L
litekpr
Guest
Hey all,
Hoping for some help on a recent problem with my '03 KLR650. Bought the bike about four weeks ago... put 4000 km's on it. It's my first bike... so you may notice some newbie problems here. I'm going to give a bit of history in case it helps shed some light on things.
The weekend I bought the bike (25k on it) I went for a dual sport ride in the Salmon Arm area with a couple guys I met on this site. Spent most of the ride at the back of the pack in a cloud of dust. Managed to clean the gunk out of my lungs with liberal washings of beer. However, the beer didn't have the same effect on the KLR! My first mistake was not changing/cleaning air filter after this ride. It would be another 2500 km's before I looked at it (will get to that later).
I did another solo trip down into the Boundary country putting on another 1500 km's. Lot's of dirt riding, lot's of power, no noticeable problems. Nice to not be riding in a dust cloud. The bike now has about 27k on it. Then I used the bike for local meanderings...
The bike was using some oil but nothing that seemed out of the ordinary to me. What it did use I put down to the extremely hot weather, riding conditions, etc. It used about a quart in 3000 km's. Is this too much considering the conditions? I am using 10w40 synthetic motorbike specific oil.
Then I packed the bike up and headed off for Prince Rupert taking some excellent backroads across to Quesnel. South of Likely the bike suddenly started to stutter and lurch and lose some power. I checked the oil and it was very low. I limped into a resort and bought some oil. All they had was 10w30 so that is what I used. It took a quart and that brought it up to a nice level. Not sure if the two are related but when I left the resort the bike was running fine again.
I flew by a couple KTM 950's on my way to Quesnel... course, they were in a restaurant having lunch (and they were going the other way)....
In PG I checked the oil again and somehow close to a quart had disappeared in a matter of about 350 km's. No visible leaks anywhere. Small amounts of soot on tailpipe but nothing too bad. I topped up with 10w40 synthetic in PG.
A couple hours later I arrived in Burns Lake where the bike was once again stuttering and lurching and underpowered. The following day I changed the spark plug, changed the oil (10w30 synthetic... no 10-40 in BL), and had a look at the air filter. The air filter was a disgrace. It was caked with dried dust and dirt. I washed it, dried it, put new oil on it, and installed it in the bike. Took the bike for a ride and it ran like a charm... no stuttering and as far as I could tell full power.
The next morning I took off for Prince Rupert and the bike ran wonderfully. For about an hour... then it started doing the same thing again... stuttering, lurching, and losing power. I hobbled in to Terrace with the bike barely capable of 105 km/h.
At this time it was lurching significantly, there was very little power, and when I rev the bike to 4000 rpm it surges significantly instead of revving smoothly.
During the whole time I've had the bike it has never over heated, never made any appreciable strange noices, there was no metal on the magnetic oil plug, it doesn't smoke, and it starts and idles very nicely.
I am thinking the carbs are gummed up because I ran it for 2500 km's with a disgustingly dirty air filter! But I am not sure... any one have any ideas or run across the same problem?
Any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks!
Hoping for some help on a recent problem with my '03 KLR650. Bought the bike about four weeks ago... put 4000 km's on it. It's my first bike... so you may notice some newbie problems here. I'm going to give a bit of history in case it helps shed some light on things.
The weekend I bought the bike (25k on it) I went for a dual sport ride in the Salmon Arm area with a couple guys I met on this site. Spent most of the ride at the back of the pack in a cloud of dust. Managed to clean the gunk out of my lungs with liberal washings of beer. However, the beer didn't have the same effect on the KLR! My first mistake was not changing/cleaning air filter after this ride. It would be another 2500 km's before I looked at it (will get to that later).
I did another solo trip down into the Boundary country putting on another 1500 km's. Lot's of dirt riding, lot's of power, no noticeable problems. Nice to not be riding in a dust cloud. The bike now has about 27k on it. Then I used the bike for local meanderings...
The bike was using some oil but nothing that seemed out of the ordinary to me. What it did use I put down to the extremely hot weather, riding conditions, etc. It used about a quart in 3000 km's. Is this too much considering the conditions? I am using 10w40 synthetic motorbike specific oil.
Then I packed the bike up and headed off for Prince Rupert taking some excellent backroads across to Quesnel. South of Likely the bike suddenly started to stutter and lurch and lose some power. I checked the oil and it was very low. I limped into a resort and bought some oil. All they had was 10w30 so that is what I used. It took a quart and that brought it up to a nice level. Not sure if the two are related but when I left the resort the bike was running fine again.
I flew by a couple KTM 950's on my way to Quesnel... course, they were in a restaurant having lunch (and they were going the other way)....
In PG I checked the oil again and somehow close to a quart had disappeared in a matter of about 350 km's. No visible leaks anywhere. Small amounts of soot on tailpipe but nothing too bad. I topped up with 10w40 synthetic in PG.
A couple hours later I arrived in Burns Lake where the bike was once again stuttering and lurching and underpowered. The following day I changed the spark plug, changed the oil (10w30 synthetic... no 10-40 in BL), and had a look at the air filter. The air filter was a disgrace. It was caked with dried dust and dirt. I washed it, dried it, put new oil on it, and installed it in the bike. Took the bike for a ride and it ran like a charm... no stuttering and as far as I could tell full power.
The next morning I took off for Prince Rupert and the bike ran wonderfully. For about an hour... then it started doing the same thing again... stuttering, lurching, and losing power. I hobbled in to Terrace with the bike barely capable of 105 km/h.
At this time it was lurching significantly, there was very little power, and when I rev the bike to 4000 rpm it surges significantly instead of revving smoothly.
During the whole time I've had the bike it has never over heated, never made any appreciable strange noices, there was no metal on the magnetic oil plug, it doesn't smoke, and it starts and idles very nicely.
I am thinking the carbs are gummed up because I ran it for 2500 km's with a disgustingly dirty air filter! But I am not sure... any one have any ideas or run across the same problem?
Any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks!
)):
