Motorcycle Forum / General / Technical / December 2005

Hey All,
A round on me for the house!
I am in the process of building a bike. I am mocking the rear
wheel/brake/pulley setup and have a question.  I am running a right

I've heard in numerous corners that when you run synthetic oil in an engine
that spent it's early life living on standard oil that it weeps. There's a
commercial for some brand of oil on tv now that explicitly states that the
synthetic weepage rumor is pure urban myth. Yet my ...

I would like to see a new V-Twin engine that is not the ridiculous
Harley Davidson and does not interchange parts with that overpriced,
underengineered mongrel.
It should have a one piece crank, and be a lot narrower-either put the

Ralph tip:
found that a cheap and quick way to put risers on my Bonnie is to visit the local Canadian Tire store and pick up a couple 7/8 deep sockets.

As you may remember, I bought a Spagthorpe Clumber Spaniel bike that was
sitting in a barn for $150 2 Septembers ago.  Unfortunately, soon
afterwards, the bike went out of control due to the diesel engine
ingesting its own lube oil supply and revving up to 15,000 rpm.  The

Someone told me by federal law dealers have to give each bike a road
test before selling it.  Does anyone have any info on this?

I'll leave you two-wheeler grease monkeys to your own vises for now.  There
are literally thousands of Usenet sites requiring my immediate attention.
So many sites, so little time.
rec.motorcycles.tech fits low on my totem pole.  Sorry.

I have this Artic Cat min-bike I'd like to get running tht's been
ignored for a long time.  It has an "automatic Saxonette" 50cc (??)
engine.
Anyone know where I can get a shop/service manual for this mini-bike?

I'm looking to locate any info anybody might have of an interesting
conversion I came across awhile back ,it was of a bmw with an aircooled
VW engine hooked to it's tranny that was turned into a chopper ,what I
understand was this was a popular conversion at one time but what I want

This domain is for sale
TWOWHEELERHEALER.COM
A great domain name for;
* Mobile Bicycle Mechanic

I got these pipes "new" on eBay. They were in the original box, which was
pretty beat up, so I couldn't tell if it'd been opened, but the pipes were
wrapped in plastic bags.
Could new pipes look like this?

Hi, guys.
Looking for some clues for a buddy who has an /83 Honda vt500 shadow, that
bogs down at about 5000 rpms.  Claims he's pulled and cleaned the carbs half
a dozen times, checked the stator with the electrex troubleshooting

The Truth About Vincents
21 years on a series C Vinnie
The first real tank slapper I had (this was when I hadn't owned it

When a starter spins without engaging with a low battery but
engages normally when the battery's well charged, what if anything,
is likely to need work or checking ?  (Battery checks out OK,
plenty of current to crank once it's engaged).

A friend of mine bought a bike similar to mine a 1992 VT600 Shadow vlx.
It had been sitting for a year and wouldn't start so I pulled the carbs
(Keihin CV), tore them down and cleaned them.
I removed the Welsh plug and pilot screws so I could clean the idle