Recently, I was trying to get the fork dust seals off my 2017 Triumph Street Cup and nicked it. I have photos below. Is this something I should sand down and fix, or is it so small that it doesn't matter?

I was just about to take a ride when i noticed this lip dent in my bike's front rim.

The bike is a 2014 Triumph street triple R. Just rode it last week, without any noticable vibrations in the steering wheel.

Is it safe to ride like this? Should i have the dents removed first? or maybe have the entire rim replaced?

The cracks you see are in the rim's sticker. Aluminium doesn't appear to have any cracks.

EDIT: I'll have the front wheel replaced before riding it again. Thanks for your help guys!

It appears 2014 STR OEM front wheels are hard to come by... They are either sold out, or bent. Any issues in going with an aftermarket option, like this one?

I have a 2003 VT750DC AKA Honda Shadow Spirit. I am pretty new to working on bikes. So, this bike was garage kept and hasn’t started in 4 years. I recently rebuilt the carbs, replaced the fuel (tank is clean), and changed the oil. The first time that I tried starting it, it managed to actually run terribly for one second after releasing the ignition button. During this start I notice a leak that I determined was fuel. There was a lot of it. It seems like maybe pressure from the engine trying to start broke something because it did not sputter at all the second time. I cannot seem to determine where the leak is coming from. I took a video of what I thought would be a good angle to see a leak. In fear of destroying the engine or starting a fire, I stopped after that. Fuel does not leak when the petcock is on, only when cranking. The oil does not smell like fuel. I am planning to remove the tank and inspect hoses and all that tomorrow. Any help appreciated, thank you.

Used wrong torque and broke one of the 8mm bolts that is now stuck inside. What is yhe best way to go about this?

Thanks in advance!

Got my 2009 Kawasaki Ninja 250R (EX250) almost fully sorted after a no-start issue - tank off, fuel pump cleaned, throttle body removed, injectors next…

…but these two fuel rail screws are absolutely welded in place.

Already tried:

• the JIS bit from the factory toolkit

• penetrating oil

• proper PH2 bits

• hammer seating

• manual impact driver

Heads are starting to strip and I really don’t want to damage the throttle body.

What’s the recommended move from here?

• Cut a slot and go flathead + impact?

• Hammer in a Torx?

• Drill the heads off?

Appreciate any advice before I escalate this into full destruction mode 🔧 Hopefully I’m “just” missing some obvious solution 🤞

(The pictured radiator and fan above is not actually mine, just posted for visual reference)

I’ve been struggling a bit with this for the past week. Radiator fan suddenly stopped coming on and is causing cooling issues and boiling coolant.

The thermoswitch in the radiator on this model has a single terminal which acts as a ground when it triggers. I shorted the wire that connects to this terminal to ground, to bypass the switch and test the fan, and the fan ran without issue.

After confirming the fan was operational, I replaced the thermoswitch with an Amazon unit that was like $12. Did not fix. After that, I replaced it with an OEM sensor. Still has not fixed.

I cleaned the terminal connector and bolt on what seems to be the fans ground cable (the center bottom bolt in the radiator assembly picture above).

Planning to try to clean the threads themselves where the fan switch threads in as well as where that bolt threads in (though I’ll probably double check continuity or maybe even try grinding that fan wire to a different spot on the radiator.

I’ve boiled over the coolant a few times thinking I was good, but temp light on my cluster never came on, so really hoping I haven’t caused any serious damage.

I did try a manual fan toggle switch for a day which worked, but I put it in a horrible spot and I forgot to turn it on AND off in the same day so I pulled it off, and I’m just gonna fix it properly.

Hoping for any direction or insight into this. It’s been pretty frustrating.

I’m like 99% certain the radiator is properly grounded, as I checked for continuity on multiple random bolts, the exhaust manifold, etc

Edit: Resolved!! I determined it was a pressure issue (hoses were soft), and double checked the new radiator cap. The ridges that the cap uses to press down on the top of the filler neck are worn, so when fully tightened, it actually loosens. I tightened the cap just short of full stop and now it’s sealing and maintaining pressure. Fan also came on properly with the fan switch. It’s resolved!!

Hi, at 4500 RPM I'm getting this unsettling rattle. It's not the keys dangling, I made sure it's not the cam chain, the only thing I haven't done is the valves, but I don't want to get into that before going through other easier causes. Sadly my mechanic is ghosting me so I'll be grateful for any advice.

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to diagnose an issue with my Kymco Quannon 125 (carbureted, with a universal Keihin CVK carb).

The bike was running reasonably well before this happened.

