Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater
I've been riding the CL175 streetbike around quite a bit lately, enjoying the tiny, lightweight bike. In the last month or so, though, the engine had started making this odd clattering noise, particularly when it was cold.
On a 35 year old bike, even when it only has 14 thousand miles on the odometer, odd clattering noises are not at all comforting. My mind ran through some of the chilling possibilities: bearing wear on the camshaft or crankshaft, either of which would require tearing the engine down and possibly replacing huge chunks of it; broken pieces in the valve train, potentially causing more damage for each revolution of the engine; a broken camchain tensioner, leaving the camchain to flop around inside the engine, messing up valve timing and shaving chunks off the engine case... The possibilities were myriad and daunting.
I decided, however, to try the simple solutions first. The simplest is to adjust the valves. If they're out of adjustment (gap too wide) they can make ominous clattering noises like what I was hearing. After a certain amount of grunting and swearing (because nothing's ever easy, even on super-simple vintage bikes like this one), I got all the valves adjusted. I found that the intake valves were both fairly loose, and one of the exhaust valves was loose. Not enough to cause the clattering, I thought, but enough to cause performance problems. So no matter what, it was a fine thing to do.
Imagine my relief when I started the motor, and the doomful clanking noises were no longer present! It was a beautiful moment, and one that I felt like sharing (and here we are). It's so nice when the solution you really want to work is the one that actually does work.
Posted at 12:28 permanent link category: /motorcycle
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater