first ride was almost the last.

[curseboy]

So the first day I took my 450 for a real ride after months and months of wrenching, I would be in for a surprise. During the rebuild process, I managed to lose the gas tank cap, which I replaced with a generic one from the autoparts store. I never knew how much that would come back to get me.

It was a hot summer day, with temperatures in the 90s. Little did I know that my gas cap was not vented, meant for a passenger car. As I made my way through a local twisty road, pressure started to build up inside the tank as the temperatures climbed. All of a sudden the RPMs climb up to 6000, and they stay there without me using the throttle at all!! My first reaction was "i am too young to die!" followed by "remember your training and you'll come back alive!". It was my first motorcycle ride, and I was out there solo. I got into this rhythm of applying the clutch, hard on the brakes, release, lean the bike, countersteer, stand it back up, repeat. I made it home still not knowing what the problem was, until way later in the day I opened the gas cap and heard the pressure escape.....had I not known the road well, and had I not seen my friends race at willow springs race multiple times, I might have had a very bad experience.....

 

[Guest]

man...........

 

[Houdini]

man...........

Nice riding on what could have been a serious situation!!

Here's your post from 2006, did you ever find out what caused that problem?

We'll try the carb tuning technique, we're thinking that we might have to rebuild them first, when you give it gas, the rpm just stay up, almost like it's sticking open......also, on the left side, next to the mixture screw, there is another hole that's definitely a vacuum leak, anyone know what it is for?

 

[curseboy]

Nice riding on what could have been a serious situation!!

Here's your post from 2006, did you ever find out what caused that problem?

We'll try the carb tuning technique, we're thinking that we might have to rebuild them first, when you give it gas, the rpm just stay up, almost like it's sticking open......also, on the left side, next to the mixture screw, there is another hole that's definitely a vacuum leak, anyone know what it is for?

the problem..well..nearly every o-ring and gasket on the carbs were shot, one of the choke plungers was warped so I just blocked that side's choke assembly. The port I couldn't figure out what it was for, I still don't know, I suspect a vacuum port for the petcock (which my petcock doesn't have) so I tapped it and plugged it. It all works very nice now.

 

[Guest]

First reflex when RPM goes out of wack is to hit the kill switch.

 

[jmanz6]

I agree, my first reflex when my dirtbike did that on a trail with lots of trees around was to grab the clutch and hit the kill. After I figured out what the issue was (throttle cable was binding up) and fixed it I then restarted and tookoff again.

 

[curseboy]

First reflex when RPM goes out of wack is to hit the kill switch.

that would have been the smart thing to do

 

[rapidray]

WOW!!! Redneck fuel injection! I never knew it could be that easy to build! LOL!!! Glad you're ok! Ray.

 

[Guest]

An acquaintance may years ago had his XKE's throttle stick wide open. He was at 120 MPH before he could get the ignition off. (So he said. I wasn't there...) I LIKE my kill switch.