Cardan and gearrespons question

[Kievit]

I've got a question about the gear en cardanrespons. I only experienced my own Rocket and think there's a lot of space in gear and cardandrive which makes the bike "bumpy". I'm getting used to is but the question remains wether this Is normal?

 

[rocketjohn]

Ummm....shaft drive you mean? This is my second bike with shaft drive, I don't have a problem with it. Lubricating the shaft is a necessary maintenance step when servicing, however. And some bikes might have some slack but I don't think it should make shifting difficult. Choice of oil is more important.

It's a large engine and more driveline activity may be felt in the seat of the pants, but overall I think they are very smooth bikes.

 

[Kievit]

I drove a 1972 Guzzi California for 34 years and still own a BMW R80/7 with cardan. Both of them show less "free space" at low tpm. Even in thirst and second gear it seems to "klick-klack" when i'm drivin at 10 to 30 miles an hour. Maybe it has someting to do with the "on-of effect" of the injection while drivin very los throttle? The has about 14.000 miles, oil in perfect shape and i think its almost impossible the bearings or cross coupling is gone.

 

[rocketjohn]

Jerky throttle response can be had with fuel injected models. If you have put a new tune in, it may have some oddities about it. But if performance is adequate for you, the jerkiness should be no problem....just don't do anything to make it happen. As you say you are getting used to it. And in low gears you do have much torque available. You can rip some things apart if you are not careful.

 

[Tripps]

I can't decipher this post

 

[barbagris]

I drove a 1972 Guzzi California for 34 years and still own a BMW R80/7 with cardan. Both of them show less "free space" at low tpm. Even in thirst and second gear it seems to "klick-klack" when i'm drivin at 10 to 30 miles an hour. Maybe it has someting to do with the "on-of effect" of the injection while drivin very los throttle? The has about 14.000 miles, oil in perfect shape and i think its almost impossible the bearings or cross coupling is gone.

I still run a 1979 Guzzi I have owned since 1982.

Part of what you explain is the lack of flywheel effect in the R3 - Something that BMWs and Old Guzzis have and they're big HEAVY ones - 8->11kilos. This allows them to trundle smoothly at low throttle openings - and the analogue effect of carbs helps too. They also have less than half the power/torque - closer to a third part. Modified Guzzis with lightened flywheels are clunky at low throttle.

When the R3 lifts off 0% throttle the power is "instant" as there is no flywheel to wind up, and any throttle inbalance up to 3 or maybe 4% throttle will be felt as jerky. Oddly I only ever seem to feel this in the queues to embark/disembark the ferries. So I believe there are things happening with some temp & pressure sensors that exacerbate the issue.

NOT WITHSTANDING - I would drop the bevel box off and look at the splines on the shaft. Grease them with absolute top grade Moly paste. Should be done at EVERY tyre change. The hookes joint SHOULD be OK - but if you're worried - look at it. If you look - then you know.

 

[Blackthou]

Hi,
It might be a bit of a tangent but I use to suffer from this at low pick ups when turning right - the delay and clonk. It reminded me of a badly adjusted chain.
Since I fitted RamAir the pick up has been a lot smoother and it's only reading your post makes me realise it's totally gone now. It could also be down to the fact I've balanced the throttle bodies, reset the TPS and ISCV. The engine got smoother which each with each procedure. Perhaps as now it's "right" it's all balanced and produces no hesitation.

 

[Kievit]

Thanks Barbagris, rocketjohn and Blackthou,
The thinks you mention make sense. I also changed the air-filter to ramair en had it tuned. After tuning (focus on power en speed) the problem got bigger. The lack of a heavy flywheel seems to be a compremise and makes it even more important to finetune the lower rpm parts in slow driving situations.
I'm gonna ask my tuner to give it another look and make it a piece of art! Don't think te problem wil be found in my "hardware".