running lean?

[Anonymous]

How can I tell if I'm running lean?

I just bought my bike from a used auto dealer. The bike seemed in great body condition and sounded good and rides well.

I'm concerned though cause the dealer put new pipes on it cause he thought the bike was too quiet. After reading some pages on here I have gathered that you simply just cant replace pipes without making other modifcations. I hightly doubt that this guy knew what he was doing, I called him up and asked if he had the old pipes and he said he took it to a muffler joint to have em put on. Now for some reason I doubt a muffler place is going to know to re-jet... but thats just an assuption.

so is there any tell tale sign? I was getting some popping the other day.

[Jethro]

Some aftermarket pipes can be replaced without rejetting or air filter mods. But it is hard to tell what ones. Basically there are high and low flow pipes. Loud pipes are generally high flow- most of these require modification to the jetting to match the flow.

An easy check to see if your running lean is a plug read. Take your bike for a cuise and get it up to running temperature. Try not to do much stop and go driving. Then pull the plugs and look at the electrode. White = too lean. A red clay-like color is way too hot. Black and sooty = too rich.

I'm no expert, but I saw your post had no replys, so I chimed in with what I do know.

[Jethro]

Also, popping doesn't nessecarily mean you have an issue, other than it's annoying. I had a Vance and Hines 4 into 1 on and my bike was jetted to suit. It popped to the high heavens, but didn't have a single problem with the tuning.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I'm just not sure. I checked the plugs right when I got the bike. black and sooty, but I wasn't sure if that was because the bike hadn't been run in away, I had some nasty gas I had to get rid of.

But being a novice and the pipes being the only non stock item, I blame everything on them.