Post valve adjust voodoo

[CycleCam303]

I'm going to lay some info out that will most likely prevent any ninjette member from buying my bike if I ever sell it but whatever.

I finally checked and adjusted the valves on my 09 250. It had just over 15000 miles and they have NEVER been serviced throughout the bike's life. Not surprisingly the exhaust valves were super tight. I believe I could barely get a .003 feeler gauge through two of them. My bike is completely stock motor wise and my gas mileage was dropping to consistent 52-51 mpg.

Now that you know the history check this out. So bike starts up, I miraculously didnt screw anything up, and I go to rev it no less than 10 seconds after it starts and it didnt die under throttle. I haven't started the bike in 3 weeks and the motor was cold. Before when I would first start the bike, I needed the choke, or the bike would start and then drop to 1000rpms and die a few seconds later, also unless you had the choke wide open if you revved the bike when it would start to stall it would just instantly die. None of this happened yesterday. The other surprise is that @rojoracing53 took the bike out without letting it warm up for 3 to 4 minutes and had no fueling issues or hiccups and lower rpms and parking lot speeds and maneuvers.

Normally I have to feed in a tiny bit of gas to get the bike to rev then I can open the throttle wide. This is only a serious annoyance in the morning, or when the bike is first started for the day. Like the bike will choke out 1/8th of the way through an intersection if you open up the throttle quite a bit when leaving from a stop. The bike still has that slight laggy response when you go 3/4 to full throttle right off of idle but it doesn't straight fall on its face anymore.

In all honesty the bike is running better than it ever has before. Rojo even commented that its running fine. All we did was adjust the shims and do a carb sync. I'm not running different jetting nor did I shim the needles. It has been pretty damn hot here in California so maybe the heat helps with the cold starts. But the bike feels noticeably better.

Perhaps from the factory the valves weren't adjusted correctly and should be set on the loose side of the spectrum. Or maybe the carbs were out of sync from tr get go. I'll do more testing but I want to thank @rojoracing53 for hooking my bike up.

[rojoracing53]

Oh stop it.......no really keep going

[greenaero]

Bueno!!
The first thing I did when I got my 2005 Ninja home was to adjust the valves. The PO told me that his fuel economy had been dropping into the 50mgs and the bike didn't idle smoothly. I always keep my valve lash at the maximum. After the adjustment and carb synch the bike idle smoothly and pulled better at lower rpms. The first test produced 80 mpg with all stock configuration ( except for the taller windscreen).

[CycleCam303]

Good so it wasnt just me. I'm curious if I got the bad batch of the fleet. The bike is running great and I'm still convinced that its pulling better through the lower rev range than it ever has before.

[tfkrocks]

Sounds like I really need a valve adjustment then. I'm getting **** mpg on the 250R; it's been around 44mpg. Good thing I'm getting that done next weekend.

[CycleCam303]

O cool. Let me know if you notice a big difference. And my own thread jack but how does the new gen compare to your 300. I want a 300...I think

[tfkrocks]

Originally Posted by CycleCam303

O cool. Let me know if you notice a big difference. And my own thread jack but how does the new gen compare to your 300. I want a 300...I think

The 300 is easily way better. Get one

[rojoracing53]

Originally Posted by tfkrocks

Sounds like I really need a valve adjustment then. I'm getting **** mpg on the 250R; it's been around 44mpg. Good thing I'm getting that done next weekend.

What are they going to charge you?

I was thinking of offering the same deal to other that I did for Cameron at price that covers my time. Coolant & and oil change with filter and valve inspection for $250. This means you would do all the work while I teach you how and make sure you don't **** anything up. Not sure how many people would go for it but Cameron seemed to have fun learning about his bike with no fear of screwing anything up.

[tfkrocks]

Originally Posted by rojoracing53

What are they going to charge you?

I was thinking of offering the same deal to other that I did for Cameron at price that covers my time. Coolant & and oil change with filter and valve inspection for $250. This means you would do all the work while I teach you how and make sure you don't **** anything up. Not sure how many people would go for it but Cameron seemed to have fun learning about his bike with no fear of screwing anything up.

I'm getting charged $180 and the person I bought it from is paying for half of it because she originally thought the valve adjustment had been done. I'll take you up on that offer next time. Wanna teach me how to replace the chain and sprockets though? Maybe the brakes and brake lines later?

[Dano]

Originally Posted by rojoracing53

What are they going to charge you?

I was thinking of offering the same deal to other that I did for Cameron at price that covers my time. Coolant & and oil change with filter and valve inspection for $250. This means you would do all the work while I teach you how and make sure you don't **** anything up. Not sure how many people would go for it but Cameron seemed to have fun learning about his bike with no fear of screwing anything up.

You could ride to PA and show me....lol

[CycleCam303]

$180 nice. Looks like rojo deal is getting undercut like a mofo lol. But feel free to hit us up if you ever need help and stuff like that.

[CycleCam303]

New gen is shim under bucket adjustment. So it makes for good practice for real bikes.

[JustRidin]

Originally Posted by rojoracing53

What are they going to charge you?

I was thinking of offering the same deal to other that I did for Cameron at price that covers my time. Coolant & and oil change with filter and valve inspection for $250. This means you would do all the work while I teach you how and make sure you don't **** anything up. Not sure how many people would go for it but Cameron seemed to have fun learning about his bike with no fear of screwing anything up.

Man, wish I was in CA. I'd take that deal most likely. Learning self sufficiency on bike maintenance under an experienced eye would be nice.

[parox91]

Originally Posted by CycleCam303

I'm going to lay some info out that will most likely prevent any ninjette member from buying my bike if I ever sell it but whatever.

I finally checked and adjusted the valves on my 09 250. It had just over 15000 miles and they have NEVER been serviced throughout the bike's life. Not surprisingly the exhaust valves were super tight. I believe I could barely get a .003 feeler gauge through two of them. My bike is completely stock motor wise and my gas mileage was dropping to consistent 52-51 mpg.

Now that you know the history check this out. So bike starts up, I miraculously didnt screw anything up, and I go to rev it no less than 10 seconds after it starts and it didnt die under throttle. I haven't started the bike in 3 weeks and the motor was cold. Before when I would first start the bike, I needed the choke, or the bike would start and then drop to 1000rpms and die a few seconds later, also unless you had the choke wide open if you revved the bike when it would start to stall it would just instantly die. None of this happened yesterday. The other surprise is that @rojoracing53 took the bike out without letting it warm up for 3 to 4 minutes and had no fueling issues or hiccups and lower rpms and parking lot speeds and maneuvers.

Normally I have to feed in a tiny bit of gas to get the bike to rev then I can open the throttle wide. This is only a serious annoyance in the morning, or when the bike is first started for the day. Like the bike will choke out 1/8th of the way through an intersection if you open up the throttle quite a bit when leaving from a stop. The bike still has that slight laggy response when you go 3/4 to full throttle right off of idle but it doesn't straight fall on its face anymore.

In all honesty the bike is running better than it ever has before. Rojo even commented that its running fine. All we did was adjust the shims and do a carb sync. I'm not running different jetting nor did I shim the needles. It has been pretty damn hot here in California so maybe the heat helps with the cold starts. But the bike feels noticeably better.

Perhaps from the factory the valves weren't adjusted correctly and should be set on the loose side of the spectrum. Or maybe the carbs were out of sync from tr get go. I'll do more testing but I want to thank @rojoracing53 for hooking my bike up.

Mine was worse, couldn't get a .001 in there! they were SO tight the bike wouldn't want to idle less than 3k rpm... now it's such a happy little ninja with the valves set to the largest clearance (since they get tighter iirc)