We had a pretty huge day, I'm dead tired. The trails are intensely rutted but the powder spots were worth it. Clearly somebody is grooming sometimes but the trails just always seem terrible when I ride. We finally got to our more secretive spots and then the going got a lot smoother. The SKS is running awesome, I'm declaring the entire drivetrain totally dialed and I'm not touching it again until something breaks. I absolutely hammered on it all day today, miles and miles of WOT powder hill climbing, and it didn't flinch, it just went like crazy. The Vmax secondary spring is a little too stiff at the higher end, it ran awesome but I'm going to be tweaking it next time.
On a technical note, I finally found the pilot screw on the 96 Vmax 600 carbs, it faces straight down when the carbs are installed and it is on the engine side of the carb. This does *not* correlate with the way it is drawn in the parts diagram, but take a look in person and you will see. You really have to pull off the carbs to find the screws. On this type of carb, a flat slide mikuni, more turns out equals more fuel at idle (this is the reverse of most carbs I've seen, where more turns out equals more air), and it was set to 3.5 turns out when it's supposed to be 1.5 turns out! I knew that thing was idling too smoky but I could never find the stupid screws, so I assumed that the smartcarb was controlling it and doing a bad job. I was just about to install new smaller pilot jets, and then I finally found the pilot screws and now the idle is as clean as I could reasonably expect and with a slightly more responsive throttle. Anyway, I wanted to clarify that about the carbs because I have given bad information in the past, so hopefully people searching the forums for V-max pilot screw location will find this post. Flip over the carbs and the screws will be staring right at you.
This article was nice http://www.iwt.com.au/mikunicarb.htm it explained how if your pilot screw is on the engine side it adds fuel as you unscrew, and if it is on the intake side it adds air as you unscrew. I just set mine to Yamaha spec but it is most definitely leaner and cleaner now so I know the article is right.
Youtube: April Fools Powder
