Rickman CR1000 Help

G'Day guys! Its my first post on your "great forum" which to this date I have found really informative.

As an intro I'm an Aussie who has been off the bike for some time due to family commitment. Recently I was tempted out of bike semi-retirement with the purchase of a Rickman CR1000 that I just couldnt pass up although the bike needed(s) work. The Rickman is fitted with a KZ-1000-A1 engine that I believe fitted with Wisco 1105 kit couple of months prior to me purchasing the bike. It also has Yoshi headers. The story I got was that the bike has had 2 owners over the past 15 years and has been sitting in a barn for most of that time until the previous owner heard about the bike, bought it and set about getting it back on the road,which he did. Not to much more is known about the bike.


I bought the Rickman knowing that it had electrical (Charging)problems. These have now been sorted. Now the plugs are getting sooty and suffers from poor running. Briefly I am getting about 150miles from a set of plugs before I have to remove,clean and or replace them. The bike starts ok, idles ok, but once riding it is sluggish under load and farts,coughs and wheezes alot, similar to its owner!. After about 4-5 miles the bike seems to clear its throat and is a pleasure to ride. Once the plugs have been changed it start and rides fine from the get go but progressively gets worse over the next few rieds & starts, obviously becase the plugs are fouling.

On inspecting the plugs all are slightly brownish with a black sooty tinge. No 1 is the best, No'2 is the worst (Very black and cruddy and No's 3 & 4 sit somewhere between 1 & 2 in color.

Your thoughts are most appreciated. I havent touched the carbies yet.

FYI the bike only has a side stand and is started whilst on the side stand and is left to warmup until helmet, jacket and gloves are on and the headers are warm to touch.

Unsure of the carbie but think they are 26mm Mik's. The have foam (newish)pods. It also has an electronic ignition unit.

My aim is to enjoy our upcoming riding season (Summer) on the bike and then think about stripping it down and rebuilding.

Sorry for the long winded intro.

Thanks Lex

Welcome to the forum Lex. I'm not too familiar with the 1000 engines and carbs, but it does sound like your engine is running too rich. You say the pods are "newish", but if they are at all dusty, they may need a good cleaning and light re-oil. Other wise the jetting could be off in the carbs, or need cleaning (carbs), or your choke mechanism may not be working properly. Also you may just need to adjust the needle hight. Others with a 1000 may be able to help better with the adjustments.

Give us a picture of your Rickman CR1000 as well. Love to see it. I just bought a Rickman Fairing I'm going to be putting on my '78 KZ650C this Winter. It will be quite a change for me as I need to put on lower handlebars.

Have fun and ride safely.

Good on ya Lex. Rickman frame and bodywork makes a nice home for kwaker power. Been scouting for one myself. If your version frame does not have chain adjuster, there is a set of slugs that you should have gotten. Each set has a different offset. Since there are only two other owners, if you didn't get them, it's worth trying to track them down. IIRC there are 5 or 6 pair in total.

Let us know where you are. Australia's a big place. I would relocate to the North coast as quick as I could talk the old lady into it, if I could figure out how she could make a living there

-Duck

The ol' sooty plug problem... Sure, this CAN be the result of an improper air/fuel mixture but there are other and more likely reasons for sooty plugs....

1. You didn't mention which type air filter or intake was on this bike. If the current air filter or pods are excessively dirty, the lack of air can cause plugs to foul
2. You didn't mention what spark plugs. If your current plugs are the wrong heat range (such as NOT NGK B8ES), then your air/fuel mix may not be combusting totally leaving the plugs sooty
3. Use of wrong octane gas. Most KZs have low compression pistons. If too high an octane gas is used, combustion is delayed and plugs (and combustion chamber) will soot up
4. MOST LIKELY REASON! Poor combustion. Yeah, you may have a new and fancy electronic ignition and you may have new coils BUT if the coils don't get powered adequately, then you will get a weak spark and hence, SOOT! Power comes from battery/fuse area and goes through your ignition switch and then through your kill switch. What does that mean? Older connectors cause power loss. To check this, put a multimeter on your coils with hot lead on power wire lug (yellow/red) and neg lead on frame and turn your key on. Less than 12.4 VDC and you should consider running your coils direct from your battery via an automotive relay. About 3/4 of the older bikes out there suffer this problem to one degree or the other. I will try and post a "HOW TO" on coil powering via an automotive relay in the next few days into the FILEBASE. I already have the material... just need to figure how to do it.

Thanks for the input, just put a photo of the Rickman on the KZ1000 Gallery for those interested.

To answer some of your questions,

Duck, I got the chain adjusters with the bike along with a partially mouse eaten Rickman parts and build book that I believe came with the original kit.
I live in Perth Western Australia.

WireGeorge,
1. Clean Foam Poads.
2.yep using NGK B8ES plugs.
3. Using our lower octain fuel.
4. I'll let you know how I get on with the multimeter. Im on nights for the rest of the week, so it'll be a job for my next days off. Look forward to the "How to" article on the Auto relay.

RSTNICK
You'll look cool with the fairing and lower bars(IMHO), Cafe all the way, but your back wont forgive you.

Ride Safe.