Hey all,

I have had my 94 1000FR for about 6 months now. I love in CO so I don't get to ride it much lately (its a crime, I know). When I do get to ride it I always thought I was getting good gas mileage because I its a small tank. But when I actually did the math I found that I get about 24 MPH. As far as I know that absolutely sucks for a bike. What could be causing this? I am the third owner of this bike and it has also 40K on it now. It has been dropped once by the first owner but its still in great shape.

This isn't the only problem I have with the bike. And I know she needs some TLC, bad. It spews a nice stream of smoke when I get hard on the throttle. She rattles pretty bad below 1200 RPMs. And she doesn't start up without a jump (bad battery I'm guessing, but it might be a short).

So if any (or all) of you guys who have seen these before have a good idea of what I need to do let me know. I really want to get it running before it stops getting cold here.

Thanks,
Luke

*EDIT* Does anyone know where to get body panels? The rear tail is rashed and almost broken off, and the idiot before me put some stupd blue LED blinkers on it that dont match anything else on the bike.

 

I too love in Colorado and I get 39-41 mpg. The first thing I would check is the ignition timing. Then I would pull the spark plugs. Hopefully, they are black and sooty indicating richness, not oily indicating a compression leak. If it's rich, something is wrong with the carbs, like sticky piston/needles or floats.

 

Ok, MDfighter...
The answer to your questions you have already spoken of. Spewing smoke from the exhaust is my #1 hint. The color of the smoke is important, if the smoke is blue, the engine is running rich. I would go after that in the first place anyway! #2 you have to jump the bike to start it??? Well, if you have to jump it to get it started, the engine is working hard just to get a descent spark, no? With a new battery, it will be getting better ignition, which in turn will give you better gas mileage and peformance. When I had my 94 I learned this by personal experience myself. The rattling of the engine when its cold is the good ole cam chain tensioner. Most places I have read about that tensioner, then need replacing in the neighborhood of 40,000 miles. I'm about to do mine as well, it rattles horribly when its cold, but that's now what I have been paying attention to. My 94 rattled when it was cold until I rode it about 5-10 miles then it was completely silent. With my 95 CBR, I have noticed that when warm, I can hear a slight "Whine" while riding the bike. This is why I'm replacing the chain on this one. Besides I have the head seals are leaking oil and I need to replace them. (Just a litttttle bit) So if i'm going in there I'm gonna reaplce the tensioner, the seal, and valve lash her as well as synch the carbs. Its a big tune up to me..

If u can't ride because of the weather, this is what I would do if I were u. Get a new battery, get a carb rebuild kit and a new Cam Chain tensioner as well as a repair book, and fix all those things you mentioned on this page. If all of those were working properly, your gas mileage and performance would leap! good luck and keep us posted ok???

 

Thanks for the answer guys. And from reading around a bit more it looks like I have a lot of work to do. And the only bad thing is that I live in an apartment with no garage. (I wish I could rent garage space, someone should start a company like that). So I might have to take it somewhere for them to do the work. Do you think there is anything that I could do in my apartment? I mean I'm not going to bring it up the elevator and rip it apart in the kitchen (not that I wouldn't like to) but maybe I could redo that carbs or something? I would like to do most of the work myself but the cam chain I don't think I could handle in my situation. Thoughts?

Luke

 

Over twenty years ago, I cleaned and rebuilt a Carter carb from my long-gone 65' Chrysler 300 on the kitchen table. Worked good until my wife came home and saw and smelled what was going on. Now I clean carbs outside on a portable workbench. If you want to come to the west side of Denver to check your ignition and clean those carbs, send me a PM.

 

Ok, so I installed a new battery today. It didn't QUITE fit in the old holder so I had to do some creative engineering. I didn't realize that motorcycle batteries didn't come with the acid already in it. That was an interesting experience to be playing with a level 8 corosive. (I've run enough hazmat calls to know what something like that can do.) So I get the battery in and.... it doesn't start!!! Boy was I pissed at first. So I read over the directions again and it said (I think) that you need an inital charge of 5A for 1hr. Ok, I can live with that as I already have a charger. So I set it up with that charger and I stand out in the parking garage under the watchful eye of everyone in the building. After about 45 min (I'm impatient, so sue me) I give it choke some power and hit the button. Chug chug chug.... ITS ALIVE!!! Happy again! It sounded a little different then it ever has so I guess the new battery is helping give a better spark. Still lag under 2K and it puffed a crazy puff of blue smoke at startup. But it cleaned right up. The rattle is still there (obviously) but I'm getting a little more excited that I'm moving in the right direction. Now on to timing, plugs, carbs, and cam chain.

Luke

 

Around town I average 40-41mpg. It does better on the road. Last time I went up to Steamboat I averaged right about 45. You guys are in the Denver area, We should get together and go for a ride or slam a few brews

 

Bring it on, I usually ride around by myself becuase I moved here from MD and my roommate "can't find the right bike" for himself.

I love your bike's colors. I was thinking about something similar when I finally find a place and time to repair and repaint.

Luke

 

Yeah, if they saw one CBR1000F, no big deal. And two of them is just an anomoly. But three of us together would look like a revolution. We should meet in Golden and do a ride up Lookout Mountain.

 

Sounds good to me! Might have to wait till I have some money for gas. 3 1000F's would look sweet on the road.