poppn at idle

[mr mulisha]

hey there just wantn some advice i have a 99 r1 with a standard exhaust except the factory can has been cut in half with most of the guts removed my bike has always had a popping at idle thing happening does this mean the carbs need balancing? is it a problem? bike runs fine and doesnt have a miss at all the popping is at idle only and doesnt matter if its hot or cold anyone with some info would be glad to hear from you .

[limbimtimwim]

Mostly likely it is running lean. Do you mean by cut in half that it has had it's length halved?

A gentle popping backfire probably won't hurt it. You could get in there and twiddle screws to richen the mixture, that would clear up the popping, but then you might end up making it too rich off idle (Where you actually care about the response) and you most likely will introduce a hesitation that you don't want.

If you are keen, find out where the mixture screws are on your carbs and have a play. Make a note of where you started it work in little steps, say 1/8th of a turn, richer, get it fully warm and see if the problem goes away.

Anyway, because something has changed, the exhaust system is sucking out unburnt fuel and air. The since you describe it as popping, the leaness probably isn't serious. Once the engine is fully warm, does the race itself when idling? Getting faster and faster? No? Good. If it did that, it'd be pretty fucked up. The dangers of running lean are stuffed plugs, burnt valves and holed pistons. That is worst case however. Pull out your spark plugs one by one and take a look Take a look at this to see if the leanness potentially is doing damage.

Actually, before you play with mixture screws, cleaning the carbs and changing the air filter could clear it up as well. But if the popping is gentle, and the bike feels good off idle.. Meh.. Enjoy your bikes personality. Take it to mechanic if you are really worried.

[mr mulisha]

thanks for that advice yeah bike runs fine and yes i mean it was halved in lenght bike only gets stunted so never reall wrung to top end only in wheelies hehe bike never misses at all and has perfect off throttle response
what u said backed up what i thought thansk you

[limbimtimwim]

Don't sue me if you bike is busted by it though .

Pull a plug or two just to make sure. That's a crazy looking bike in your profile picture.

I've added something similar to the mental lotto wish list.

[wendigo]

Had really bad popping & banging on the overrun on me TL. Turned out that it was one of the exhaust gaskets that were munted, allowing air into the system. Could be something as simple as that.

[mr mulisha]

Don't sue me if you bike is busted by it though .

Pull a plug or two just to make sure. That's a crazy looking bike in your profile picture.

I've added something similar to the mental lotto wish list.

haha thanks yeah it goes insane aswell running a 53 tooth on back and dropped 2 on front its like ridn a mx bike on the road can do power drifts off the throttle top gera on the r1 hehe fun bike to ride

[slowpoke]

Check all exhaust joints for sealing. Air is dragged into the exhaust system via a venturi effect allowing unburnt fuel to ignite, hence the popping sound. Worth looking at and it could be a simple fix. R1 'fighter sounds like a lotta fun!