New bike Some Advice?

[tommy2544]

Well First of all I am a new member and the sites awesome will def. spend some time here.

Monday I bought my first bike a 93 Katana 600 25kmiles. It had been laid down lightly but repainted.

Ive only rode the motorcycle around in small spurts. Today I took it to work and back and I noticed it started to make a funny noise. It almost acted like the engine had been ran dry or starting to be starved of oil.

I am no mechanic, but I am pretty good with cars. Motorcycles is kind of like a new chapter though. With the bike being new and all what all things should I look for and What should I do. Also I'm going to change the oil tomorrow. I seen alot of oil filters online but do store like autozone sell them? I seen them for sale on the forum but just don't want to wait. -Thanks in advance.

[Shipster]

Welcome to KR! This is definitely the place to be if you want to learn about the Katana, and what you should look for on certain things. Most people on here seem willing to help, but I would definitely recommend using the search function as many things have been covered in the past. I would suggest using the advanced search function and looking at specific titles rather than just words. I grew up in IN, what is Avon close to?

[tommy2544]

thanks, Avon is just west of indianpolis next to plainfield. Also another thing is that the bike has sat for about a month or so the guy said. The fuel has also been a concern? I'm not sure what you guys get but It had over 3/4 of a tank and I rode it around 40 miles just getting a feel for the bike and learning to ride. I burned almost all of the fuel in that 40 miles. At times a did take of fast and had the throttle pretty hard but definatly not a enough to burn through almost a full tank. ??

[Shipster]

Seafoam is great for cleaning out the carbs and the old gas. I have seen a lot of people on here recommend it, as well as Techron (Which I think CP recommends). I ran it through my bike after sitting over the winter. You can pick it up at most autoparts stores. Is Avon close to Bloomington or Martin?

[IndyGunner]

First off you have an engine designed in the 80s and its oil cooled. They sound really wierd, clanky, etc. Its the facts of life for the katana.

With that said these bikes are built like brick ****houses... they are amazing. Ive seen multiple people on here with 100,000+ miles on em with the proper preventative maint...

I would bet that 90% of any problem with a kat not running well is dirty carbs, out of sync carbs, and out of tune valves. There are also the random assortment of vac leaks and petcock breakage, but those are decently rare.

Can you go a bit more into detail what the sound sounds like (yeah i know, how can you describe a soud), and the location the sound is coming from. That could help diagnose the problem.

[wepainters]

i have only used seafoam in cars and i will say it defiantly does some as it smoke like a train for a while

i have been useing stp fuel cleaner in my bikes for 15 years and i wont use anything diffrent as it has proved itself to me time and time again.

but it is rather slow for some problems as far as extreme varnish type of situtation usauly take 2 tanks before things clear up

I to just got my first kat and it was idle a little rough i ran one tank of treated fuel{stp of coarse} and it realy cleared things up

in fact i had to go and turn my idle down after one tank treatment as my idle increased 1500 rpm just from running the cleaner threw it

my guess was the previouse owner turned up the idle unstead of addresing the issue and when the cleaner started to work it increased the idle

im on my second treated tank now and i have to say things are still improving i will move to valve train soon and readjust there im told i need a shim kit

which i must say is so stupid i guess it was a suzuki trick to get you buying parts to adjust valves

anyways enough rambling on here i only realy wanted to say stp has always been good to me in this type of situation and it isnt high priced as some of the others

[JokerZwild]

Welcome to KR!! Ed is correct in the common issues dept! If it was sittin a while Id address the carbs first. If your not familiar with what your looking at then I suggest the "carbs 101" thread to get you started. other wise ask away theres a wealth O knowlege here and Im sure your issues can be corrected!