 

Well, duh. And electronic ignition systems are fit-and-forget. It's
almost impossible to set them up wrongly.

Ever seen a production vehicle assembly line?

Surprisingly, yes.

Not the ones I've seen.

And we return to the point you keep dodging: carbs aren't really being
fitted any more, except to small bikes.

 

And it was brand new, right of the box? (Sorry to keep hammering this
point, but you keep dodging it, and I'd like to establish that this
was indeed a bvrand new bike) And the carbs malfunctioned from the
very start? Have you *any* idea how rare that is?

 

The carbs didn't malfunction, they were improperly adjusted.
If that's rare, in your experience, bully for you.
In my experience, both as a customer and as a technician, it's
more common.

 

Means they weren't functioning properly. Same difference.

Not on brand new bikes, it isn't. And yet again you've dodged the
question of whether the Bandit was brand new when the problem arose.
Right out of the factory.

And I've come to the conclusion it wasn't. Nearly new, maybe. Fiddled
with by the dealer, probably. But you said it was a brand new bike and
came like that from the factory. And I don't think you're telling the
truth. Sorry.

 

I don't know why this is so hard for you to "get."
The Bandit was brand new. Bought with a whole four-tenths of
a mile on the odo. From an authorized dealer. It ran satisfactorily,
maybe, for some. But it vibrated too much, and the tappets were
noisy.
I adjusted the valve clearances. Some were tight, some were
loose.
I synchronized the carburetors. One pair took more than a
half turn on the balancing screw.
The dealer doesn't make these adjustments until the first
scheduled service interval is reached. Too long to wait. The bike
ran better, and was quieter, after a tuneup. Within the first hundred
miles.
My experience is similar with a number of vehicles over quite
a number of years. Doesn't matter much what your experience has been.
I don't understand your passionate defense of the manufacturers, who
are all in it just to make a profit. I'll say it again: If it runs,
they ship it.

 

Right. This is pretty much what I'd expect. Many, many bikes run
slightly rough in the first few miles as they bed in. You gave the
impression it ran crap from Mile Zero, and now you're changing your
tune. It's now "after 100 miles".

Well, damn me! And I thought they were charities. And, Oh Mindless One,
have you considered that they won't make a profit if they persistently
sell crap bikes from their factories? The Brits found that out, the hard
way.

You have absoluitely no concept of Japanese style kaizen and QC, do you?
You think the rest of the world has the same laissez-faire attitutde as
US vehicle builders. I don't believe you've ever seen a decent Japanese
or German vehicle factory. Well, I have. Several.

Who, I note, are up a very deep creek without a paddle. While the
Japanese (and Germans, and Koreans and even Italians) walk all over
them.

 

He just likes to argue. He thinks he can find new information from
deductive logic and parsing your statements, while ignoring your
anecdotal experience. (1)

We are, as usual, bored to tears by that sovereign of insufferables,
Neil Murray, who once again ensues with his opulence of twaddle and
his penury of sense.

He mounts his keyboard and evacuates crass vapidities from the colon
of his mind, to the capital edification of circumjacent fools, having
nothing worth saying and saying it with liberal embellishment of bad
delivery and reasonless vulgaries of attitude.

There never was a poseur as hateful, a blockhead so stupid, a crank so
invariably and offensively daft. He makes me tired.

(1) My GS-1100 ran rough when it was new and so did my FZR-1000. The
range of settings on the FZR's idle mixture screws ranged from ~1/8th
of a turn open to
1-1/2 turns open.

 

And what about my ownb? Never had any problem with factory settings -
but will admit that all bikes need to bed in.

Whereas you, with your endless hark-backs to a GS1100, GT750 and some
old Yamaha, have no experience whatsoever of modern bikes.

Ever ridden... let's see. One of the new BMW K sports bikes? A Kawasaki
ZX10R, ZX12R? Fiireblade? Modern Guzzi? Modern Ducati - any one will do.
Suzuki GSX1000R?

How about some nice fiery two-strokes? Honda NS400R? Yamaha 350
power-valve?

Modern Triumphs? Bonneville? Street Triple? Sprint?

No, thought not.

 

So this was... what, 25 years ago? And you don't think things might have
changed since?

Wake up. The world no longer starts and ends with your horrible old GT
and GS.

 

Ah, he invokes the fallacious argument of the appeal to experience, as
he sets up a straw man.

I'll take WTFGAS for $100, Alex.

This thread was about how to set floats on an Old Wing, it wasn't
supposed to be hijacked and carried away on the back of a wild goose
like you.

 

Um, who just posted: "...while ignoring your anecdotal experience."?

Face facts, bozo. I know more about this subject than you will ever
know. I've been there, done that, and got the T-shirt.