Hello, first of all let me tell you that i am relatively new to motorcycling and have only around 4000 km around my belt but i love travelling. I am the owner of a 1991 XT600 and i love everything about the bike except the kickstarter and the lack of estarter.
Also the bike gods blessed me so that when i bought it i was a complete noob and didnt question too much the fact that instead of a battery the bike actually has some sort of power regulator. Now don't get me wrong the engine runs smoothly and i only had 2 problems up until now on wich matter i will ask for your advice.

So here it is : first the kickstarter is killing me but only when the engine is cold. The thing is that sometimes it starts on the second kick and thats no problem no matter how busted my leg is but other times the damn thing just wouldnt start and im stuck there for 1 hour kicking and cursing between my teeth. What i want to know is : should i get an iridium plug spark? could this be the problem ? Or should i look somewhere else...like the engine not geting gas or something like that.
: second thing is ...and this is something relatively new, i noticed a few days ago that rarely while im driving at a certain speeed, the engine sudenly feels like it goes into a lower gear and, the speed remains the same but the rpm go up . Any idea what might cause this?
: and third is im curently running on sone tires that have a 50/50 profile. Do you think it would be a good idea to buy a set of 17 inch weels with street rubbers and buy only off road rubbers for the 18 / 21 ?

Also , im thinking of making a round the country 3000 km trip this summer. Leaving the oil and chain aside what else do you think i should check before i go to make sure i dont remain stranded in the middle of nowhere .

Thank you all in advance.

I had a SRX 600 which was a pig too - almost the same engine. A 'Splitfire' spark plug did help a lot, and also improved the starting on my XTZ660. Checking the carb and airfilter wouldn't do any harm either.

The engine issue sounds like a slipping clutch, assuming that is happening on hills or when you increase the engine load by accelerating, etc ?

Tyres... are you sure you are on a 50/50 ? I doubt it. It sounds like you are using the bike for normal type use and there are plenty of good options recommended by the tyre companies. These will be dual purpose trailie tyres - we will all have our own preferences and you can search this forum for lots of different views on each brand. None will be 50 profile, I suspect....

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Honda CBR 1100 XX, Yamaha XTZ 660, Harris Special

As for the decompresser... do you have the automatic decompresser or have a manual decompresser?

If it's the automatic decompresser (which has a cable comming up right next to the kickstart) you should check the cable and it has the necessary play at the decompresser valve (on top of the cylinder head - right side)...

don't forget to choke!!!

Vando

Well thanks for the replys guys. To answer your questions i have a automatic decompressor and that's part of the problem. The lead safety at the end of the cable jumped off and i've been having trouble ordering a new one . therefor i had to improvize lately and that made my starting efforts double. Anyway i decided to change the spark plug and put a K&N air filter in. I'll look at the carburator before engaging on my big trip hopefully.

Two items have definite influence on starting (mis)behaviour:

1. Idle mix setting. Adjust as per earlier posts. On your bike the access to the mixture screw has been capped off. Just remove the cap and adjust as required. Most probably the setting needs enrichment.

2. Decompressor - must work, cant you fiddle something to the end of the cable, install a cable from a bicycleshop or whatever - come on!

Auke

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Auke
http://aukemarieke.blogspot.com

Maybe the engine is flooding? A stink of fuel when you are kicking it over for "an hour"?

Yes, the decomp is very useful and makes life easier but I found that I could still get "the bitch" TTR600 to start on the kicker without the cable operating correctly - no way though, if it flooded (I have also done the 1 hour kicking thing - a waste of time and effort!).

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Dave

Or you can just take the automatic decompresser cable out and put a manual decompresser... a lot easier in my opinion

Vando

one more thing... when you get the bike flooded just close the fuel and push the bike (on neutral) for about 15 meters and try again.. ;P

Vando

The cable is no big deal actually.....i can usually fix something up if im at the garage. I pin it down with a screw and it works. The problem is when the nasty girl won't start and im in the middle of nowhere with no tools on me. The engine does flood ( as in it starts to smell like gasoline ) . And i also checked the air filter yesterday and it doesn't look that great either ( needs to be cleaned ). Also can anyone show me exactly how i set the idle mix? Thanks for all the replys guys .