My '89 600 stalled on me while making my "long" 1.3 mile commute....in the rain....this morning. Not a huge problem, it restarted after about a minute later and I continued on my way....under full choke. A few minutes later, after wondering why the bike sounded horrible and performed worse, I realized that the choke was on and shut it off.

On the ride home, I discovered that if I let the revs get up to about 5-6K and close the throttle to slow down (no clutch or brakes, just engine braking) my rare tire will skip, happily down the road. Uh...yeah, that's not right.

Oh, and on a side note, my turn signals stopped working too.

Any thoughts?

 

turn it into a street fighter...

 

First check your air filter make sure its not stopped up.
this well cause lack of airflow to the motor creating sever drag on motor.
then I would check 2 things
first is the rear brake make sure it is releasing and
2 rear bearings make sure it turns free and don't bind.
another would be low tread on tire
over inflated tire
or even a old tire.
the last 3 on a wet road don't play well together more so if it is a well traveled road.
you could even have a clogged exhaust.
if nether of these seem to be the problem you may have engine trouble or even transmission trouble which I know you may not want to hear.
Rear tire slide would be caused by any of the above.
the list of causes can be rather long as to the problem and a good look over would be needed but those can be some quick checks.

when the motor died was you using it to slow down?

on a side note don't think turn signal had anything to do with it

 

LOL...thanks Logan, but I think street fighters look silly, and I would not have bought a bike with brand-new, sweeping plastics if I wanted to shed them.

Thanks for all the input Joe. First, damn, I was hoping the turn signals were causing the rear tire to lock up..LOL

Umm...I think I was traveling at a steady pace when the bike died.

Rear tire has lots of tread left, and appears fairly new. The roads were dry on the way home, so wet roads weren't causing the problem.

The bike is still very easy to push start btw. I went out and tried that late last night. Also, at low RPMs, the problem isn't seen, just when I completely close the throttle at high RPMs if that helps anyone. Maybe this is natural behavior for the bike, but I wouldn't expect it to be. It sure would make racing interesting though..LOL!

I'll check the airbox and take a look at the exhaust...good times!!

Thanks again for the responses.

 

When you close the throttle at higher RPMs does it take awhile for the revs to wind down?

Since the enigne isn't pulling as hard at low revs you probably won't experience the problem there too much. As the revs get higher towards the power band you'll notice that the bike will pull harder with more throttle and engine brake more when you close the throttle. If the revs are taking awhile to wind down then it sounds like the road and the engine are both trying to slow the tire at different rates, which can lead to skipping.

 

HHMmmm...yano, I wasn't paying too much attention to the revs when it happened Meta...it's raining again today, I'll have to wait for dry ground and make it do it some more before I can answer that. \

Another forum suggested that I check my clutch also because just prior to this, the lower end of the motor started developing a "jingling" sound.

 

Your bike is probably stalling. This is what causes the tire to skip (it is in gear and not running). After the tire skips the engine restarts like you are push starting it.

something is either choking the engine out (plugged exhaust or vacuum leak) or the ignition system is getting wet or has a problem.

I won't comment on your streetfighter comment

KongBastard

 

Check your chain and sprockets, too! Stretched chains sound funny, too!
Now you sound funny!

 

Well, the bike acted fine on the way to work today. Maybe I just had too much water in the airbox/exhaust causing the bike to not breath right? It doesn't make sense to me, but I have no other explanation at this time.

Now, if I can only get the silly turn signals to work again....