580pluspower
02-15-2009, 08:18 PM
Here is an interesting tale.
I've seen sleds do some bogus things sometimes, but this one takes the cake. Hopefully someone can shed some light on this occurrence. My father, a friend of his and I went for a local jaunt tonight to the tune of about 50 miles or so. My father was riding his 1999 Formula III 700 triple, which up to now has performed admirably flawlessly, and continues to after the fact. Near the end of the trip, he pulled the cord and the sled started fine, but on takeoff that thing started motivating in reverse. The engine had somehow started backwards, after being pulled the right way. He hit the kill switch, pulled the cord again, and it started the right way this time, but for the first ten feet or so of forward motion there was some undesirable clunks and scrapes coming from under the tunnel, then it cleared up and rode fine.
WTH.
Soo... how could this happen? It doesn't seem as though the sled is damaged in any way, but the ominous noises really gave us a bad feeling. Which leads me to my next question - what could have gone on under there when it backed up to cause such noises? Perhaps ice... The sled drove home fine about five miles back no problems. It has about 750 miles on it. I'm at a loss.
...We might've done more miles had it not been for my fathers friend's El Tigre making an equally ominous clattering engine noise that progressed in volume the farther it went (sounds like a rod/crank bearing, sadly). I'm mildly amused that the only sled that didn't pull any BS was my 780, which now has 50 miles on a fresh top end. Huh.
Any input on the matter is greatly appreciated, as always.
I've seen sleds do some bogus things sometimes, but this one takes the cake. Hopefully someone can shed some light on this occurrence. My father, a friend of his and I went for a local jaunt tonight to the tune of about 50 miles or so. My father was riding his 1999 Formula III 700 triple, which up to now has performed admirably flawlessly, and continues to after the fact. Near the end of the trip, he pulled the cord and the sled started fine, but on takeoff that thing started motivating in reverse. The engine had somehow started backwards, after being pulled the right way. He hit the kill switch, pulled the cord again, and it started the right way this time, but for the first ten feet or so of forward motion there was some undesirable clunks and scrapes coming from under the tunnel, then it cleared up and rode fine.
WTH.
Soo... how could this happen? It doesn't seem as though the sled is damaged in any way, but the ominous noises really gave us a bad feeling. Which leads me to my next question - what could have gone on under there when it backed up to cause such noises? Perhaps ice... The sled drove home fine about five miles back no problems. It has about 750 miles on it. I'm at a loss.
...We might've done more miles had it not been for my fathers friend's El Tigre making an equally ominous clattering engine noise that progressed in volume the farther it went (sounds like a rod/crank bearing, sadly). I'm mildly amused that the only sled that didn't pull any BS was my 780, which now has 50 miles on a fresh top end. Huh.
Any input on the matter is greatly appreciated, as always.