Errrr no more pic's guys 

Didn't photo the black plugs... haha

I dropped the needles one notch last night and discovered the gasket under the screw for the balancer nipple on the right cylinder has a split which may be letting air in, so I put a dab of threebond on there for the moment.

Mixture screws back to 2.5 turns out so we'll see what she does today...

No pictures, mate? ? ?

O.K. Then...
I got some pictures.
They have absolutely nothing to do with anything but hey, they're pictures.

Turbo my Son took off an old VW, rebuilt, and put on one of my riding lawn mowers...


Clutch & water pump replacement. . .


Previous winter overhaul on the DL1000. . .
and one of two Street-legal 42 MPH, 1970's vintage mopeds in the background.


And one more: A vixen, cougar, biker-tramp lady...

Nice pic's EJ, thank you kindly sir! 

After my first good ride yesterday since before Chrissy, I now have to drop my needles back to stock. Riding part throttle for a while made for some interestingly fouled plugs... open throttle, pop bang pop bang... horrendously rich!

So this morning or tonight I will be dropping the needles again... seems all my "tuning" since the rebuild has really been working around buggered diaphragms.

Also, the shortened slide spring and enlarged vacuum port on the slide probably just helped me not to noticed the slides weren't lifting properly.

I will try to remember to take some more pic's!

There was also some discussion around ditching the K&N pods in favour of some mesh filtered bell mouths as well... more centred around the fact that the pods don't create a nice airflow into the carbs as they don't have a bell mouth shape like a stock airbox does etc.

A bit over my head but makes sense... a change may be made in the near future...

Quote from: peteGS on January 17, 2015, 02:05:25 PM
Riding part throttle for a while made for some interestingly fouled plugs... open throttle, pop bang pop bang... horrendously rich!

So this morning or tonight I will be dropping the needles again...
seems all my "tuning" since the rebuild has really been working around buggered diaphragms.

I will try to remember to take some more pic's!

There was also some discussion around ditching the K&N pods in favour of some mesh filtered bell mouths as well... more centred around the fact that the pods don't create a nice airflow into the carbs as they don't have a bell mouth shape like a stock airbox does etc.

Now that your not sucking random air into the carbs from unintended places it's no doubt going to be running rich.
Also...
Agreed! The manner in which the moving air-flow enters the carbs is indeed important. A lot of science went into designing the original airbox (which 98% of owner's promptly remove).

Final thought...
As Dr. Buddha and others state; Filtering the intake air is critical to longevity of the engine maintaining its rated HP over its useful life.
Omitting the air filter (or massively reducing it) is not worth the power gains it may bring you.

Just saying. That Buddha guy is indeed a genius.
All hail the Buddha! 
-Ej-

PS, All LPW crew is waiting for your pics. 

That cycle tramp lass has a ROCKIN set of cans!

I've done some measuring, Googled some formulas... and I think bell mouths/velocity stacks are the way to go, but yes I want filtered ones. At worst a fine mesh would do.

Looking at tuning for 6500 RPM about 75mm long stacks are the go, but the stock stacks in the airbox are just shy of 50mm which has them tuned for something like 7300 RPM going by the formula I found.

At this stage I am eyeing off these as they will be a close length to the stock stacks when fitted and they have a filter... they're also cheap!

http://www.dimecitycycles.com/vintage-cafe-racer-caferacer-bobber-brat-chopper-custom-motorcycle-carburetor-parts-lightweight-50mm-velocity-stack-12-6650.html

And here is the colour of my plugs after Saturday's run... the right (second pic) is not quite as bad as the left so they need to be balanced, but I have since lowered the needle back to stock so I will see how she runs on the commute today... and yes the base of the plug is damp with fuel...

No peteGS... Ya' see, once the bike is running your supposed open the choke!

. . . . .

Heh-heh. Just having a bit of fun with that nasty plug-chop.

Aaaah so that's how it works! Hahahahaa

I went back from 142.5 mains to 137.5 mains for yesterday's commute... plugs black and fouled when I check at lunch and she was still horrible.

Last night down to 127.5's so we'll see how they go today...

Quote from: peteGS on January 21, 2015, 01:11:55 PM
I went back from 142.5 mains to 137.5 mains for yesterday's commute... plugs black and fouled when I check at lunch and she was still horrible.

Last night down to 127.5's so we'll see how they go today...

