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Some advice and thoughts wanted

Ssky0078

Ssky0078

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I just took my 2009 Fz1 into the shop at 32,000 miles to have the valves checked, new iridium plugs, new cam chain tensioner (starting to sound like a loose tin can), new clutch cable, new throttle cable. I also finally did the AIS block off plates. Must recommend this.

After riding the bike for 5 days now. I first want to say HOLY SHHH the power is so much better down low and smoother. Which brings me to my questions. My tires are a set of Pilot Road 3's with about 8,000 miles on them. I've noticed with the new power as I'm accelerating leaned over that the rear tire keeps stepping out on me. I'm ok with the feeling and I keep a fairly steady throttle hand so it grabs traction and I'm cruising along.

Do you think I'm in need for a new set of tires? (if so in a little over a year, 27,000 miles, I went through a set of Pilot Road 2's, Pilot Power 3's (2 rears, 1 front), and now a set of Pilot Road 3's)

Also has anyone tried the Bridgestone T30's?
 
FZ1 has enough power to spin up the rear if you're aggressive enough, new tires or not. I've read that PR3s don't get quite as good of tread life as PR2s (I got over 12k out of mine), but not sure if 8k is max for them.
How do they look? They've obviously seen a good deal of heat cycles and if you park your bike outside in AZ, that rubber is probably quite dry by now.

Wanna take a close-up pic of the tire and post it up so we can see it?

As for T30's.. I've found several posts complaining of short tread life. Enough for me to rule them out for sport touring.

If you're happy with PR3 performance up to 8k miles, why not just stick with them? Or maybe try PR4? (supposedly slightly better tread life than PR3)
 
New tires will make a difference for sure. They always improve traction over old ones... however, you don't speak of the suspension? Are you on the OEM shock? Are you over 170 lbs? If yes, then you may want to consider a good shock.

I'm 230lbs with gear. The OEM shock was not holding a line even in moderate corners. The Penske I put on it night and day difference, even when the tires are showing wear and need replacing, the bike remains mostly planted and tracks where I intend it to go. If you have not already replaced it, I think this is your next logical mod. :Rockon:
 
FZ1inNH said:
New tires will make a difference for sure. They always improve traction over old ones... however, you don't speak of the suspension? Are you on the OEM shock? Are you over 170 lbs? If yes, then you may want to consider a good shock.

I'm 230lbs with gear. The OEM shock was not holding a line even in moderate corners. The Penske I put on it night and day difference, even when the tires are showing wear and need replacing, the bike remains mostly planted and tracks where I intend it to go. If you have not already replaced it, I think this is your next logical mod. :Rockon:
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Excellent point. The newest and stickiest of tires will step out if the suspension can't keep the tire in contact with road.

Lucky for me, I'm 170 and while I can tell the rear shock is far from *good*, between the relatively conservative street riding and weighing roughly what the stock suspension is built for, I can get away with it.
(but if someone wants to give me an upgraded shock, I won't say no :D )
 
I believe Sky is a big chap and that would lead me to say: suspension, suspension, suspension, suspension. And don't cheap out on it either.

I am scratching my head as to why your bike needed a new clutch cable and throttle cables AND a cam chain tensioner AND iridium plugs at 32,000 miles. Iridium plugs have 100,000 mile service intervals when they are attached a car engine, I should imagine they don't need replacing any time soon
 
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Also, don't expect the best traction from any tire in cold weather, and especially if no warm up run has been made.

I was on a group ride a while back. We had lunch for over an hour, with the bikes sitting outside in 48 degree weather. Rode across the street for gas. None of the pumps would accept credit cards. Being a little irritated, I headed toward the next gas station. Apparently I used too much throttle in first gear, because the back tire broke loose, the engine spooled up to over 10,000 RPM, and I almost soiled my pants - all within milli-seconds.
 
Dustin said:
I am scratching my head as to why your bike needed a new clutch cable and throttle cables AND a cam chain tensioner AND iridium plugs at 32,000 miles. Iridium plugs have 100,000 mile service intervals when they are attached a car engine, I should imagine they don't need replacing any time soon
Click to expand...

The cables need to be lubed regularly so if they needed replacement, I'm betting they weren't lubed often enough. Speaking of which, I need to lube mine and the ones on my wife's bike before we pull them out for the season. Yes, we're still frozen in NH!
 
FZ1inNH said:
The cables need to be lubed regularly so if they needed replacement, I'm betting they weren't lubed often enough. Speaking of which, I need to lube mine and the ones on my wife's bike before we pull them out for the season. Yes, we're still frozen in NH!
Click to expand...

You are not the only one. We had a great week last week then back to frozen wasteland for the next seven days. :shaking head:
 
FZ1inNH said:
New tires will make a difference for sure. They always improve traction over old ones... however, you don't speak of the suspension? Are you on the OEM shock? Are you over 170 lbs? If yes, then you may want to consider a good shock.

I'm 230lbs with gear. The OEM shock was not holding a line even in moderate corners. The Penske I put on it night and day difference, even when the tires are showing wear and need replacing, the bike remains mostly planted and tracks where I intend it to go. If you have not already replaced it, I think this is your next logical mod. :Rockon:
Click to expand...

Great point. The front fork springs and bushings along with a Penske rear are the next steps.



Dustin said:
I believe Sky is a big chap and that would lead me to say: suspension, suspension, suspension, suspension. And don't cheap out on it either.