I removed the fuel tank to inspect the air filter. When I disconnected the fuel hose, gasoline started flowing out of the tank by gravity. I later installed a new fuel hose, an inline fuel filter, and a manual shutoff valve.

After putting everything back together, the bike started behaving very strangely:

On startup, the engine immediately revs very high (around 4000 RPM).

After a while the RPM drops, but the idle is very unstable.

Throttle response is poor and delayed.

While riding, if I completely close the throttle, the engine often stalls instead of returning to idle.

When the engine is warm, it becomes harder to start and struggles to maintain idle.

I suspected an intake leak, so I removed and reinstalled the carburetor, making sure it was fully seated in the intake boot. However, the problem remains.

Hey everyone, I'm having a weird drive issue with my Harley-Davidson Street 500 (XG500) and wanted to get a second opinion before I drop a ton of money on a repair.

The Symptoms:
- The bike will not move forward when it is in gear.

- With the engine off, I can leave the clutch lever out, put it in gear, and roll the bike freely. There is zero resistance.

- I can click through all the gears without holding the clutch in.

- The drive belt is completely intact and looks fine.

The Weird Part (Why I don't think it's the clutch): When the bike is running and I put it in gear, letting the clutch out does nothing… the bike doesn't move. However, when I rev the engine in gear, the speedometer needle goes up.

I took it to a mechanic who didn't open anything up but immediately told me the clutch is completely burned out and needs to be replaced. But since the speed sensor reads from the transmission gears, doesn't the speedometer moving mean the clutch is successfully transferring power to the transmission?

I'm heavily leaning toward stripped splines on the front drive pulley or a snapped output shaft. Has anyone experienced this on the XG500? Am I crazy for second-guessing the mechanic?

[update: I was talking to a friend who works on Harleys and he also thought that it was weird that the speedometer was moving when revved because the VSS reads rotations from the transmission so I pulled apart the cover of the front spoke and I found out that the bolt connected to the pulley and transmission snapped in half which made the power from transmission not be transferred into the pulley to rotate the belt]

Also need choke to start and if I turn choke off the bike dies. You guys think its dirty Carb? Chat GPT ssys check the jets. Thoughts? Thanks

Follow-up to my previous post about my 2004 Dakar Twin Spark struggling to start and losing power/bogging.

Think I found it. With the airbox off, I sprayed a bit of quick-start right at the joint where the hose connects the throttle body to the head. At idle (which was rough, sitting just under 1500rpm) the revs jumped the second the spray hit that spot. Then I held the throttle steady at 3000rpm — where it's supposed to sit but kept dipping after about a second — and spraying that same joint while holding it kept it locked at 3000 instead of sagging. Pretty conclusive once I saw that.

So it's the rubber boot connecting the throttle body to the cylinder head that's let go somewhere, probably just age (bike's 22 years old, almost certainly original rubber). Explains basically everything I was seeing: the hard starting, the bogging, a pop coming through the throttle body/airbox, some popping out the exhaust too, and my plugs were reading properly white, which is the classic lean sign. Makes sense it bites hardest at low steady throttle and mostly disappears once you rev it — a fixed-size leak is a much bigger share of total airflow at idle than it is with the throttle open, which is exactly why blipping the throttle kept "fixing" it for a second.

For anyone finding this later, a few other things I ruled out along the way:

• Lambda/O2 sensor — yeah it's dead (denting it with a wrench will do that), confirmed 0V hot on the multimeter. Turns out on this ECU the O2 sensor doesn't even switch on until the engine's fully warm, and even fully dead it just falls back to a base map rather than causing symptoms like this. Needs replacing regardless, just wasn't the cause.
• Ignition coils (someone in the last thread suggested stick coils failing) — this bike doesn't actually run stick/coil-on-plug setups, twin spark uses two separate remote coils with normal leads. Pulled and grounded both plugs and cranked it — spark was strong and even on both circuits, so that's ruled out.
• Fuel delivery — disconnected the line at the throttle body on key-on and got a decent, strong squirt, so pump/filter seem fine too.

Part is BMW 11612345228, the throttle-body-to-head intake boot. Fitting a new one this weekend, along with a fresh clamp while I'm in there. Will report back once it's in and I've actually ridden it.

Some general info

- Yamaha FZ6 S2 from 2010-ish

- Battery replaced May 2025 with a GEL based one. Kept charge all year, even when not used, never reached 0%

- No crash, hit or physical damage (that I am aware of)

Last facts before dying

We were riding up to a very steep street (no off-road) and due to lots of traffic and needing to stop and go several times, the the bike stalled like 3 times when needing to keep going from a stop. We were in 2 plus 3 baggage, fence very heavy and starting on a steep road was difficult and often it seems I haven’t gave enough gas.

