H.Wolf
New member
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2014
- Location
- emeryville, ca
- Moto(s)
- formerly:
250drz
moster620
currently:
500EXC
250xcf-w
- Name
- Hannah
Hi y'all.... i wan't to share a frustrating learning curve story with you and maybe some one can point me in the right direction.
about a year and a half ago i bought a 2008 ktm 250 xcf-w. the bike had a hard time getting going when i bought it. you would have to rev the engine pretty high for a few minutes to get it to idle. the bike smoked a bit when starting, i figured that was just old gas. the bike was pretty high mileage, about 2800. ignorance lead me to not ask any of the right questions.
i rode the bike a few times over the course of a year but it mostly sat. fast forward about a year later, bike started and ran but was having issues, a little sluggish. mechanic friend suggested a valve job. the bike no longer started, i figured it was an easy fix, battery was dead or needed a new spark plug. brought it into a mechanic in the east bay for valve job. ended up needing a new head/piston.... so full top end, plus new tires, service and a few other cosmetic things brought me to about $3500 and close to two months.
i don't want to throw anyone under the bus, but i've had nothing but problems with the bike since i got it back.... the bike was still having trouble idling (even after carb adjustment), the chain was not set to correct tension, the control wires were set up on the wrong side of the handle bars, and i found out when i went to charge the battery that the screws on the plastics had not been properly threaded-turned in all the way so the seat was put on and it bent the screws. just sloppy, really.
so i've taken the bike out about 4 times since the service/topend. The last trip, I yard saled pretty solid on my first day, but bike still ran fine. second day bike was ok but the clutch seemed to not be catching as quickly as it had been in the past. we figure this was because the clutch plates needed to be switched out (something i should have asked to have been done when i had service and top end).
fast forward about a month, I have plans to go ride, get to the bike in the morning and the clutch as no compression. so a few weeks later i change clutch plates, oil and slave cylinder. master cylinder seemed to be culprit and not slave. order master, switch out and bleed master. now bike wont start.
.
.
.
fml
.
.
.
battery was basically dead, so we charged battery and tried kickstart, couldn't get bike to fire at all. so we now figure it's a fouled spark plug. but guess what? KTM requires a specialized tool for spark plug. also old spark plug installed by aforementioned mechanic was cranked so hard we couldn't do a manual extraction. fingers crossed the new part will get the spark plug out.
sooooooo i've never had such a pain in my fucking ass in my life, my question is: who can recommend a good KTM forum or knows a lot about KTMs? has anyone had anything similar happen? is my bike dead? did i kill it? i've never killed anything.... should i bury it so it's possessed demon soul doesn't rise from the grave and continue to haunt my every move? who wants to buy a bike?
about a year and a half ago i bought a 2008 ktm 250 xcf-w. the bike had a hard time getting going when i bought it. you would have to rev the engine pretty high for a few minutes to get it to idle. the bike smoked a bit when starting, i figured that was just old gas. the bike was pretty high mileage, about 2800. ignorance lead me to not ask any of the right questions.
i rode the bike a few times over the course of a year but it mostly sat. fast forward about a year later, bike started and ran but was having issues, a little sluggish. mechanic friend suggested a valve job. the bike no longer started, i figured it was an easy fix, battery was dead or needed a new spark plug. brought it into a mechanic in the east bay for valve job. ended up needing a new head/piston.... so full top end, plus new tires, service and a few other cosmetic things brought me to about $3500 and close to two months.
i don't want to throw anyone under the bus, but i've had nothing but problems with the bike since i got it back.... the bike was still having trouble idling (even after carb adjustment), the chain was not set to correct tension, the control wires were set up on the wrong side of the handle bars, and i found out when i went to charge the battery that the screws on the plastics had not been properly threaded-turned in all the way so the seat was put on and it bent the screws. just sloppy, really.
so i've taken the bike out about 4 times since the service/topend. The last trip, I yard saled pretty solid on my first day, but bike still ran fine. second day bike was ok but the clutch seemed to not be catching as quickly as it had been in the past. we figure this was because the clutch plates needed to be switched out (something i should have asked to have been done when i had service and top end).
fast forward about a month, I have plans to go ride, get to the bike in the morning and the clutch as no compression. so a few weeks later i change clutch plates, oil and slave cylinder. master cylinder seemed to be culprit and not slave. order master, switch out and bleed master. now bike wont start.
.
.
.
fml
.
.
.
battery was basically dead, so we charged battery and tried kickstart, couldn't get bike to fire at all. so we now figure it's a fouled spark plug. but guess what? KTM requires a specialized tool for spark plug. also old spark plug installed by aforementioned mechanic was cranked so hard we couldn't do a manual extraction. fingers crossed the new part will get the spark plug out.
sooooooo i've never had such a pain in my fucking ass in my life, my question is: who can recommend a good KTM forum or knows a lot about KTMs? has anyone had anything similar happen? is my bike dead? did i kill it? i've never killed anything.... should i bury it so it's possessed demon soul doesn't rise from the grave and continue to haunt my every move? who wants to buy a bike?
