Got another Intruder

[jonnycando]

Mmm, yes, pix will be good....something told me you couldn't stay off of Intruders very long....there's a reason I kept mine.

[jonnycando]

Jonny, I got it for a song truth be told. I was expecting a heap and just figured I'd either sell it to a friend or loan it out as a spare bike to northern visitors. But when my wife said she thought I should keep it, I've reconsidered the whole thing. The 800 is a smudge smaller than the 14, and honestly not quite ideal. However, as a bomber for local riding, it will do nicely. Plus, compared to my Triumph, it's SO light!

And you think a Rocket is light? Yeah, by comparison Intruders are very light indeed!

[old time rider]

Have fun Never owned a vl 700-800 yet but traded rides with lots.Liked my 1400 for room better but the 800 felts faster in the 1/8 to me.My so slow C50 seems to have all the room I need and plan to go out in the cold barn and put the elc hook up on it for my gear today. teens and single temps called for next and last Sat. at 14 the elc gloves would have been nice. That set of snowflake wheels is still on the local C.List for only $200 and DWD58 said he would pic up and pack them to you for a mint wire front for his.He is a trucker.

[Suzuki Johnny]

Them 800's are small but don't fool yourself they will out run a 1400 in a heartbeat...... [emoji106]
if it weren't for the cramped foot pedal arrangement they would b fun for in town riding. Just not made for folks 6 foot or better

[jonnycando]

Do get you a Rocket, while they last, in many markets they will no longer meet emission standards...we can still have them here, but they may be redesigned. The prices on leftover 2016 and earlier are an absolute scream! They eat tires, but the minute you ride one you will never ride anything else....except an Intruder now and then for perspective.

[Sandmanrrr]

Good for you man. I do miss my 1400

[Lechy]

800's are a real fun bike, you'll love it.
[emoji41]

[Cuban]

[emoji2] You're too big for that bike. I'm like 5'2" and they fit me like a glove... Congrats on the excellent deal.

[old time rider]

Too big! Just way too many big people!
I buy way too many bikes and trucks because I feel they are way too cheap.I need to stop that soon or the old lady will sell all of them at a true too cheap price in a few years!Would sure have bought that bike for that price. One year 800 has a so nice blue,green looking and white color.Best looking factory paint ever on any intruder IMO. The blue white on some 97 1400 models is real nice all so.

[old time rider]

Man that's a sweet lookin truter!May Be the color I like so much but hard to tell if not in sun.See no way you can not do good on that.Good buy kid.

[Suzuki Johnny]

Does that 800 have the small tool pouch inside the passenger back rest? Whoever thought of putting them there was really using his/her head..

too bad they couldn't have used the same brains to find a better place for the forward air box on the 1400 [emoji106]

[Cuban]

Too big! Just way too many big people!

[emoji2] Yup.

You are absolutely correct! Do me a solid and take it off my hands for $2800. Heck, forum discount: $2500.

You know I already have one Keith. But thanks for the offer!

Nice. Real nice. [emoji106]

... I think the carbs need to be synced though since it pulls against itself and pops out of the right side pipe. She'll do 90 though...

[emoji2] OK. You may or may not need/want this advice, but yer gettin' it anyway...

Most people would say that bike should do 105-108 mph...

You can eliminate the popping/backfiring with the idle mixture adjustments, so the EPA caps should be removed. This is how I approach that job. Put yourself in a nice quiet space, both mentally and physically. Warm the engine, grab a small screwdriver and clear your mind. Give the throttle cable some slack with the cable adjustment up at the housing on the bars. Set your idle speed screw under the rear carb for a sorta low idle, but not too low. Clear your mind more. LISTEN to the engine. Hear the pulses at the exhaust outlets...

