Made it through my first year

[BlackKat17]

I've been told that the odds of getting into a motorcycle accident is highest during the first two years as a new rider. Thankfully I made it through my first year as a rider/Kat owner and can only recall one, nearly close call.
Anyway, I celebrated my first year with a trip to Mammoth Lakes Ca. along with my brother,nephew and 4 other riding friends. It was a great trip but at that altitude my '06 Kat was wwwaaayyy underpowered. It was agravating at first until I resloved myself to just cruising around and enjoying the scenery
(well...most of the time anyway. There was a wide open,newly paved backroad that seemed to go straight for miles and nobody around but us. I maxed out the Kat in 6th gear at the rev limiter at 126mph. My nephew on his R6 blew past me by at least 30mph ,along with the other bikes, all of which are at least 1000 CC's. Oh well,that is as fast as I'll ever need to go, it was exillerating but in hind sight I dont think I need to try that again).
Getting back to the power issue, the thing about it is that shortly after buying my Kat last year I installed an M4 slip-on exaust which caused the bike to run a bit lean. I thought (after discussing it on this forum) that at high altitude where the air is thin, the lack of oxygen would richen the mixture back up. I believe it was still lean because it still had that popping when decelerating. It just really lacked low and mid range power big time. Another strange thing was that my nephew said his '08 Yamaha R6 which is fuel injected was down on power too (but since his bike is so powerful to start with it didn't bother him nearly as much). None of the other guys with the liter bikes mentioned a lack of power.
Overall it was a fantastic trip and I'm pleased with having bought the Kat. Especially for its bang for the buck value.

Heres I beat the odds and make it through my 2nd year safely.


(tried to upload a pic or two but I guess the files too big )

[noglo]

Congrats, stay safe.

[the wind]

(tried to upload a pic or two but I guess the files too big )

use photo bucket or some host site becausenot realy but everyone likes pics

[Kreylyn]

Getting back to the power issue, the thing about it is that shortly after buying my Kat last year I installed an M4 slip-on exaust which caused the bike to run a bit lean. I thought (after discussing it on this forum) that at high altitude where the air is thin, the lack of oxygen would richen the mixture back up. I believe it was still lean because it still had that popping when decelerating. It just really lacked low and mid range power big time.

In general, higher elevation and thinner air isn't going to resolve a really lean issue. It just points out that your not getting enough fuel & air now...

I ride regularly between 1500-6800 feet in elevation, all in 1 ride. I can tell minor differences yes... but if it's really off it won't make it better.

Grats on your first year! Here is to many more!

Krey

[HemiKat]

Theres always next year to become an asphalt crayon!

[JimG4652]

Congrats on your first crash-less year! Here's to many more!

[Sounder600]

Theres always next year to become an asphalt crayon!

Ewwww.


'Grats on a clean first year. Here's to many more.

[The CyberPoet]

I've been told that the odds of getting into a motorcycle accident is highest during the first two years as a new rider. Thankfully I made it through my first year as a rider/Kat owner and can only recall one, nearly close call.

Congrats!

The two big threat times are when you're first learning, and then again somewhere around 2nd - 3rd year, just about the time you feel that you've mastered absolutely everything (false confidence typically leaving you panic'd when something unexpected happens).

Getting back to the power issue, the thing about it is that shortly after buying my Kat last year I installed an M4 slip-on exaust which caused the bike to run a bit lean. I thought (after discussing it on this forum) that at high altitude where the air is thin, the lack of oxygen would richen the mixture back up. I believe it was still lean because it still had that popping when decelerating. It just really lacked low and mid range power big time. Another strange thing was that my nephew said his '08 Yamaha R6 which is fuel injected was down on power too.

All naturally aspirated engines [car, motorcycle, etc.] lose power as the altitude climbs, because they're not stuffing in as much air (and thus not as much fuel) into the cylinders, because the ambient air pressure is lower. The only question is whether the change is noticeable (the liter bikes have so much extra power that they just didn't notice the reduction).

In the case of your Kat, normal altitude changes don't change the fuel-air mixture ratio at all, because the carbs are constant-velocity carbs. That means, irrelevant of altitude (up to about 5k feet difference from whatever they were "based" at when set), they'll automatically adjust to keep the fuel-air ratios the same.
In the case of the R6, the O2 sensor in the exhaust and the controller loop for it performs the same function -- keeping the fuel-to-air ratio the same irrelevant of altitude.

