Shell Optimax
Well, it has NOT been a good few days for me. We just had a long weekend where I intended to go on a few rather long rides on my Kawasaki zzr250, but instead, it all went to buggery.
Saw ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’ on the Friday night, which was bloody awesome, and rode from my mates that night. On Sat, I did the rello thing with the woman, and of course had to drive there as I can’t carry a pillion till I get my open licence. After we got home I decided to wash the bike and clean the wheels & chain ready for the intended ride with a friend to another friend’s place in the middle of nowhere. After washing the bike and cleaning the wheels/chain, I went to put it back in the garage and it wouldn’t start. No big deal I guess as I obviously got water somewhere it shouldn’t have gone.
The next day I went to start the bike, which it did, but only momentarily, it stalled and then would not start again. I had to go off and get a pair of jumper leads as I ended up sending the new battery flat trying to kick the bitch over and over.
I managed to get the bike started but it would not idle at all. Get anywhere close to the idle speed of ~1100rpm and it would just fall to zero and stall. Not very good indeed. So after a lot of screwing around I managed to get advice off a friend that I had gotten water in the carby (thanks Mal! heh).
Anyway, fixing this involved ripping the fairing off the bike, and undoing the brass screws at the bottom of the carby which are a real *bitch* to get to due to the space constraints. After a while I got to them and emptied the water & fuel from the carbies, put everything together again and started her up. The bike started, but would still idle weirdly, it would idle high then falter after a minute or so, then when I took it for a run up and down the garages, it stalled and I had to do the whole process over again.
Anyway, I organised to get its 6000km service done today along with getting the carbie looked at seing as I had the bike running but with a high idle speed this time around. Unfortunately I managed to get a few kms from home and the bitch stalled and flooded itself in the middle of traffic. Luckily I got Carringbah Motorcycles to come and pick the bike up and take it back to their shop.
This is where the interesting stuff happens, I get asked later in the day if I use Shell Optimax fuel. As it is, I use that fuel religiosly in the Falcon XR6, and have also done so in the bike. Unfortunately, Shell Optimax fuel does NOT play nice with non-fuel-injected motorbikes. To use Optimax fuel you need to get smaller carby jets and use hotter plugs. Because I had done neither of these things, the Optimax fuel managed to foul my plugs and take out the carby float valves.. The mechanic from the bike shop advised me just to use normal Unleaded Petrol in the bike, unless it was fuel injected as the PULP (premium unleaded fuel) can have adverse effects on the performance of the bike. What this also means, is that I am without my little baby for at least another 2-3 business days until Kawasaki send out the replacement parts.
Considering that ever since I bought the bike, the longest amount of time that has passed without me riding has been about 1.5 days… I last rode on Friday, thats 5 days ago!! I am going insane!!@$
Anyway, be that a warning to anyone with a non fuel injected motorbike, that the use of PULP or Shell Optimax in particular will definately be a cause of immense grief. Don’t do it! 
Filed under: m.o