rokrover
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torkenstein
Posts: 147
SoCal
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Hi all - just got a pair of his & her S40 Boulevards for our wedding anniversary. Upgraded my wife from her Zuma scooter and this is my fifth big single after a Velocette Venom ('67), Matchless, Yamaha SR500 ('78 maybe) and restored Ducati 350 SCR. My first Suzuki was an X6 "Hustler" 250cc two-stroke twin and the second was the original "Savage", a 250cc two-stroke dual-purpose bike, around 1974. Been wrenching bikes for years and my last obsessions were the classic bevel-gear drive Ducati desmo SuperSports.
So this preamble leads to our 2006 LS650's. Love the big easy torque of the single - so relaxing to chug about with that tractor motor. Sweet handling, great looks - an instant and venerable classic that obviously has a devoted cult following for these reasons.
Despite being a simple single I've found some aspects working on it sofar not so easy. Getting the gas tank off to service the top end or access plug / coil is a chore as I HAVE to remove the fuel valve assy on mine. That means drain the tank and have a bunch of spare gaskets on hand. Not up to the first breakin service yet but access to the intake valve screws looks real cramped, and I sure hope I can get to all the head bolts for retorquing without pulling the motor (as the Clymer manual seems to suggest).
Oh yeah, that lean Mikuni BS40! Took a lot of trial and error to dial in the air screw (1and 1/8 turns out) to eliminate a horrendous backfire on rolling the throttle shut and when switching off. Now the motor has the characteristic "farts" once in a while but nothing worse.
So we're having a blast on our pair of thumpers and will avail ourselves of this great forum for tips and feedback. My only project from stock is to fit a "Baron" tach on the bar but the coil wiring is kind of tight and have to find some "metric" 5mm spade flag connectors. Was going to ground to the coil mounting screws but even my impact driver wouldn't budge them without damaging the head. Nothing's changed in forty years it seems!
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