The short of it, I suspect I'm not getting what I should out of the engine. Before I go any farther, I thought I would poll other owners of this old single cam first, maybe I'm looking for whats not there. Everyone else I know has the lighter kicker version or a much newer dual cam so its just not as relevant. I'm an avid rider, lots of experience across all different type of 2 wheeled machines and own many. I just picked this bike up (dirt and supermoto setup) and while it seems to start easy without the choke, runs well, on 15/45 gearing it boogies up to 100mph, I just can't shake the feeling that its missing torque. On my first dirt run with it, I noticed the front end seems unusually planted, sometimes diving face first over things even though I was loading it up and powering over to launch off stuff. Maybe some of that was the supermoto suspension setup. I chalked it up to weight and just enjoyed my day. Now with the Supermoto setup it is just missing any hooligan factor, forget any throttle wheelies, even clutching up the front in 1st gear is miserably difficult. It has an aftermarket 2 into one pipe, carb jets appear stock, needle enriched a little, valves all check out gap wise, timing chain makes no noise, usual airbox mods. I've tuned the mixture well, and like I said the bike feels smooth but missing the oomph I though it would have. My 88 Yamaha XT350 would snap throttle wheelies in 2nd all day, my old XT550 would power throttle the front up in 1st/2nd pretty regularly - both were old heavy bikes, in street legal trim, geared for a 90mph top speed. I haven't checked the compression yet (my adapter is missing), nor have I checked the cam to crank timing alignment (maybe its off a tooth). Reference: My Bikes Jetting: AtomizerAB264 Needle K32 Needle Position 2nd Main Jet180 Pilot Jet58 Choke jet50 Gearing 15/46 (and 16/45 but seems too tall) I have 2 different speedo gears for 21" vs 17" front wheel calibrated correctly, going to a 14T front seems short to me. It's difficult to asses these things over the internet. For arguments sake, lets just assume everyone knows how to ride hard, pop wheelies, yadda yadda, and just look for common repeatable methods to compare with to help me figure this out. Thoughts?
I've got a 350 with 14/52 (I'm pretty sure) and with a little clutch and throttle it comes up no problem. Won't lift just rolling on the throttle, but for how I ride (aggressive woods) I can tractor it, or flog it hard and get pretty outta control.....in a controlled way. Your gearing is on the high side, more high speed road oriented, probably want to go down 1 on the countershaft and up 3-4 at least on the rear. Others here with more experience with these bikes likely will know best, but you'll have to sacrifice a little of top end for more low end.
So I picked up an adapter for my compression tester to the smaller plug size, and it came up with 80 psi. That doesn't sound right at all. I can't seem to find a spec anyware for what it should be, guessing 140 psi would be more ballpark, can anyone confirm?
In case anyone else comes looking for this info, my compression test reading was incorrect. In my haste to get through all the tests again, I didn't open up the throttle while turning over the engine (electric start). The service manual for the 2000 te610e says should be above 115psi with throttle wide open, mine reads 120psi. So the valves all check out as in spec, the compression checks out, leak down test checks out. I'm down to checking the advance at the stator and potentially being a cam chain stretch/ alignment issue... or I'm just barking up the wrong tree and this bike just doesnt make the kind of power some of the other models do.
Hi, I think you hit the nail on the head with your last sentence, it will never have the power of an enduro or competition model. Cheers, Dave.
That's what I needed to hear from others with the same bike. I think I'll button it back up and just enjoy it and not go down the rabbit hole anymore, like into stater magnets coming loose, or timing chain off a tooth. Thanks everyone!
I know this is an old thread but just in case anyone has just bought an electric start and is wondering the same about the power. The difference is in the compression ratio, leccy starts only have a 9:1 compression where the kickstart models have 11:1, once you've changed the piston it makes a considerable difference. Chalk and cheese type of difference.
The later model electric start 610s have a higher compression piston (2006 and later) I would look into one of those.
