Wow, went out Saturday to break in my newly repaired bike engine (update: the titanium valves had gone bad for the second time)- it was wonderful! Everything I've had problems with on the original engine has been fixed....except maybe that it's still kinda heavy....
We got a new '07 cylinder head with coated steel valves, it fit just fine on my '04 engine. It was from Ron Hamp Racing, he told us Honda had reshaped the intake and exhaust ports on the head, he thought each year since '04, we could actually look inside and see that the exit holes from the chambers are more oval and narrowed down now, had no idea how that would affect how it ran though! Just had to believe it'd be better... cause we couldn't be sure what the engineers were trying to fix.
And as it turned out, the bike is now suited to my style of riding way better, took the big jump hit out of the start, and took away much of the violent engine braking. It's smooth and mello all the way, but still has plenty of ooomph - could be going along at 40mph, hit the gas hard and squirrel the back tire all the way up to 50 (and I was still in 3rd gear).... felt way less scared of the power so it was more useable for me. I've had a note taped to my handlebars (next to "look where you want to go") saying "Let the clutch out, Susan!" - which I figured out I was always pulling it in before because if I didn't when I chopped the throttle, the engine braking would practically throw me over the bars.... my husband used to keep telling me I had to learn to be smoother on the clutch - I think it was the bike all along! Yippee, cause I was having problems with this bike I'd never had with previous ones, and just figured it was because it was a bigger displacement - Hah!
Can't wait to get out there again on some more difficult trails!
-SusanP.
We got a new '07 cylinder head with coated steel valves, it fit just fine on my '04 engine. It was from Ron Hamp Racing, he told us Honda had reshaped the intake and exhaust ports on the head, he thought each year since '04, we could actually look inside and see that the exit holes from the chambers are more oval and narrowed down now, had no idea how that would affect how it ran though! Just had to believe it'd be better... cause we couldn't be sure what the engineers were trying to fix.
And as it turned out, the bike is now suited to my style of riding way better, took the big jump hit out of the start, and took away much of the violent engine braking. It's smooth and mello all the way, but still has plenty of ooomph - could be going along at 40mph, hit the gas hard and squirrel the back tire all the way up to 50 (and I was still in 3rd gear).... felt way less scared of the power so it was more useable for me. I've had a note taped to my handlebars (next to "look where you want to go") saying "Let the clutch out, Susan!" - which I figured out I was always pulling it in before because if I didn't when I chopped the throttle, the engine braking would practically throw me over the bars.... my husband used to keep telling me I had to learn to be smoother on the clutch - I think it was the bike all along! Yippee, cause I was having problems with this bike I'd never had with previous ones, and just figured it was because it was a bigger displacement - Hah!
Can't wait to get out there again on some more difficult trails!
-SusanP.
