I noticed a unusual roughness with the R65's idle lately. I already went through 2000 Kilometers since my last engine overhaul and decided to give the engine a once over and a tune up.
I torqued the engine cylinders to 20 ft/lbs when I last operated on it, just for the gaskets to seal properly and adjusted the newly lapped valves 0.1mm on in intake and 0.2mm on the exhaust. I tested compression in both cylinders and found out the one side has a significantly higher compression that the other side, so I was not able to sync it perfectly.
This time around, I re-torqued the cylinders to 25 ft/lbs, found out that both valves lost clearance, so I re-adjusted them, tested the compression, and to my surprise, they were now equal. It looked like the valves already seated properly. I took the bike for a 20 minute ride, setup the industrial fan on the garage and hooked the carbtune to the bike. After 3 minutes, the cabs were synchronized. For the first time ever, I have balanced the engine almost exactly, since this is the first time I saw the two manometers perfectly aligned.
I took the bike on a short trip through the expressway and daaaamn!
The engine was as smooth as butter, it revs so smooth and so easily as if the bike lost half its weight. Power delivery is greatly improved, and the dead spot somewhere at 2500rpm is gone. My dad had to radio in on me to remind of of the speed limit as I was too busy taking in all the information on how the bike is so awesome. My cheeks were actually starting to cramp in the middle of the ride as I was smiling all the way.
On the large sweeping, decreasing radius exit ramp, I was surprised on how the engine was no longer stuttering when I suddenly pull open the throttle, this allowed me to pull off steeper lean angles, have faster speed at turns and subsequently faster exit speeds. Plus with the nimble steering of the R65, I never though the bike handles this beautifully.
Overall, I had the bike for around 5 years now, every time I do something with it, I always notice an improvement when I ride. But this time around, the improvement was nothing short of amazing. I always heard the R65 was a great bike, but I never expected something this good.