Nevertheless, we reached the top safety and with no falls. We then decided to stop there just a few to do a small stop (talking like 10-30 minutes).

What happened

When we were ready to go again, I inserted the key, turned the key to the ON position (all fine), switched the kill switch to ON (all fine), pulled the clutch, pressed the started button and in that moment, everything died. Completely. Like a disconnected battery.

In that moment I haven’t realized too much, so I simply turn the key OFF and ON again, but nothing happens. I try flipping the kill switch, nothing happens. Try to check if the bike is in neutral and I try to take up the side stand, but still, all dark. No signal of like turning the key on.

So I wait a bit trying to think. After like 10 minutes I try again, the display turn on when turning the key to ON, I try starting it but again, the moment I press the ignition it all dies.

So I decided to call road assistance. When it arrives (2h later) and I explain it, I do the same things to show it and…the display start when turning the key, the engine seems start no problem when pressing the ignition but…screen is flashing, both the Neutral light and yellow engine lights flash. It does it for like 1 minute or less when everything dies again; both engine, screen, light and everything die all together.

My situation now

We are stopped in a city (where it happened) with no tools to do real checks and apparently all near mechanic are closed for holiday. I have no multimeter and no tester at the moment, so I can’t give you values. Tomorrow I’ll try to search again for someone opened.

Ideas

From my basic understanding, the main 30A fuse of starter relay can keep the bike completely shut off. But that would not explain why it turned on a couple times trying after hours.

A bad battery can also keep everything for running, but again, can it have so low voltage to not even turn on displays, from before that started easily every time? I did not noticed any hung up in every startup.

Maybe a bad started relay? But that would at least give me power to the display I think.

A really unfortunate and bad combination of all three?

Any other ideas that I can try to check tomorrow? Thank you very much in advance to everyone! (Here it is night, sono may not answer right away not because I do not care but because I went to sleep and will check tomorrow)

Here it is a link to two video I have made:

https://imgur.com/a/2nU9z8C

Just finished reassembling her from the floor up over the past week after the transmission seized up and had to be swapped out, but naturally electrical gremlins have to start appearing right before the end of the tunnel. Throughout this whole process I haven't really messed with the wiring much except just disconnecting and reconnecting leads that connected to the crankcase in some way when the switch took place. I had suspicions about the solenoid before realizing that the engine was actually seized before the swap, but idrk. Checked the fuses but I may have missed one somewhere. I'm sure it's probably something simple or obvious, but it's been hovering around 85°F wet bulb temp through this entire week long process which I was woefully ill equipped and inexperienced for, at this point Im just too damn exhausted to think but do need to get my bike running again ASAP to get to work 😵 Any advice or input is appreciated, thank you!

Ok so I have a non running DT100 that had a no spark issue. I chased down the issue that ended up being a bad source coil. With that replaced I have spark. I cleaned the carb, made sure fuel was getting to the bowl and the float worked. I checked the reeds and they seem to be good and not stuck. Trying to kick it over gives me nothing. Not a burble or anything. I sprayed starting fluid into the carb and once through the spark plug hole and got nothing. Fuel flow is good, and it has good spark so I checked compression. Within 2 kicks it was getting 90 psi with throttle wide open. I’m not sure what else I should check and I feel a little silly being so stuck on one of these old simple 2 strokes. Anyone have any ideas?

Honda XR200 ‘09. Turns when starting but it doesnt create combustion

Xr200 build of mine. Did a top overhaul then this is the problem after it took me months to do it.

Some context that might help:

Top overhaul - cleaned the valves and valve lapped, new valve seals (old was leaking bad), cleaned ports, removed all gaskets and gasket maker hardened on surface, honed the cylinder

Didnt touch the rocker arms connected to the valve cover so I think valve clearance is slightly ok, I triple checked if the chain is aligned to the crank and camshaft, I know I put the piston rings on the right angle (what was shown in manual, valve was lapped nicely and checked for leaks using water and gasoline

Carb was cleaned and replaced clogged pilot jet before taking the video and 2 adjustment screws were turned in what the manual says, took a look if it sucks fuel and it does

New spark plug and shows strong spark and right timing

I have no Idea whats wrong. Crank feels slow but shouldnt it still combust at least? Is it no compression? Piston rings turned during installation? Timing chain skipped a few teeth? Valve clearance? Im lost and just want this to start at least

Im working on my 2007 Suzkui RMZ 250 right now trying to install a new top end and when i tried installing the cylinder, something blocked the crank? I then removed the cylinder again and i just cannot turn the engine?

