DesmoStucky

I once had to have my old VFR towed up a canyon off Lyons Valley. That was a $1100 tow bill. I ended up selling the salvaged bike just to cover the bill.

So below is a quick video after I made today's changes. The bike is running okay at roughly sea level. I still think it is too rich; it has fairly pronounced backfire on decel. I'm worried once I get up in elevation a bit it will run even poorer. Think I should go down on the main? I think I may buy a 172 and try it out, and maybe also go down to a 46 on the pilot. Anyone else running a JD kit on their 525 here in SD?

I have the JD cap added to the AP diaphragm. I was trying to figure out what to call that and the best I could come up with was "ap condom thing". Only deviation with the accelerator pump is I no longer have the o-ring mod, but it is safety wired.

I put the plate upside down on my old Husky TE450; it took me months to figure that one out. Luckily the KTM is correct. I adjusted the valves today and only one of my exhausts was a bit tight; all others were fine. Based on the 178 main, 48 pilot, clip 5th spot down on the JD red needle, and 2 turns on the fuel screw the bike is running MUCH better. It seems a bit rich, but it is much improved. I think the 48 pilot really helped, and I might be able to go down one more size. The bike will bog if you goose it off idle, but I'm not sure if it bogs anymore than normal. In normal riding I'm not goosing it off idle anyway, so I can probably live with it. I took a short video of how it is running now, which I'll post up in a bit. Thanks again for all the help guys

Oh, and I definitely checked that the air boot idle passages are correctly aligned. Good call! I'll give it a test ride tomorrow and report back. If I'm unsuccessful I'll shoot you a PM Spaugh. I don't think I have much more free time to tinker with it; I'd rather spend that time riding.

I thought stock pilot was 42, but I could be wrong. I have a 48, so I put that in there and took out the 50. I also put a 178 in as the main. I went through the whole carb and liberally applied carb cleaner to all passages. JD recommends the 170 main, which is what I had in there before. Perhaps my pilot was too large or also JD recommends a 172 with a "free flowing exhaust". I think I'll give the 178 a try, and then bump it down to the 172 if I don't have any luck. Thanks for all the help!

So it looks like GP only made two changes to the carb compared to when I took it in. They moved the JD red needle from the 4th position (recommended by JD) to the 5th position, and removed the o-ring accelerator pump mod and replaced it with safety wire. The accelerator pump condom thing wasn't touched, nor the idle or slow jets. Lame for my $180... So my current setup is: 170 main 50 pilot JD red needle at the 5th notch Fuel screw 1 3/4 out I did find one problem, and that is one of my vent hoses was melted shut. I'm sure this wasn't helping, but I'm surprised both GP and I missed this issue. Do you guys think this could have been the main source of all my issues? I'm cleaning everything out now and will reassemble in a bit.

Damn! I don't sign into the forum for a couple of days and you guys have flooded me with help. I truly appreciate all the suggestions. I think I will take the carb apart at least to document what GP changed. I can easily get it back to stock at that point. I'm pretty close to taking it back in to a shop and having someone else deal with it. I NEVER take my bikes into the shop, but with a new kid at home it has been difficult to find time for all my little projects. I had completed a full carb cleaning when I put the JD kit in. It has been a couple of months now, but I do always drain the bowl before I let the bike sit. Regardless, I'll clean everything out again and put some fresh fuel in once I get the carb back to stock. Thanks for the tip. Yeah, I guess I didn't give much details with the whole, "runs like crap" description. Basically, the bike is tough to start and doesn't idle well at all. As the bike warms up the idle rpm significantly increases. I honestly haven't ridden it much since the rebuild or JD kit install. I do remember that last time I rode it the bike was super "juddery" on maintenance throttle. Basically at a very small throttle opening the bike would kick forward sporadically, and just wasn't smooth at all. Tons of generosity on the forum! I am going to troubleshoot some more and post up on the forum. If I get stuck I may send you a PM. Also, I have the R&D brass remote fuel screw, so I shouldn't have any issues with an old, messed up fuel screw.

That is incredibly generous! I may have to take you up on that offer if I can't come up with any other alternatives.

I recently had my KTM's top-end rebuilt by Dave Hopkins. I had the works done, new kibblewhite valves, new cam chain, re-plated cylinder, new piston, and of course all the gaskets. Dave did a great job, but upon rebuilding the bike the fuel mixture was totally off. I couldn't get the bike fueling correct with the stock jetting and thus began my efforts to get the bike running well again. I first installed a JD Jet Kit, but was unsuccessful in dialing in the carb myself. I suck with carbs, so I figured I'd take it in to GP to see what they could do. I provided them the original needle and jets, and the full JD jet kit. Well, $180 dollars later and the bike still runs like crap. GP states: GP didn't mention what they installed, or what position they changed the needle to. So now I'm out $180 bucks, the bike runs terrible, and apparently I bought a JD kit that is also crap. Any experience or advice from the forum with similar issues or what my next step should be? Return the JD kit and go complain to GP? I was thinking of cutting my losses with GP and taking the bike to Lee's Cycle. I have heard a lot of great stuff about the JD kits, so I'm surprised the kit is being blamed. To be fair, the bike ran poorly before I installed the kit, and I'm annoyed that GP didn't do whatever was necessary with the parts I proved them and just get the damn thing running well. I just want to go for a ride, haha.

I went up the hill just before, and didn't even get to see it in person!

Thanks to all for a fun ride. I was able to meet a few of you, but look forward to meeting more on future rides. I'm definitely now itching to ditch my upcoming Wednesday commitments, and join you all at the track. Oh, and thanks to Weirrider for taking a few of us over the mountain towards the end of the main ride. Good times.

It would be good to meet you guys so I'll join in. No truck, so I'll be riding down from Serra Mesa. I may try to bring my noob friend, but we'll see if he can get out of bed in time. See you guys at 0700.

Earmuffs!

That's a pretty solid endorsement bikeslut. Good idea to use the racks for negotiation. I am going to tear them out either way. It might not work though, because when I spoke with him I think he said they are upgrading to ford transit and transit connects. Reviewing the carfax looks like I'll need to do transmission fluid, possibly belts, and cam chain tensioner as preventative. I'll let you guys know how it goes.