TOPIC:

My big old Z has been running pretty well of late, it hasn’t been used for the past fortnight or so due to work commitments. I finished early on Friday so I took it for a short bimble around the town and the big swine wouldn’t tick over smoothly and it was bogging down when pulling away from standstill. Nothing too bad, but noticeable just the same. Today I gave it a good hard run up the motorway (freeway) I thrashed its arse for about twenty odd miles, mostly between 90 and 100 mph. And guess what? It’s running as sweet as a little pussycat again.
So my questions is, are we too soft and gentle on these old bikes? I'm starting to think they need a good hard blast now and again.

McZed wrote: My big old Z has been running pretty well of late, it hasn’t been used for the past fortnight or so due to work commitments. I finished early on Friday so I took it for a short bimble around the town and the big swine wouldn’t tick over smoothly and it was bogging down when pulling away from standstill. Nothing too bad, but noticeable just the same. Today I gave it a good hard run up the motorway (freeway) I thrashed its arse for about twenty odd miles, mostly between 90 and 100 mph. And guess what? It’s running as sweet as a little pussycat again.
So my questions is, are we too soft and gentle on these old bikes? I'm starting to think they need a good hard blast now and again.

Your Kaw's a swine?? and now it's a pussycat?? What kind of a farm are you running out of?? (joking of course!!)

My guess is that you're losing some oil periodically and it's building up around the piston rings and then carboning up causing the rings to stick. Taking it out for a good hard ride may help reseat the rings and burn off the carbon or at least it heated up the pistons enough that the rings relaxed in the piston grooves and that helped sealing up the piston in the cylinder.

All engines need a good thrashing at least once or twice every run. It's good for them.

I have yet to meet a 2-valve Kawasaki mill that doesn't enjoy a good kick in rear. They just need to spin up every now and then, cleans up the combustion chamber, burns out some fouling and clears the varnish out of the jets.

And really it a lot like taking a thoroughbred out of the stables and refusing to let him run, its down right cruel!

I always give my performance vehicles a good hard run after puttering around in the city building all that carbon up. I also drive a TDI Jetta and the turbo gets blocked up with soot if not run hard periodically.