Cherry red exhaust

I went to start the X this evening, just to make sure the battery had plenty of charge and get the chain oiler going.... 20 seconds maximum on start up idle and the exhaust header was glowing bright red (stainless).
It has been sat outside a week or so since last using it. Could it be the decompression system stuck? It can't be the valve clearances, they don't go out of whack sat doing nothing and they were fine just before Christmas according to the garage. I can't think what else it might be. I am a bit loathe to run it too much if it is going to be chucking explosions out the partly open door. Any quick and easy fixes for a stuck decompressor?
Any other ideas what it might be? It fires up straight away and runs fine - so timing etc is not out.

I wonder if you lambda sensor in the exhaust header is feeding the ECU duff information, making the engine run leaner than needed?

Apparently you can still run the bikes with the lambda sensor unplugged, and they will revert to a richer fuel curve, hopefully allowing the bike to run a bit cooler.

Does your bike still have the standard exhaust fitted?

Nathan

I saw that on one of my bikes once (can't remember whether it was on my 650 or 449) and that worried me. Same circs, cold outside, nighttime, damp etc.

Apparently it's quite normal and nothing to worry about. Never had any problems with the bike and I've not tried to fix it.

Very strange. I took the cover off and fired her up again today, literally just turned the key and pressed the button. Everything was perfectly normal again.... I wonder what it was the other night?

Was it dark both times?

dean0n0 said:

Was it dark both times?

Click to expand...

Yes, I deliberately waited for dark so I could see if it was the same. Thankfully the first night I had forgotten to take the armoured security cable off.... it was just touching the header, where I had rove it through the wheel, crash bars and frame... I fired her up, then thought, Oh the cable and looked down to see if was clearing the pipe, so looked within a few seconds of starting, maybe 10 seconds or so... it was just touching and the header was already glowing! Shut off straight away. And took the cable off so it didn't get damaged or leave nasty burny marks on the pipe. It was a much drier, milder night that was the only thing I can think was different.