New (to Me) 2000 Kawasaki W650

I made the same two carb mods. The bike ran great, but the mileage was worse-not unexpected.

So I played with the air screws-now about 3 1/4 turns out. I also removed one of the two shims from each needle. The old gal still runs great, and is back to 45 mpg in town and 55+ out on the road.

It should not happen at all. They are double wall pipes and they only blue when you let the bike idle for to long.

My W never blued and I've seen one with 30K + miles and no bluing.

The bike in question may have aftermarket single wall pipes, like fishpipes, who knows.

I went to 3 turns out from 3.5 to get back to 60 MPG here in the mountains of WNC. Carbs are stock otherwise.
Runs very good.

Hey Barnone - What tires are you running? I'm in need of new ones for the W, but am looking for a little more dual sport than the BT45's. Also, how are you liking the Leatherlyke bags? Thanks,

Gonad

I'm running Avon Distanzia's which are a mild (90-10) dual sport tire so are good on the pavement and ok on the gravel.
Rear 120/80S-18 ,Front 100/90H-19

The Leatherlyke bags are holding up just fine and are very handy for hauling stuff but are kinda pricey. I really like hard bags on a bike.





And the trailer add more stuff (nasty garbage) capacity.

I've read of people running 120/90-18's, but not 120/80-18's. Have you noticed any differeces coming from the stock 130/80-18? Lower ride height, speedo error, etc? Anyone running these?



Heidenau K60's. A little more aggressive than I think I'll need on the W650, but they do come in a 120/90-18, and run about $110 for the rear. Supposed to get pretty good mileage.

Nomad,
You will just have to make your own tire decision. Again I say the Distanzias handle just fine on my W but I am not recommending any tire. Unlike some "experts" on the internet I am not capable of doing a scientific tire test. I did scrape the foot peg feeler yesterday but usually ride at probably 50%.

I went thought this tire size issue last year in this thread and said
"Stock is a 130/80-18 vs the new Distanzia which is a 120/80-18.
The web sites of each tire manufacturer say the diameter is 26.2".I should have taken a photo of the two tires side by side before I installed the new tire on the bike but didn't do it. The new tire was about an inch taller than the old tire but the old tire had about 4500 miles on it so I suspect that the diameter is the same when both are new."

Regarding speedometer error, I had (and still have) a 16 tooth front sprocket on the bike when I had the stock tire on the bike and that change almost completely corrected the speedometer error on my W. Checking with the new Distanzias on my W last year using my GPS showed the speedometer was almost still about right on.

Observation / Question:

Every fall when I put my W650 away for the winter I drain the carbs. Every spring I have to clean the idle jets as they are partially clogged (learned to do this w/o removing the carbs. Anyone else with this problem?

Bob

I can't wait for my wife's W650 to show up on Monday. It has just under 10,000 miles, and looks showroom new.

It may not be the recommended thing to do re: oil, but when I park the W for the winter, in addition to throwing a float charger on it and adding blue Marine Sta-Bil, I also start it every week or so for 30 seconds to a minute to keep fuel moving through the carbs. So far no carb problems.

As far as DS tires, I have to say I'm so thrilled with this bike I wouldn't want to take a chance damaging it off road. I have a small DS for that. Since it appears there will be no more of these, with not even the W800 coming here, I tend to safeguard it. I'll ride it hard on road at times, but leave it at that.

You are right Barnone. I will need to make the tire decision on my own. In my late night stupor, I failed to remember my internet manners, and posted a question before making a quick search of this site. Had I done a search, my questions would have been answered by one of your previous entries.

Regardless, thanks for re-posting your experiences with the Distanzia's. I had good luck with Distanzia's on my Tiger, and I'd like to run them on the W too.

Cheers,

Scott

+1 I have 20K on mine and there is no blueing but I blocked off the exhaust emissions air early on. I think pumping air in at the header outlet could lead to blueing, as can long idling with choke.

The pipes in the photo above are OEM double wall.

Anyone know what happened to www.captainjake.com? The site appears to be down.

He's active on the Yahoo group; you could check with him there . . .

Several W650 riders over on the Yahoo W650 group are planning a get together meeting at Mini Mike's (http://www.mcminnmarketplace.com/marketplace/businesses/tellico-motorcycle-outfitters/) in Tellico Plains TN in late July or early August. Assuming it is not raining...

Maybe a ride around the http://www.tailofthedragonmaps.com/maps_outlet_loop.html after lunch and some bench racing.

So I read through some of the postings on the Yahoo W650 group. Looks like Captain Jake is aware of his website being down now. Hopefully it will be up and running again.

Gonad

Yep. From Capt. Jake

"Whoa! What the hell?! Thanks for the heads-up. NOBODY go to my website! I just
tried to go and my browser warned me that it has some
nasty malware on it. I will investigate this and see what the hell is going on.

Jake"

Yeah, I saw the warning and backed off. His needle shim thread has been gone for a while, the mixture screw thread was still up until recently..

Yeah, the needle shim and mixture screw threads are the ones I'm after. My W is completely stock, and as such is running lean. Pipes are blue, takes forever to warm up, has a surge mid RPM range. I imagine adding a shim to the stock needle and turning the mixture screw out a little would clear up the lean issue. Just looking for a little confirmation.

Nomad

Nomad,
I just turned the mixture screws out three turns (no shims) and it took care of the lean issue. Some are running their's out more turns but it hurt my MPG.
BTW, If you look at the files and database sections at the Yahoo W650 group you will find about everything that you can do to a W650.