Finally got a chance to go for a little ride yesterday (about 100 miles). I made a point to not shift till at least 3000 rpm and cruise at around 2500-3000 rpm. It's amazing how the bike just comes together. Engine smoothes out, no chugging, transmission shifted smoother/quieter and the clutch even seemed to be smoother. I am 100% happier with how the bike performs. Thanks for all the info!

 

Years and years of experience.

 

And yet it was cured by changing his riding style. That is NOT pinging. Appears your experience failed you on this one.

 

It appears you don't know what the hell you're talking about.

He was abusively lugging his motor, causing the pinging. Once he learned that he shouldn't lug it, the pinging stopped. With some experience, you'll learn this too.

 

Really?? Do you even know what pinging actually is? It is not the same as lugging the motor which is what he was doing in this case. Do a little research before you make such bold statements. You have made others in this thread which amount to nothing more than scare tactics, which is a pointless endeavor.




Pinging in spark-ignition internal combustion engines occurs when combustion of the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder starts off correctly in response to ignition by the spark plug, but one or more pockets of air/fuel mixture explode outside the envelope of the normal combustion front. The fuel-air charge is meant to be ignited by the spark plug only, and at a precise time in the piston's stroke cycle. The peak of the combustion process no longer occurs at the optimum moment for the four-stroke cycle. The shock wave creates the characteristic metallic "pinging" sound, and cylinder pressure increases dramatically. Effects of engine knocking range from inconsequential to completely destructive. It should not be confused with pre-ignition or lugging an engine.

What causes pinging?

An engine can ping for many different reasons. Here is a list of the most common causes for pinging starting with the most popular ones.

• Fuel octane rating too low.
• Compression to high. (usually caused by carbon build up inside the combustion chambers)
• Over heating of the engine or just an individual cylinder. (Hot spots)
• Knock detector faulty.
• Ignition timing over advanced due to incorrect setting or erratic ignition due to a worn distributor. Most modern engines no longer have distributors.
• Blocked exhaust, giving a high backpressure. (A significant loss of performance will be noticed)

Note: The tendency to pinging is highest when the engine runs on the ideal air fuel mixture. (14:1) Therefore a mixture problem -running too lean or rich- will not cause engine ping


When you are lugging an engine, the piston, rod and crankshaft are barley able to overcome the ignition of the fuel air mixture. This results in the piston being pushed back down, thus pushing the rod down. Meanwhile the crankshaft still has rotational inertia trying to drive the rod and piston upwards. In that brief moment of the piston and rod being driven down by the expanding gases and the crankshaft still in rotation the oil that is buffering the rod bearing from the journal of the crankshaft is squeezed out, the rod bearing and the journal make metal to metal contact. Which is the sound you hear and what you feel is the engine fighting its self.





Much of this type of damage is visible on tear down and inspection of engine components. On engines with roller type rod/crank bearings this shows up as flat spots or burnelling on the rollers and or race. The recreational power sports industry see many engine rebuilds caused by this. ATVs used as work horses(plows, pulling...), motorcycles(primarily cruisers) where the owners do a lot of low rpm cruising(45-55mph) in a high gear and rarely changes gears. Sadly when you confront them about their riding style and habits while showing them the damaged parts and explaining what happened, most of them will argue that you are wrong. The heavier the load the more rpms are needed to keep you from lugging the engine. So a solo 160lb motorcycle rider may be able to get by with going 45mph in 5th gear at 2200rpm with out lugging the engine. If that rider adds a 150lb passenger they will have to down shift to 4th and be at say 2800rpm to avoid lugging it and maintain 45mph.