Hot dang Pete!
Does All Gore know about your GS450's Carbon Footprint?

When you finally get done leaning that out your gonna' double your current fuel economy.

Footprint like godzirra!  Lol

Hahahaha I don't have a footprint, I have a full body print like a crime scene... hahaha

I have neglected GSTwins for a couple of days so the latest is...

I ended up going back completely stock Thursday night, so retained the stock pilots, stock 117.5 main jets back in, needle still at stock middle position, and mixture screws back to 2.5 turns out.

End result on Friday was... "oh geez I'm glad it's raining to keep her a bit cooler and make her run a touch richer", way too lean! I almost turned around and came back home coz she was starving of fuel at quarter to half throttle cold... then I thought let's just get her a little warm and see what happens...

Warmed up a minute or so later she was at least rideable, but getting to the main felt choked also, so I wound the mixture screws out a full turn to at least try to get some fuel in there and she was marginally better.

Anyway, Friday night put the two size up mains in (122.5) and lifted the needle a notch and returned the mixture screws to 2.5 turns out again.

I was supposed to be out riding yesterday but bailed because of the wet weather, but I did start her for a minute and held the throttle at about 1/8 to see what happened to the plugs. Ran and sounded good but plugs were a little damp so I've set the mixture screws to 2 turns in.

I'm headed out this morning so I'll see how she runs...

Quote from: peteGS on January 24, 2015, 12:46:24 PM
Anyway, Friday night put the two size up mains in (122.5) and lifted the needle a notch and returned the mixture screws to 2.5 turns out again.

I was supposed to be out riding yesterday but bailed because of the wet weather, but I did start her for a minute and held the throttle at about 1/8 to see what happened to the plugs. Ran and sounded good but plugs were a little damp so I've set the mixture screws to 2 turns in.

I'm headed out this morning so I'll see how she runs...

Hey, good to see you experimenting peteGS.
You'll hit the sweet spot soon. Test & tune!

I myself haven't done much mechanical work lately, however... I "watched" my Son change a headlight bulb in one of my bikes yesterday.
That sort of counts as mechanical work. No?  <cough-cough>

Pete. . .
Could you check these for me. 

The twin units on the right of frame seem to be in top notch condition!

I think a closer inspection would be in order...

Now as for tuning, I am far from a guru!!!! After all that time I have been running... LEAN!!!!!

The fouled plugs seem to have been purely from closed/low throttle on the commute.  When the throttle is open and rev's are up, she's stumbling, not fouling plugs.

When I checked them at the brekky stop Sunday morning they actually seemed a reasonable colour, but that was after holding about 1/8 to 1/4 throttle for a few km's.

I figured I had a vacuum leak from where the diaphragms were a little loose around the slides given I also started having a hanging idle, so I put some form-a-gasket around there and did another test ride yesterday morning... still lean!!!

Then it dawned on me... I'm pretty sure I've put the diaphragms too high up on the slides, so when the diaphragm starts getting sucked up with the vacuum, it's not actually lifting the slide for the first bit at all, so it will constantly run lean and get worse as I open the throttle more.

I hopefully fixed that last night but the test will be the commute this morning unfortunately as it's back to work today... wish I could do a proper test ride!

Anyway, here's the difference:

Quote from: peteGS on January 26, 2015, 12:38:11 PM

Anyway, here's the difference:

Good find! That is indeed significant.
Keep de-bugging. Once you get it perfect, you will undoubtedly have many thousands of miles of good service from those carbs.
It's a nice feeling knowing that your bike runs better that thy neighbors because you took the time to get it perfect. 

And while I'm talking here. . .
Part of what makes GSTwins.com better than the other bike forums I belong to is that the GS500 (& 450) is a humble little bike. It is owned by people that love the damn thing.
Nobody here is a high-strung, world-touring, moto-geek with a garage full of pristine candy-red Ducati's that spend their on-line time telling everybody about how good they ride the "twistys".
I like it here. People can wrench and get just about anything to run good. Even a tired 450.

Nobody here is a high-strung, world-touring, moto-geek with a garage full of pristine candy-red Ducati's that spend their on-line time telling everybody about how good they ride the "twistys".
I like it here. People can wrench and get just about anything to run good. Even a tired chinese scooter

+1

Slips was a bit highly strung! ... but he don't hang with us plebs anymore!