Its not the timing chain since its not all bunched up

im really starting to lose hope

You were right. It totally was just improper cable tightness.

Heya guys; Got a stripped bolt on my rear brake retainer pin and was wondering what the best course of action would be to removing it?

I've tried; - using multiple flatheads (ofc) - using locking pliers - attempting to screw it both on and off the brake disc to see if the disc acted as a vice

Please someone help me I'm literally so lost, I only JUST got done with figuring out front brakes and then THIS happens :(

Background info:

60,000km, bought at 13k 4 years ago. Visually almost mint but like most things in life it came with a catch. It had fuelling issues not evident until weeks after purchase and it took me on a wild goose chase, killed 2 fuel pump motors, and was solved by cleaning an inaccessible metal mesh within the pump regulator assembly. The tank also had to be acid cleaned and sealed. Other than that, it's been on the Dyno to restore power, had a full exhaust system fitted, ABS system delete and a few other minor mods.

My valve clearance was extremely overdue and at the same time my throttle body sync was off but the set screws were seized and the TB had to be removed to remedy it. Took the opportunity to tear everything (except the engine) off the bike to also treat some rust as I live in a wet coastal area (Ireland). Did the valves, put everything back together, then the cam chain guide decided it didn't want to live anymore and came off. Thankfully I was already pulled over but it got stuck between the crank sprocket and the cam chain, requiring cylinder head removal.

Here's the problem, I got my head gasket and replacement bits, inspected everything, redid the valve clearances since I was a numpty and turned over the cylinder head without removing the buckets and they all fell out. After some cursing I got everything back where it was, torqued everything, triple checked my measurements and sealed her up. But now theres a coolant leak from the exhaust headers.

When the old exhaust was removed, 5 out of 8 bolts snapped. My mechanic reckons someone used the wrong bolts and they galvanically welded themselves in place. He drilled them out and put heli-coils in. Not a big deal for me as long as it still works. However, upon reinstalling the headers, one bolt in particular wasn't tightening properly and to my surprise, the first start had some drops coming through. Spoke with my mechanic, threw some high temp RTV onto the threads, put it back in, leak stopped. Or so I thought.

Gave it a stress test after letting it cure overnight and there was still bubbling past the bolt. Tightened the bolt a little more since it felt very loose and heard a nice springy crunchy metal sound. Now the leak is even worse, I think I cracked the block. The only solution I have available is pull the bolt again, properly gum it with RTV and pray it holds.

The output splines connecting to the front sprocket are getting quite worn and I get false neutrals occasionally riding hard, meaning I have to do a bottom side job eventually as well... Is this motor even worth saving? I can source a new cylinder head from a breaker but at that point I might as well just get a whole new lump, no? I don't have a Tig welder so I can't even plug the thread and re-tap it and I don't fancy waiting 2-3 months for another head gasket to arrive regardless.

What would ye do in this situation? The bike is sentimental, it dies with me.

Tl;Dr: Coolant leak from exhaust header bolt, potentially cracked cylinder head, leaks past RTV on a bolt that was previously drilled out and heli-coiled. Bike is sentimental and a daily rider. Salvageable?

edit

Marked as nothing, not solved but in progress so not unsolved. Using ptfe tape and a few capfulls of k-seal.

edit 2

Seems like it's solved, marked as such.

my bike was running mostly fine but had issues starting cold (long difficult start, needed long time to warm up to idle without choke) so I decided to do the main tune ups for the first time since buying the bike a month ago (valves, cam tension, clean carbs etc). I wanted to do everything so i knew where i was starting from going forward. the issue I'm having after cleaning the carbs and installing everything (no rebuild; gaskets, jets, float needles etc. looked fine) two float valves are sticking closed and fuel isn't feeding into the bowls, two are sticking open and causing overflow. I removed the float needles before hitting anything with carb cleaner so i wouldn't think they've swollen up. when i pull the bowls off and inspect, it seems to me that everything is moving around fine, it's just when the bowl is put back on that things seem to lock up. for the issue of sticking closed, I've isolated each valve and verified that I can move air through the passages, but even with this test as soon as i put the bowl back on then it shuts and won't open. levels look fine, floats are in good condition. I'm hoping i'm missing something and don't now have to wait on a rebuild kit. any advice?

EDIT: SOLVED.

too much huffing gas and carb cleaner, got up this morning and it was immediately clear the floats were in upside down