What a way to start the day. Had a spare, so it added a few minutes to my morning. Carefully cleaned the dust from around the plug, swapped, started and rode.
That’s it. I have a friend that worked in a bike shop, they called it a ‘Crack Attack’. His shop specialized in airhead BMW repairs, the spark plugs are easily accessible on those. Usually some of the cooling fins ended up broken.
I’ve also heard people use them to break car windows. Same principle as a glass breaker, but you can hide it more easily, and if the cops find it you can always lie that you’re going to a shop to buy a replacement.
Yeah most likely taken for the ceramic. The ceramic at the top of a spark plug is commonly used to break into cars, as a small piece can shatter a window easily.
There’s no way around idling the bike in the morning for a couple of minutes? Seems weird to me. Pulling the choke and going easy the first couple of miles/km is the way to go, or am I wrong here?
Honestly, that sounds like a mechanical issue that needs addressing. I haven’t had a bike for a while now, but my late 80’s GS 500 would always start up fine with a little (or a little more) choke, no matter the temperatures. I’d fire her up, slip into my gloves and be on my way.
I’m riding an early 80s GS, so you know how quiet these little fellas are. Like the other person said, it’s important to at least get the cylinder walls a little warm and expanded.
I notice the idle is a bit slower (read: resistant) at start between my mornings in soCal vs here in Seattle. All the more reason to run with coke for a few minutes.
Also, I’m doing this at 7 or 730, that’s not that early, right??
If you’re permanently in SoCal, you might want to adjust your carburetor a bit leaner (I think - it’s been a while since I had a carbureted bike). That said, an 80s two-cylinder isn’t going to be that loud with stock exhaust, even with the choke. Certainly, quieter and less annoying than a leaf-blower or a Harley-rider revving unnecessarily in their driveway.
Not that it in any way justifies vandalism, but a guy who lived around the corner from my gf decided to park his bike right across the street from her place for a year or so and him starting up and idling like that, just outside the window, at around 6am every day…
…well…like I said, it doesn’t justify vandalism at all, but I can at least see why someone may feel that way.
I moved into an apartment years ago where it was partially below ground. Didn’t think anything of it. And then the first morning I slept there I was startled awake by a car’s horn and then engine as it was being remote started directly in my face. Or at least, that’s what it felt like. The window was at headlight height, and the car was parked right up to the window. It was hell. Nothing could have prepared me for that. So incredibly loud and bright. Thankfully it was a temporary apartment, but lemme tell you I was highly motivated to get out of there within a few months.
In the second case years later it was a beep. Just a constant high-frequency beep that would not end. Non-stop every hour for months. Apparently my neighbor’s RV was parked at a business’s back lot behind my house. Well, the battery was dying so the obvious move is to beep non-stop until the battery is fully dead. Months. A few weeks into this insanity I reported it to the police and they drove out and argued with me about how they couldn’t hear it and that finally it wasn’t loud enough to constitute a nuisance. I can hear it during the day, and I can sure as shit hear it in my bedroom 150ft away. Doesn’t have to be loud to me incredibly annoying. White noise would barely mask it. I wanted to burn that RV to the ground.
Bike’s got a stock exhaust, hopefully it’s not a pissed neighbor from having to warm her up for a couple of minutes in the morning.
Stock exhaust on a two-banger being a problem? Unlikely, if it was built this century. Thanks for not being one of those attention-seeking bikers that give the rest of us a bad name.
ETA: I see it’s an 80s GS. Shouldn’t be very loud.
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