real issues www.motorcycleproject.com

®	Real issues Items either characterized wrongly or completely ignored on many motorcycle user forums

The images above depict the number one issue facing vintage Japanese motorcycle owners today: receded valves. Yet, do you read about this on forums? No. Not a whisper. Instead, they insist that compression tests are unreliable, inaccurate, inconclusive, and excuse poor compression as non-existent -- a non-issue, thus ignoring why their engines have low compression in the first place and run less well than they should. This issue should be at the very top of their threads, it should be thoroughly discussed and warned against, and remedies enumerated and qualified. Most Internet powersports user forums are insidiously vacuous, self-focused, self-promoting, iconoclastic, unresponsive to the industry and exceedingly unhelpful to those seeking help. They are places no rational, intelligent individual should have anything to do with. Here's a short list of topics misrepresented or ignored on forums. See how many you are curious about.

Camshaft wear facts
Soft Japanese valves and valve recession
Why electrical connectors melt and how best to repair and prevent melting
Properly lubing and adjusting drive chains
How and when to use a leakdown tester
Fuel issues far more important than ethanol
The more air/less air test, the basis of engine performance troubleshooting
The real benefit of big bores
The idiocy of lapping valves
Silicone brake fluid considered objectively
Fuel and oil additives
The pitfalls of non-original carburetors
The proper and improper use of sealers
The critical importance of cylinder compression
The ins and outs of fuel economy
The incontrovertible impracticality of relying on resistance tests in troubleshooting
The misuse of lobe center
Carburetor float level facts
The real issues re engine oil
Vintage Honda electrical loading
The effectivess of using heat in disassembly
Inch-pound torque wrenches
The problem with aftermarket carb parts, gaskets, and electrical parts
The truth about early Honda V4 cams
The important structural difference between early and late Honda carburetors
The lost ethic of proper clutch adjustment
Good versus bad spark plug wire
Honda valve seat issues
Aftermarket ignition issues
Cam chain adjustment best practices
The Cruzin Image situation
6mm bolt torque
Aftermarket oil filters
The timing/dwell rig
The availability of OEM elect connectors
The Chinese aftermarket keyswitch scandal
Porting: the realities
Why exhausts rust

The ins and outs of tire repair
Keeping wearing parts together on disassembly
So-called "matched" parts
The truth about aftermarket exhausts
Slavish and ill-advised threadlocker use
Proper engine assembly
Properly handling o-rings
Properly installing Dyna ignitions
The truth about ethanol
The treachery of the aftermarket
The truth about spark plug reading
Oil consumption facts
The anti-seize cult
Cylinder head torque and aftermarket studs
Valve clearance tech: the plain facts
The importance of fuel stabilizer
Point ignition anomalies and adjusting steps
Air filter tech and maintenance
Leanness and engine condition
MLS gaskets: superior or not?
Aftermarket service manuals
Honda finally caving in to the aftermarket
The evils of "zip" cable ties
Proper cam bearing install
Honda precision bearing ethic
The premium/regular gas tradeoff
Proper steering bearing adjustment
The powerful and important volt drop test
Why and why not to mill heads or cylinders
JB Weld, really?
Honda primary chain rattle realities
The truth about CV slide indexing
The real benefit of point dwell
The leanness myth
Honda drum brake cautions
Chinese aftermarket handlebar switches
Chinese tools
The case for soldering
The truth about gasket sets
The unavailability of 50-year old carb parts
Servicing the spuge box
Spark plugs: facts not specs
Hammer-type impact tools

Individual "pod" type type air filters and jetting
Engine break-in: what, where, when, why and how; it's far different from what people think
The high performance ignition coil cult
Gauze air filter realities
The float valve scandal
Proper SOHC Honda riding ethic
Brake squeal: well-known causes and cures
Best practices: defining good, better and best
Piston-to-cylinder clearance: its importance, the Japanese ethic, how to measure
The OEMs and their electrical connectors
Honda's idle drop procedure explained
The differences between various OEM ignitions
The problem with aftermarket fork braces
Bench syncing carbs with wire or drills
Problems with venda-washing
Cast versus forged pistons: the realities
Proper liquid leak detection techniques
Real-world, conclusive, no-guess charging system troubleshooting
Honda oil filter bolt history
Spin-on oil filter conversions
Do you remove valve springs with a hammer?
Using aerosols to find vacuum leaks
Steering bearings: ball or tapered?
Pilot screw settings and cylinder compression
Modern Keihin CV fast idle systems
The truth about ring end-gap
The Wiseco scandal
Arias, MTC, Powroll and other flakes
The 100-watt test resistor
Vintage Honda four cam chain tensioning
The real link between the aircut valve and the pilot screw
Correct and easy ignition coil testing
Using compression and leakdown tests together
The wire harness scandal

In short, practically any given subject being discussed on the average user forum is way off base, steeped in lore and myth and unqualified opinion. Why doesn't the truth about the things in the list above characterize forums? Why did it take online forums more than twenty years to agree with career techs on the subject of carb rebuild kits, and far longer about OEM ignition points? And most still argue. Why are forums, instead of disseminating real things, inexplicably enamored with Chinese replacement parts; "velocity stacks"; repair practices originating in, at best, 1940s car manuals, and at worst the imaginations of unqualified hacks; the weight of mass opinion; "M boxes" and a myriad of other empty, meaningless things? Why indeed! I don't really know, but the fact that they are should indicate something, should be a warning.

Do you know that forum members have seen this list? I link to this article (via this censure of forum deception) in most of my forum account signatures. To date only one person has started dialogue with me about these issues.

Motorcycle user forums are on a different planet than is the powersports industry. Forums are not the clearinghouses of powersports knowledge. They are not even a part of the industry. They are rebel outposts and absolutely clueless, pecularly isolated communities contemptuous of facts. And they want to stay that way. They have made up their own truth, a different, false set of facts, and they will not listen to reason.

User forums have a responsibility to their members, one they are not only ignoring but perverting. Because people depend on them. I welcome civilized dialogue on these issues.