Hi all, more questions. I don’t have an owners manual for the SL, the bike seems to struggle running, I push the choke lever fully forward, it starts, I leave it like the for a minute or so then slowly reduce the choke, bike runs and will rev, when I turn the choke off fully (it sort of clicks when pushed fully down) the bike won’t tick over and almost backfires when I try to rev it, it cuts out if I don’t rev it or push the choke back on a little. If I push the choke further on the bike revs as I push the choke, as I assume it should, it just won’t tick over with the choke fully off. As this bike hasn’t been on the road for 3-4 years and lived in a house I was kind of hoping I wasn’t going to have too many issues. Thanks
How did it run when you inspected it before purchase? I’ll assume it had been drained of fuel when stored, but I’d suspect the carb jets need checking. Without being the merchant of doom I ended up buying a brand new carb (£175) for my Sons Aprilia and that had run fine for a little over a year then played up chronically. It would run ok on choke tick over and rev ok but out on the road it wouldn’t rev out at all.
It sounded and run fine. I’m wondering if the choke lever when fully off past the click is some type of shut off? I can’t feel any sort of cable movement until after this “click”. When I turn the choke lever back to just before the click the bike runs and revs fine? Like I said I don’t have an owners manual.
It sounds to me to be an issue the idle circuit possibly, if on fully closed choke it won’t tick over. Like for my Sons bike it ran fine all the way up until it didn’t. First I cleaned the carb then the jets then the whole body. Then came checking the electrical circuit which then forced my hand to buy a carb. His bike now runs perfectly fine. Hopefully you can resolve the issue quickly.
Thanks Viv, it’s more the lever on the handle bars. I think I need to find an owners manual or Haynes manual. Thanks
I would try cleaning the carbs first, in particular the pilot jets then set them up again as far as throttle play, idle speed and balance. If disassembling, note down how many turns each fuel screw takes to seat, makes reassembly easier. Also recording the jet sizes is handy info to know.
Started the bike today as he weather is a little warmer, started straight away on choke, after a while of running it was smoking which looked like a fuel issue, it also smelt “fuely”Took the plugs out and they were black. Cleaned them and the bike fired up and ran ok off choke, still hints of smoke when I rev it so I’m thinking it needs a good ride out as it hasn’t been used for 3 years? I feel a bit better about it especially as it ticks over without choke which it wasn’t doing before.
Mine always starts/runs much better with clean/new plugs . It doesn't really like the cold either, mind you I take a while to get going in the morning too at this time of year !
