| Author |
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Blake
| | Posted on Sunday, October 06, 2002 - 01:36 pm: | 
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Track day yesterday...
Mounted new front brake pads, unloaded bike...
Wouldn't start, cranked fine, just no spark...
Pull out service manual...
20 minutes later with help of mini DVM, diagnose faulty coil...
Call local dealer, yes he has coils in stock...
Wait for my buddy to finish his session on the track...
Head out for lunch and to pick up a new coil...
90 minutes late, I'm on the track having a blast.
Even with the late start, I still logged over 100 miles lapping a very twisty and technical Oak Hill Raceway. Best track day yet! |
Rick_A
| | Posted on Sunday, October 06, 2002 - 02:32 pm: |
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How horrible  |
Ray_Maines
| | Posted on Sunday, October 06, 2002 - 06:18 pm: |
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I guess the only real question is, How often does this sort of thing happen to a Honda (or Ducati, or Suzuki, or.......) rider? It's easy to think that it never happens to the other guys, and maybe it doesn’t, but then again maybe it does.
If I actually gave a crap about Hondas (or Duc's or Suzukis, or whatever) I'd be reading the other BBS's and I could answer my own question but I don't and therefore this becomes a rhetorical question. The fact is, I don't even know how big of a sampling of Buell riders this BBS represents.
All I can really say (and this is pitiful) is that my M2 never stranded me and I would have trusted it not to embarrasses me at a track day or anywhere else. Sometimes I wish I were a magazine editor and/or test rider and had vast experience with dozens of bikes. |
Blake
| | Posted on Monday, October 07, 2002 - 12:57 am: |
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Ray,
Good point. There was a guy, Todd, at the track yesterday having serious problems with his bike. He didn't get to ride but a few laps and had to go home early with a bike that kept trying to melt down. Same exact thing happened to him last weekend. His UJM 600 kept overheating. They couldn't figure out why. As I was walking by after a session, Todd commented, "I think I'll get an air cooled bike". I laughed and said something like "Yeah, then you'd only have to worry about the engine getting so hot it actually melts."
On a more positive note, a young racer named Michael Sanchez and his older brother/crew chief showed real interest in the old M2. I offered to let Michael take it out for a session. He normally rides Supersport, GP, and Superbike. It was really cool seeing my Buell tear up the track in the hands of a skilled racer.
With just one round left in the eleven race CMRA season, young Michael has clinched six out of the seven most hotly contested amateur classes. He needs to finish within ten points of his closest competitor in MW SS at the final race next Sunday to win all seven. The classes he has already clinched include UL GP, MW GP, HW SB, MW SB, UL SS, and HW SS.
Within the seven highly contested classes in which Michael is competing this year, he has amassed 59 victories and five second place finishes. That's out of a total possible of 70. He hasn't missed a single race in any of the classes. Can you imagine?... Seven events in one day totaling over 100 miles of all out racing, many of them in 100oF Texas Summer heat.
Even more impressive, his only racing machine through the first seven events was a YZFR6. So in four of the classes he is contesting (all the UL and HW classes) for 28 total races, Michael was competing and beating racers riding 750's or 1,000 cc twins.
He really impressed me. Michael is polite and considerate, he's smart, his dedication, enthusiasm, and work ethic are extraordinary. This kid is going somewhere in professional motorcycle racing.
He plans to be at Daytona next year.
Buell Racing, if you see this, you might want to keep an eye on young Michael. He as yet, lacks a factory sponsor.
Oh yeah. He thought my M2 was a total blast to ride. Said its power surprised him and that it was a capable track bike, that it was ultra stable through the turns. He noted that the suspension was good, but could use dialing in, at least for him at ~40 pounds lighter than I. He said when he got aggressive with the braking coming into a turn or when accelerating hard out of a corner, the bike tended to want to get out of shape, you know, the typical waggle action when a racebike isn't setup quite right. I still have the WP shock and Racetech fork kit including springs to install. He also noted that 2nd gear was more like a 1-1/2 gear and that, as I warned, the shifting action was inferior to current UJMs. I think I'm going to go ahead and put in the new ratio 2nd gear.
The final CMRA sprint racing is next Sunday at Motor Sports Ranch in Cresson, TX, near Fort Worth. |
Blake
| | Posted on Monday, October 07, 2002 - 01:16 am: |
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I also recall the track school last February. There was a guy and his girlfriend that brought three UJM's, one was just an XR100 pit bike. The other two were an SV650, and a UJM IL4 superbike/supersport; can't recall exactly what it was, probably a GSXR750. He couldn't get the GSXR to run, and when gridding the SV right next to me, it started peeing fuel all over the place. He ended up doing the school on the XR100. |
Benm2
| | Posted on Monday, October 07, 2002 - 09:37 am: |
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Food for thought as well, there's an extensive article in this month's Roadracing World mag about valve stem breakage on GSXR 600 bikes. The article was written by the endurance team that runs the bike, and it shows a pile of "shot" heads.
Also, to all, what are the odds that ANY current UJM shop would have an ignition coil in stock?
Ben |
Blake
| | Posted on Monday, October 07, 2002 - 06:53 pm: |
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Ben,
I read that too. Great article relating the decline in reliability of the supersports to the decline in quality of coffee in America. That was some great writing. |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Thursday, October 10, 2002 - 11:33 am: |
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Blake...
Not to insult or patronize, but remember to check for internal breaks under the insulation on the positive and negative battery wires.
Probably not the problem in your case, but a lot of mysterious failures here ended up being this, so at the first hint of electrical problems on my M2 that (and the sidestand switch) will be the first two things I check regardless of symptoms.
Again, I'm sure you checked it, but wanted to mention it just in case. I once completely traced back and dissasembled most of the electrical system of a Yamaha Radian just to discover that the dead headlight problem was actually an oxidized kill switch contact... when I had correctly diagnosed and fixed the same problem not 6 months before in about 10 minutes (forehead slap). |
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