85 USA RZ Engine Rebuild

[OldGuy]

Thanks, Ken.

That is the goal. To keep her on the road and have fun while doing it.

Saturday was an extended test ride. A great day; good weather, quiet, twisty, hilly CT backroads. The RZ is running great. The cleaned carbs, new tires, new shock, tweaked forks, freshly serviced brakes are working well. The speedo squeal has been silenced.
Ready for Spring.

[OldGuy]

Almost forgot. The petcock is working great. No more flooding problems, once I remembered to manually manage the petcock, dirt bike style.
The Ken's Garage petcock mod is working great.

[OldGuy]

I have been spending some time over the last few weeks fine tuning and testing small details to get my RZ ready riding season.
The weather is getting nice.
Here is what I have been working on:

Suspension - Dialing in the new YSS rear shock. With a little help from my son, we set the SAG on the bike by taking measurements of the rear suspension at full extension, unweighted, then weighted by the bike only, then fully weighted by me, feet on the pegs. Following the SAG procedure I have used in the past, we determined we needed to add some pre load the the spring. Going by 1/4 turn at a time, then re-measuring, and test riding, we arrived at a total of 1/2 turn of added pre load as the sweet spot. The laden SAG height is slightly lower than ideal, but the ride is perfect, with no bottoming issues when riding solo. Combined with the tweaks I had made to the forks, the ride of the RZ is firm, controlled and plush over the bumps. Dampening is set in the middle of the range. To review, my forks are set up with 10wt fork oil at 120mm with the forks compressed and the springs out, 25mm pre load spacers, and progressive springs. A big improvement over the stock suspension.

Tires - The Bridgestone BT-46's are very nice. Confident cornering, quick steering, much more lively than the old tires. On the front, I am running the stock size 90/90-18 switching from a 100/90-18. The steering is quicker and with less input effort. In back, I am running a 120/80-18 switching from a 120/90-18. The lower ride height of the /80 has a positive effect on the handling. Yamaha knew what they were doing, I guess. FYI, the stock rear size is a 110/80-18.

Carbs - I cleaned and re-synched the carbs. Fish lined the main and pilot jets, pulled out and cleaned the needle jets and reinstalled the carbs. I took the time to resynch the slides and vacuum test them. It was time well spent. The RZ revs quicker and pulls more strongly through the gears. The performance from 6k to the redline is vicious now. Another fine tech tip from Ken's Garage.

Gauge squeal is gone. Spray lube applied sparingly to the speedo gears works great.
The petcock mod is working great.

I am getting in some good rides here in the hills of CT and Eastern NY. Pictures coming soon.
Ride safe.