I am scratching my head as to why your bike needed a new clutch cable and throttle cables AND a cam chain tensioner AND iridium plugs at 32,000 miles. Iridium plugs have 100,000 mile service intervals when they are attached a car engine, I should imagine they don't need replacing any time soon
Click to expand...

The valve check was 6,000 miles past due.

The plugs were last replaced 18,000 miles ago. I think the regular are supposed to be done every 8 or 12,000 miles. The iridium I think are supposed to be done in that time frame.

The cam change tensioner started to sound like a tin can loose in my engine upon warming up and idle for about 2 months. The idle also wouldn't stay put and would turn itself on and off despite the engine being warm.

The clutch cable had frayed and literally had one strand left enough for me to get to the shop a day before my scheduled service.

I replaced the throttle cables because they were $40 and with the tank off and top of the engine apart it was a time and future work saver.
 
Ssky0078 said:
The valve check was 6,000 miles past due.
The iridium I think are supposed to be done in that time frame.

The cam change tensioner started to sound like a tin can loose in my engine upon warming up and idle for about 2 months. The idle also wouldn't stay put and would turn itself on and off despite the engine being warm.

The clutch cable had frayed and literally had one strand left enough for me to get to the shop a day before my scheduled service.

I replaced the throttle cables because they were $40 and with the tank off and top of the engine apart it was a time and future work saver.
Click to expand...

I wonder if your bike was built on a Friday afternoon or something. Seems odd that you have so many problems. I've owned bikes with twice that mileage on the original cables and I live in a climate that's not friendly that sort of stuff.

Glad to see you getting it all sorted out and good on you for doing preventative maintenance while you're at it. That's smart. Do yourself a favour and get one of these: http://www.998cc.org/forum/garage-mechanical-help/10023-new-cable-lube-tool.html. The guy who sells them is super nice and a friend of some people on the forum. :) They work a treat

Regarding the plugs: I'd probably do them just the same as you if I was having the valves checked. You really shouldn't need to touch them again until the next time the top end is off. NGK themselves say their iridium plugs are good for 80-100,000 miles.
 
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FZ1inNH said:
The cables need to be lubed regularly so if they needed replacement, I'm betting they weren't lubed often enough. Speaking of which, I need to lube mine and the ones on my wife's bike before we pull them out for the season. Yes, we're still frozen in NH!
Click to expand...

I only lubed them once about 15,000 miles ago.

I also live in dry AZ.

The clutch cable frayed because I had purchased cheap $30 Chinese shorty levers. It didn't sit correctly and there was some up and down play when pulling the lever, I'm sure that put extra wear on to the cable.
 
Dustin said:
Regarding the plugs: I'd probably do them just the same as you if I was having the valves checked. You really shouldn't need to touch them again until the next time the top end is off. NGK themselves say their iridium plugs are good for 80-100,000 miles.
Click to expand...

The plan is to wait until the next valve check in 30,000 miles for the plugs to be done again. At $40 for the set, the price doesn't bother me. And each time I've replaced the plugs the bike seems to have a little more pep in it's step which is worth way more than the money. (plus most of the gas in AZ is 10-15% ethanol, which I don't know if you have that same issue up North)

I'm going to order some JPR motorsport shorty levers to replace my cheap Chinese ones so I don't wear out the cable again. Also, I'll get that tool so I can lube them myself. Is about every 5,000 miles appropriate?

I really think the biggest deal for me next is to redo the suspension. I've noticed over the last 5,000 miles it has been getting sloppier. It's hard to hold a line and it feels like I'm giving up traction at speeds and lean angles that it used to hold just fine. I'm down to 220 from the 245 I was at 6 months ago. I intend to drop another 15 and hit my goal of 205. I was going to wait or the suspension job till I achieved that goal so it was all good for the spring rates.

As for my bikes maintenance issue. All the original issues were after I crashed the first time and had to clean up that mess. Last year was my first year owning any motorcycles, a lot of the questions I posted were just to learn and understand how everything worked, not because of some dire need. This last round was routine maintenance and I've read other post about people needing to replace cam chain tensioners, and cables around the same time. I'm also hard on my vehicles. I know this and I know it's a pay to play situation. I'm trying to be as proactive as possible so that I can keep her running as long as possible. Some of the DIY at home I do, and others I have been so busy and working a lot more this year than last that I just have to find time to take it in because I don't have the energy or motivation to tinker on it.

Hope everyone is having an awesome day.
 
Hellgate said:
The cam chain tensioner is automatic. Was the spring worn and no longer providing tension?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

They said it had looked worn, maybe had a little more life to it, and the idle is a lot more stable after it was replaced. I didn't ask any more than that because the bike was running better.
 
Ssky0078 said:
I'm going to order some JPR motorsport shorty levers to replace my cheap Chinese ones so I don't wear out the cable again. Also, I'll get that tool so I can lube them myself. Is about every 5,000 miles appropriate?
Click to expand...

Good plan. I only ever did it twice a year and it was more than enough. When you replace the levers, double check the routing to make sure there's no areas where you might get excessive wear. Did the cable fray at the lever point?
 
Dustin said:
Good plan. I only ever did it twice a year and it was more than enough. When you replace the levers, double check the routing to make sure there's no areas where you might get excessive wear. Did the cable fray at the lever point?
Click to expand...


It frayed at the lever point. The rest of the cable was fine outside of where I split the casing when I crashed.

I did not replace the cable, I was told the routing was done in a good way. The lever action is a lot smoother.
 
A mark against the cheap knock off levers then. Most people probably don't put as many miles as you do and it shows where you might find issues in the long term.
 
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