Back in late February I bought my first bike, a CB 350, and it ran great for a few weekend. (I'm up at school right now, almost done, so I'm only home on the weekends to ride) And of course most of the weekends it was raining so I couldn't ride. Anyway near the end of spring break it was beautiful so I went out for a nice ride.
As I was heading back home someone decided to turn at the last second and gave me almost no time to react. I can't remember the exact order but there was downshifting, throttling up and or down and braking. A real mess but I made it out fine, my bike however didn't. I got maybe 10 feet past the intersection and the thing sounded horrible then stalled out. After what seemed like an hour, probably about 5-10mins, I got the bike running again and headed home (a mile or so from where I was) but stalled once more on the way there.
Once I got home I realized that the bike was running really sluggish, the throttle wasn't giving it enough power and it didn't sound right at all. Popping and thumpy. At that point there wasn't much time to look into it and in the weekends after I've been pretty busy. This past weekend my dad and I were fuddling around with it and got the carbs set and oil changed. We were going to clean the filter but the last two owners (I'm the third) seem to have stripped every screw and bolt so instead of cleaning the filter we just changed the oil. (I'm looking into getting new screws for the filter access and then we're gonna get the stripped ones out, there's absolutely no hold left on them, it's ridiculous) Changing the oil and getting the carbs set seems to have helped a lot but there are still some problems:
1) When the throttle is fully open the bike isn't getting past maybe 4,000rpm. That may even be a high estimate. It just isn't doing what it's supposed be doing. We think the throttle cables may be loose, is that right? If not what else might it be?
2) The bike has a hard time starting unless the Choke is in the full open position. (The electric start doesn't work so it's all kick, another problem in itself) Would that be related to the throttle problem or might there be a problem with the fuel line?
Those are the two main conclusions we came up with. At the time my dad had to go to a family thing and I had my own stuff to do so we didn't get past the carbs and oil change, but like I said, they really seem to have helped. I have the original owners manual and a book on CB250 and 350's (forget what it's called, Cleimer or something, I know a lot of people have it) but I couldn't find any throttle fixes in there. I'd appreciate any help you guys could give me, riding this thing is amazing. I've wanted a motorcycle for a while now and this is exactly what I was hoping for. The not running, eeeeh not so much hoping for that but I'm definitely willing to learn how to fix this thing myself.
Thanks a lot and I look forward to hanging around here a bit.
As I was heading back home someone decided to turn at the last second and gave me almost no time to react. I can't remember the exact order but there was downshifting, throttling up and or down and braking. A real mess but I made it out fine, my bike however didn't. I got maybe 10 feet past the intersection and the thing sounded horrible then stalled out. After what seemed like an hour, probably about 5-10mins, I got the bike running again and headed home (a mile or so from where I was) but stalled once more on the way there.
Once I got home I realized that the bike was running really sluggish, the throttle wasn't giving it enough power and it didn't sound right at all. Popping and thumpy. At that point there wasn't much time to look into it and in the weekends after I've been pretty busy. This past weekend my dad and I were fuddling around with it and got the carbs set and oil changed. We were going to clean the filter but the last two owners (I'm the third) seem to have stripped every screw and bolt so instead of cleaning the filter we just changed the oil. (I'm looking into getting new screws for the filter access and then we're gonna get the stripped ones out, there's absolutely no hold left on them, it's ridiculous) Changing the oil and getting the carbs set seems to have helped a lot but there are still some problems:
1) When the throttle is fully open the bike isn't getting past maybe 4,000rpm. That may even be a high estimate. It just isn't doing what it's supposed be doing. We think the throttle cables may be loose, is that right? If not what else might it be?
2) The bike has a hard time starting unless the Choke is in the full open position. (The electric start doesn't work so it's all kick, another problem in itself) Would that be related to the throttle problem or might there be a problem with the fuel line?
Those are the two main conclusions we came up with. At the time my dad had to go to a family thing and I had my own stuff to do so we didn't get past the carbs and oil change, but like I said, they really seem to have helped. I have the original owners manual and a book on CB250 and 350's (forget what it's called, Cleimer or something, I know a lot of people have it) but I couldn't find any throttle fixes in there. I'd appreciate any help you guys could give me, riding this thing is amazing. I've wanted a motorcycle for a while now and this is exactly what I was hoping for. The not running, eeeeh not so much hoping for that but I'm definitely willing to learn how to fix this thing myself.
Thanks a lot and I look forward to hanging around here a bit.
