headed for the track!

[zippy49]

Hi guys, I'm back. I have parked my '98 Traveller since I had a problem with the stock carb set as well as the new TM35 setup that's on it now. Can anyone enlighten me on how to keep the slides from sticking shut? They are completely free until I close the throttle to slow down, then it takes a quick pull on the clutch lever to free it up. Is it missing the correct air bleed jet? I bought them new from Vintage Spoke, but they have been zero help on tuning them.

A year or so ago I found a junker '95 Sport that I bought for parts. It is really a mess, but it ran. It was so bad looking that it offended me when the owner fired it up! I swapped its fuel tank onto my '98 as the original tank decided to lose a few big patches of paint. Then it sat while I worked on other bikes, including an '09 YZF-R6 that I sold to a young friend. He was talking about track days right away, but still lacks experience. I got him to get all the proper riding gear first, he does listen. But he has already parked it in the weeds once, and replacing all that plastic was a total hassle. A jigsaw puzzle from the depths of Hades!

Then one day I looked at the junker and had an idea. Track bike! Easy to fix and expendable if it came to it. I've named it 'the Titanic' as I am raising it from the depths. So I de-spidered it (mostly) and put it on my bench for disassembly. Meanwhile I have been trolling fleabay daily for parts. I really lucked out when a guy in Colorado (thanks again Tom) sold me his parts hoard; it included a complete Traveller fairing, carb set, cables, levers, brake assemblies, new fuel tank, manuals, invoices, on and on - unpacking all those boxes was just like Christmas!

So the current plan is to put the TMs plus the K&Ns and Shorai (in a custom holder) on the Titanic, the 'new' carb set and stock airbox back on the '98. I'll chop up the subframe just a bit once I find a racing seat - anyone know of a source? The stock seats and rear cowl on the Titanic are not usable. I have a lot of extra parts for swaps if desired. Like two spare ECUs, a couple of headlamps, extra fairing parts. I need some mounting brackets for the lowers if anyone has extras.

I'll update this thread with pics once I have something that's not too ugly to look at. Right now it's bad. Hopefully the engine internals are in better shape than the rest of the bike, but at least parts are still available from Yamaha. Fingers crossed.

[edfmaniac]

I'm confused as to why the clutch has anything to do with the carb slides sticking. If you need customer service on the carb tuning and sticking issue, you'd be better off contacting Topham. Vintage Spoke is just a parts distributor whereas Topham prepares the carbs and would know a lot more about the subject.

http://www.mikuni-topham.de/ENGLISHSITE ... glish.html

[zippy49]

Second try at a reply...

I'm talking about compression braking. Fanning the clutch is the only way to free the slides, because that disconnects the rear tire from the engine. Not very user friendly!

That website was not much help as my German is way rusty. I did send them an email. I guess my next option is to call Galen at Bikeworx. His number is on the cover of one of the manuals I got yesterday....