Kawi2strokes.com Forum

Let's just say there are many ways to do things, you did it much better......

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

I know I still have quite a bit of learning to do and fiddling with this non-stock carb, that's why I come here to get insight from those with much more experience than I do.

I don't plan on running the bike WOT often, but want to know how it does and if it's running correct.

I rode over 300 miles on it first weekend of this month, riding from Chicago to the Mississippi maintaining an indicated 65 mph with a bit of throttle left, but the hills and wind had me wanting a stronger clutch. I have plans of riding in the Rockies and the PNW this September too, but the bike will be carried on the Jeep till the roads get fun.

Think I need to spend some time reading Jim's posts about his DT100 too.

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Aaron
1980 KE100 (ZomBessie)

I'm afraid there may not be much in the way of DT100 posts to help you Aaron, but if you have any questions I can try to answer them.

I do think that you'd be better off with something a little bigger for long trips, unless you really have a thing for sticking to 100cc. I would not expect my DT100 to last terribly long if I tried to take it on multi-hundred mile trips run mostly near wide-open throttle. Even yesterday's track day with the DT100 alternated between WOT and closed throttle the whole time, so the engine wasn't at a 100% duty cycle.

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

I agree, a 100 is a play bike, 20 - 30 mile round trip rides at the most. It's just asking for trouble to be doing what you are doing. Bordering on the ridiculous. Get a 4 stroke, at least a 250, preferably larger if you want to go on long rides. There was a reason almost everyone was taken aback when you told them how far you rode to the Gap. Made no sense..........

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

The other side of the coin is the way it's so totally insane it's cool. But I still say you'd be better off with a bigger bike, and your wife (bless her heart) would probably do a lot less worrying and retrieving.

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

Yes John, not everyone can run a G3SS over 50K miles and run it WFO any chance he could.
But I do recall a certain 17 yo boy who did so back in 1971-72.
The L.I.E. wasn't even a deterrent... LOL
The longest trip it ever took was only about 150-200 miles, but that was one way, I rode home the next day.
W.F.O most of the way.

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Bad decisions make the best stories.

Steve, that's encouraging. Maybe I'll take longer rides on my 100. I'd sorta like to ride it to the Bull City Rumble, but 50 miles each way has prevented me from doing it. It's cool taking the H2, but after four years it might be time for a change.

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

Well, Steve, at 17, would you have taken a used 1929 2 stroke hundreds of miles without any knowledge of the bike or spare parts? I know he didn't ask for help, but a few of us spent hours and hours of our vacation trying to get him home under his own power from the Gap. And instead of heading home, he doodled around on the dragon, and lost a master link, so we had to go get him. We got him going and then it started raining and the bike quit again, so he had to be rescued again. The problem ended up being a cracked coil, which he had supposedly repaired, but I don't remember him mentioning it. He brought no parts, and had no clue about anything other than the spark plug. Heck, he didn't even know it had points.

It seemed that he was doing it for attention or some kind of "shock" factor. And didn't really care how many were inconvenienced by his antics. I don't see anything cool about it. I felt sorry for the guy, as no one tried to help him out right away. So I started to diagnose the problem. But he keeps doing this over and over, so I'm sorry I even tried to help the guy. I don't think he is a bad guy, just makes bad decisions.........

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

Hey now, I'm not completely clueless and in my defense I had resurrected a 33 year old bike and ridden it over 3500 miles in the year before I decided to show up at the Deals Gap Meet in 2014 on it. I did have some knowledge of my bike, know what points were (my manual said breaker) and had experience adjusting them, had rebuilt the carb, pulled, had repaired and re-installed the jug after a piston pin retaining clip failed and scored the cylinder wall, changed the tires myself and was well aware of the fact that if something broke on it most any part needed would be a special order from any shop. I had also prepped my van at home should it be needed for rescue. I was fully ready for most worst case scenarios.

My downfalls for that trip were that I had only ridden damp roads after it had rained around home, not in pouring rain and getting rear ended by a car on the first day out and over tightening my chain in the aftermath.

The cracked coil wire has been coated in silicone three times now, the first two (my original "repair" and the Great Stuff applied at the Gap) being cleaned off as they have proven insufficient to prevent arcing. This third application has proven to work quite well and the bike now handles getting soaked with no problems, though I still want to replace the coil, just need to figure out what would be an acceptable replacement as the OEM unit is no longer available.

The master link issue has changed how I adjust my chain, I now used a ratchet strap to compress the suspension to lengthen the chain line to its longest point, then adjust. This has helped final drive wear and noise significantly.

I am immensely grateful to everyone that helped with my bike at the Gap, especially you John. You just kept at it, even after the rescue wagon was called.

Saturday, after my wife was already notified to get my sorry ass, without figuring out what was the issue with it, my bike ran. So, why not try to enjoy what I went there for? The master link popping sucked. Over 30 years of bicycling and I never had an issue with one that wasn't on one of my stunt bikes. I now carry a spare on the KE. The amount of time it took to travel and repair, timed the return to coincide with the next bit of heavy rain. Dying in the rain again solidified that it was an ignition problem and lead to me pulling the tank and seeing my "repair" to the coil wire had failed and Great Stuff was applied.

The bike running well Sunday morning I had planned to ride out to meet my wife, but she was already quite close and loves driving The Dragon herself, so I once again doodled on The Dragon.

I have a history of doing "different" things, for many years before the 2014 meet I've been doing automotive rallies and road trips in cars/vans that were purchased for $250-500. I do it for my own personal thrills, the feeling I get when I ask myself "Why am I doing this?" and reply "Because others don't." and because it makes for good stories.

This year, is completely my fault, I made a significant change to the bike and didn't spend as much time as I would have liked tuning the non-stock carb before I left. Only reason I installed a newer model KE's carb is because I have not been able to find any rebuild kits for the stock one and the float valve had a noticeable worn grove on it (ethanol deterioration?) and was sticking quite often. About a week before the meet I still wasn't sure I was going, but my wife asked if I was. I told her it would be pretty stupid if I do, to which she replied, "Hasn't stopped you before. Just make sure you have a backup plan."

Despite the problems in 2014 and 2015 I don't have any regrets and am glad to have met many friendly and generous people.

I'm having fun with this little bike and it's teaching me, sometimes the hard way, but I enjoy it.

Furthermore, I really can't express my gratitude toward John enough for his efforts in 2014. He was like a man possessed. I have sung his praises many, many times in my story telling. I'm also an avid reader of his posts and viewer of his videos, looking for tips and tricks that will increase the reliability of my lil Zombessy.

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Aaron
1980 KE100 (ZomBessie)

I understand your frustration John, but judging by his last post, I think the last part of your post was not warranted....
And I never rode a 1929 2 stroke, but I did ride a 1969 G3 hundreds of miles.
With no spare parts and only a lay persons pocket full of knowledge.

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Bad decisions make the best stories.