At this point, I like to physically touch the bike with a knee or my forearm or something. I wanna feel the thing. With the idle mix caps removed, take yer small screwdriver and slowly start to turn the mixture screw out (counter-clockwise). Don't go too fast. Go slow. You should hear (and feel) the RPMs increase and the exhaust pulses stabilize. The trick is you need to listen to the exhaust pipe on the other side of the bike. Once you get to where you think that sweet spot is, take notice of your screwdriver's orientation, and then keep going, again, slowly, while counting the screwdriver's rotations. Eventually the RPMs will begin to drop once more, and the engine will start to hesitate, or stumble. The idle mixture won't be in good balance. At this point you should be aware of how many rotations you have made since your perceived sweet spot. Turn the screw back in (clockwise) half the way to your perceived sweet spot. Don't worry about going all the way back to it yet, you have whole 'nother cylinder to do.

Proceed to the other side of the bike, and repeat the above process. Take your time. Make your preliminary adjustments slowly. After you're satisfied that you've accomplished this procedure properly, turn the idle speed back up a bit to near normal, but not full speed yet. Go back to each mixture adjustment and fine tune by turning the screw either in or out very slowly, while listening very carefully to both pipes now. That's the real trick... hearing them both at once. Hopefully resting your knee against the machine has by now been providing you with excellent subliminal feedback, and if you've reached zen with the engine's airflow, you'll be able to dial in the correct balance quite quickly, and efficiently. I shit you not.

Once you're happy with your efforts, remember to turn the idle speed back up to what you believe to be normal, and re-adjust the throttle cable at the housing on the bars. (there should always be a slight amount of slack in that cable)
Take the bike for a short ride, and don't be afaid to make tiny adjustments one more time. It should be good to go now...

*I won't go into carb sync here, but suffice to say these little engines really spin up at highway speeds, so if the carbs aren't in total agreement at anything over half throttle or so, you're going to have vibrations running through the chassis and handlebars... the buzzing can and will put your hands to sleep pretty quickly, unless you have extremely durable wrists, like me. I have a grip like you wouldn't belie... ummm.... errr... yeah. These engines will vibrate. Syncing the carbs can be a pain.

[emoji2]

[Cuban]

Ya know, I've explained the A/F adjustment to many people on these forums, but I've NEVER explained quite as well as you just did! I may just copy the above and make it a thread in the Intruder 800 tech section! [emoji106]

[emoji2] I started doing this shit over 40 years ago, been licensed for 36, and have owned my own Intruder for over 31 years now... so... no problem.

[old time rider]

Wish I was real smart. Dad was such a good natural wrench.Late FNL had his own place 30 years after being a GM wrench at a big dealer.He got so many jobs other dealers had gave up on.
Most of the work they did was by ear on the pre 80 cars and trucks.FNL even was called to trouble shoot a new fire truck because of his record on hard stuff.
He fixed my new 1969 RoadRunner after dealer ship had failed a bunch of times in about 15 minutes!It never back fired at 100mph the over100,000 put on it after that.You just have to not go by the book on some of them he would say.

[Cuban]

Wish I was real smart. Dad was such a good natural wrench.Late FNL had his own place 30 years after being a GM wrench at a big dealer.He got so many jobs other dealers had gave up on.
Most of the work they did was by ear on the pre 80 cars and trucks.FNL even was called to trouble shoot a new fire truck because of his record on hard stuff.
He fixed my new 1969 RoadRunner after dealer ship had failed a bunch of times in about 15 minutes!It never back fired at 100mph the over100,000 put on it after that.You just have to not go by the book on some of them he would say.

[emoji2] Everyone is smart, just in different ways...

When I left mechanical work to pursue something more creative, I tried to make a clean break of it, but a lot of my former 'clients' at the bike shop were also now riding buddies, so it was hard to say no to them when they chased me down at the Television Studio and tried to get me to commit to still looking after their bikes. I had to tell 'em to Fuck Off! lol Still went riding with 'em though. Shit, I had a guy from the old days drop in just this past summer and pick my brain about the carbs on his '84 Ninja! I think he was hinting that he could take 'em off and bring 'em to me... I just played dumb! lol

I totally agree with the notion that our human senses, including intuition, can be indispensable tools when diagnosing and tuning machinery. [emoji106]