If your bike is running lean, richening up the pilot jets and shimming the needles with a washer will help -- and is a very cheap, easy modification (just install a washer onto each needle, open the pilot screws an additional 1/3rd or 1/2 turn). Alternatively, installing a jetkit (such as the Ivan's) will boost the bike's torque through-out the mid-range, whatever the altitude, and also fix the too-lean issues.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[Tmod]

I've been told that the odds of getting into a motorcycle accident is highest during the first two years as a new rider. Thankfully I made it through my first year as a rider/Kat owner and can only recall one, nearly close call.
Anyway, I celebrated my first year with a trip to Mammoth Lakes Ca. along with my brother,nephew and 4 other riding friends. It was a great trip but at that altitude my '06 Kat was wwwaaayyy underpowered. It was agravating at first until I resloved myself to just cruising around and enjoying the scenery
(well...most of the time anyway. There was a wide open,newly paved backroad that seemed to go straight for miles and nobody around but us. I maxed out the Kat in 6th gear at the rev limiter at 126mph. My nephew on his R6 blew past me by at least 30mph ,along with the other bikes, all of which are at least 1000 CC's. Oh well,that is as fast as I'll ever need to go, it was exillerating but in hind sight I dont think I need to try that again).
Getting back to the power issue, the thing about it is that shortly after buying my Kat last year I installed an M4 slip-on exaust which caused the bike to run a bit lean. I thought (after discussing it on this forum) that at high altitude where the air is thin, the lack of oxygen would richen the mixture back up. I believe it was still lean because it still had that popping when decelerating. It just really lacked low and mid range power big time. Another strange thing was that my nephew said his '08 Yamaha R6 which is fuel injected was down on power too (but since his bike is so powerful to start with it didn't bother him nearly as much). None of the other guys with the liter bikes mentioned a lack of power.
Overall it was a fantastic trip and I'm pleased with having bought the Kat. Especially for its bang for the buck value.

Heres I beat the odds and make it through my 2nd year safely.


(tried to upload a pic or two but I guess the files too big )

Being that Mammoth is at 8000~12000 feet and you lose about a 3% hp loss per 1000 feet that would cost you quite a bit of power.

Here is a link that calculates the HP loss at alititude. Link

If ya need any help making the previous suggestions let me know and you can come by and we can richen it up a but for ya. I rode with you on the ACH ride.

Tmod

[Enjay386]

Lol, I made it through my first year... just sayin'. LOL be careful! Congrats!

[barryjay]

Lol, I made it through my first year... just sayin'. LOL be careful! Congrats!

You got any pics of your ex bike, and maybe some details ?
Congrats!

[BlackKat17]

Thanks for all the congrats and well wishes....although I don't think becoming an asphalt crayon is a goal i'll set for next year Hemikat LOL CP thanks for the explanation, I failed to mention that we hauled the bikes to Mammoth so they didn't adjust gradually to the altitude changes. Dont know if that would have made a difference though.

Hey TMOD, I do remember you from the ACH ride. I want my Kat to be like yours when it grows up. Definitely gonna take you up on getting your help adjusting my bike. Wouldn't mind coming up to your place just to visit too.

Enjay, I was planning to share this post sooner but didn't want to talk about not going down so soon after hearing about other Katriders who weren't so fortunate. But thats the spirit, you did make it through.....sorta LOL.......thanks

[The CyberPoet]

I failed to mention that we hauled the bikes to Mammoth so they didn't adjust gradually to the altitude changes. Dont know if that would have made a difference though.

Makes zero difference.
The CV carbs react instantly to whatever the air pressure is outside (well, more accurately, whatever it is directly at the carbs).
The O2-sensor looped injected bikes react within a couple detonations of starting to whatever the exhaust gases have in them (i.e. - how much oxygen is left over).
The only bikes that would behave different are some of the very early injected bikes with no O2 sensor, and carb'd bikes with non-CV carbs (such as most forms of flat-slide carbs, typically used only for racing).

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[cybrnathan]

Lol, I made it through my first year... just sayin'. LOL be careful! Congrats!

Glad to see you haven't lost your sense of humor

[Psycho1]

Congrats on making it a year so far, keep the shiney side up. Looking forward to riding with you again next Mar on another KR group ride.