bad day at the office

[lumpyv]

hi there team.
nice day for a ride today, so me and my mate on his bandit 1200 set of for blast up to the coast . the first 10 miles was at a nice warm up speed. got on the dual carriage way and gave her the beans. just before it ended i throttled back to get down to something a bit more legal and from then on all was not well, sounded wrong and general lack of go. i pulled the clutch in asap and coasted to a safe place to stop. it runs and at tickover it sounds reasonably ok. when the front auto cct went a couple of years ago it sounded like a steel bucket full nuts and bolts so i am reasonably confident i have not been unlucky twice in 2 years/3000 miles. if you gently rev it it sounds fluffy rather than rumbly so i am thinking it has possibly burnt a valve out??
any ideas gents?

one other point you may like to check out for yourselves is your breakdown cover if you have it. i got rac cover through bennetts but discovered this is only up to 10 miles from my house.. DOH... I of course was 16 miles from home so a charming young lady from the rac relieved me of a further £42 over the phone by the side of the road for the extra 6 miles!!

anyway any advice/opinions would be gratefully recieved . i must get it back going asap because i still want to get down to wickys to swap out the auto ccts

not a good day so far and now ive got to go shopping!

[tony.mon]

Unlikely to be a burnt valve, it's possible but these engines are very understressed.

If you're running standard cct's then you should take out the bolt form the end of each, and stick a tiny flat blade screwdriver down each to feel if the spring is still operational.
My money's on the front one.

Other possibilities are:
If you have a carb balance line fitted to the front cylinder it could have split or the blanking bolt has come out.
Carbs popped off the rubber one end or the other
Failed plug- pull them to check colours
RR failure- meter it.

[lumpyv]

thanks tony , will check this out tommorrow.

[lumpyv]

should be easy but i cant do it! how do you disconnect the drain and breather hoses to the left of the fuel tap under the rear of the tank

the ones to the fuel tap have clips but the 2 i mentioned just dissapear up into the foam rubber under the tank. am i supposed to be disconnecting them at the tank end or the other end i tried pulling them but they are so well fixed they are just stretching the tube?
have spent about 2 hours just trying to get the ,kin tank off !
ta

[Wicky]

Should just pull off from the tank connections the drain and breather hoses (no connection at the other end as they route to the outside world near the belly pan)

Make a note/label hoses as they come off to save time working out precisely where they came off, though the various hose sizes limit what they can reattach back to.

[lumpyv]

cheers wicky, i would have thought that but could it be that they have been glued on? they wont budge one bit and i think if pull them much harder the pipe will rip

[tony.mon]

So let it rip, a new bit of pipe is pennies.
Try using a large flat blade screwdriver with the handle under the front of the tank, levering in the foam section, prising the pipe off.

[Wicky]

If they've been glued on (odd thing to do) just cut them off as close as possible to the connectors so as not to lose overall length for your hoses , then once the tank is off, carefully trim off the hose stubs to reveal the connectors. When you reassemble they should just push back on.

[lumpyv]

good thinking, may have to do that. wonder if they would pull through from above? could tie a bit of string on to retract them afterwards?

[Wicky]

Interesting & logical 'Ariadne's thread' approach , though normally they just stay where they are routed after disconnecting when taking the tank orf.

good thinking, may have to do that. wonder if they would pull through from above? could tie a bit of string on to retract them afterwards?

[lumpyv]

crikey?! i may have to look that one up to check if i have been insulted or complimented , must be one or the other!

[lumpyv]

i have noticed that the little " sub filters" in the airbox are in poor condition? one has a hole right through it. i will replace them but not likely this is the problem?? i cant see anything split going to or from the carbs. not sure where the blanking bolt is or which rubbers tony mentions might have popped out?

[Wicky]

i have noticed that the little " sub filters" in the airbox are in poor condition? one has a hole right through it. i will replace them but not likely this is the problem?? i cant see anything split going to or from the carbs. not sure where the blanking bolt is or which rubbers tony mentions might have popped out?

If you have a carb balance line fitted to the front cylinder it could have split or the blanking bolt has come out.
Carbs popped off the rubber one end or the other
Failed plug- pull them to check colours

Look at the carb balancing thread in the workshop knowledgeable to see where the vacuum take off blanking bolt is situated on the front cylinder. You might want to get an adapter prior to the workshop day so it can be fitted for easier carb balancing.

The rubbers Tony mentions are where the carbs mount onto each cylinder. Check to see if they haven't come loose.

All good practice exploring areas you'll need to get to again at the workshop day for MCCTs.

[lumpyv]

cheers mate.

[lumpyv]

now contemplating the reg/rec as advised by tony.m .

problem is i am wary about starting the bike because i dont know whats up with it. would it be likely that if the problem last saturday was due to reg/rec the battery would now be flat? cos its not . with the ignition turned on the headlamp and main beam seem as bright as ever, would the battery be flat by now if r/r had clapped out?
the tests that i have read up on rely on the engine being revved to about 5 k

Ta