Recently having a few bugging issues with my ZMA: 1) The bike doesn't start with ES- though the motor runs fine.
2) Starts with kick, but very inconsistently. Sometimes it will start with the 1st kick and sometimes not even after 20. I thought it might be the issue with the spark plug and hence changed it- but to no avail. 3) The bike doesn't go beyond 80 in 5th gear. If I keep the throttle open, it doesnt gather any speed- rather it feels like the bike is coming on reserve. I've tried taking the bike to the max rev range in 4th gear and shifting to 5th, but it will come back to the same speed. And this is on a normal patch...a slight ascend and it will gradually start deccelerating. Yday while coming from Dapoli- 90% of the time I rode in 4th gear. 4) Though all the other 4 gears work fine- but the bike relatively feels underpowered. For example riding on the ghats even in low gears- the bike takes lot of time to gather speed. Also the mild knocking sound that usually comes in a ZMA at high revs- its now felt as low as 3500-4000 rpm. 5) Whatever speeds the bike is running- no sooner I press the clutch and close the throttle- the engine dies out. Once it just went off while cornering- thankfully the momentum of the bike fires back the engine to life. On another ocassion, I just got my bike out of the dhaba onto the main road which was on a slight elevation. As soon as I came on the road and upshifted- the engine died. I was right in the way of an oncoming truck. 6) Similar is a case when its idling- no throttle and the engine dies. I've kept the idle speed really high- from 3 to 4k rpm. Ocassionally it does rev high on idle- but most of the time even this is of no use. Also at signals- I keep the bike running in choke. It really hurts to see the bike revving this way- but its all to avoid the embarassment that if it stalls, the traffic behind me gets stuck. It has already happened a few times. I used to let the engine run for 4-5 minutes on choke for the engine to warm up and also to the extent of riding on choke for a few kms- still the engine used to die out. But by the time I reach office (after a commute of 20 kms)- it would start normally. Just 30 mins is enough for the bike to behave as if its being cranked in the himalayas. 7) Today it simply refused to start. It did start twice on choke with the interval being 10 minutes between the 2 starts and me trying hard to bring it to life. But even with the choke pulled in- the engine died out. Only on constant revving did it keep running. Left the bike and came by bus to office. Will have to give it to a local mechanic so that at least he can get it to running condition after which I might give it to Kevin (Fort Point, Mahim). But on second thoughts I've decided not to take it to the service centre. I had already conveyed this issue when I went for my service last time and it wasn't resolved. Would appreciate if Venkat Sir and other techies can analyse the issue based on my experience and suggest things that needs to be done before I take it to a local mechanic and he uses his own skills- the extent of which am not sure of. Regards, Deepak [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
