Advice appreciated

[hairygit]

Because like it or not, your first instinct is to pull the clutch in!

[florence]

I thought the second cable was there because the throttle has a friction screw hold it open.  With the screw done up the throttle will not close unless you force it to by pulling it shut with the other cable?

[LesterPiglet]

No, Florence. I've had my bike since 1986 with 1 throttle cable and it works the same as any other single cable throttle.

[matthewmosse]

Florence, I think only the early bikes had the friction screw to hold the throttle open, I know only my 72 500/4 project has one on the undrside of throttle. It's perfectly rideable without the second cable most of the time, but having a spare cable pretty well fitted is a massive help for an emergency get you home measure as well as being handy in case of malfuncion - I'd rather have one fitted than not, especially on motorways or distance work. I'd simply not belive it adds to the stiffness or heavyness of the throttle unless the cable was in an awfull state. A quick actung / 1/4 turn throttle might help with not having to move the twist grip through such a wide range of movement - it's actually this that I think gives the wrist ache.

[Bryanj]

The first 750's had a 4 into 1 throttle cable and severa; riders reported that at wide open throttle there were times when the throttles would not close, even though each carb had it's own spring.

Along with the continuous need of adjustment this prompted Honda to design (or get the carb manufactureres to design) the later assembly where the carbs were linked, the second cable is there to enable you to shut the carbs down when the return spring breaks, as they were once prone to.

In todays market with insurance companies as they are, not having one could be counted as an "Unsafe" modification that you ought to tell them about or they can, and will, invalidate your cover.

I can remember back in the early 70's that any Mini that crashed with a less than 21 yr old driver the insurance company paid to have the head removed and the bore/stroke measured to see if a bigger engine hadbeen fitted, if not they paid for re-assembly---if yes they walked away from the claim just paying for the time to strip down

[florence]

Mine has the friction screw, which I do not use I must add.  I do not have the second cable fitted.  Maybe I should.  I will say though that it has never stuck.

[K2-K6]

I'd agree with alot of the comments and would add:-

Stickier grips let you almost rest your hand onto it to hold in the right place and make a big difference to the effort you have to use. Seems like a small step but has significant effects.

The twin cables, I've not experienced a stuck thottle on these carbs but nor would I like to and not be able to close it. I'd also have great difficulty in trying to explain to a vehicle engineer why I had removed it if it came to that. Don't underestimate the insurance angle it's important.

The adjustment of the cables is critcal in avoiding un-wanted binding in as much as the manual usually states how much slack to have at the twist grip, this is to avoid one cable fighting against the other as the steering is moved as they follow slightly different paths.

[florence]

are the insurance people really that interested in what is fitted to machines as old as this if the item in question is not related to any incident which may occur?  Do insurance companies know what should have been fitted to a machine nearly forty years ago?  If it is not a MOT item does it really matter?

[hairygit]

Sadly insurance companies will use ANY excuse to get out of paying a claim. Supposing a car pulls out in front of you, as happened to UK Pete recently, and after several weeks of your bike being off the road, the third parties insurance assessor decides to inspect your bike closely. The one throttle cable you have fitted may well have stiffened up through lack of use, but YOU would not be able to prove that is was okay at the time of the accident, and he/she would then claim your stiff throttle contributed to the accident, as you could have stopped sooner if it hadn't been, and you'd be looking at considerably less compensation for your injuries, as the condition of your bike contributed to it Sounds over the top I know, but with personal injury claims costing insurers many millions every year, they WILL try and wriggle out of it, and a lot of assessors ARE bike specialists, even the aftermarket pipe you forgot to tell them about can cause serious problems and if they find you have fitted little extras like engine bars, or a twin disc conversion, they need to be told about them, basically, ANY deviation from standard spec can cause problems if you don't tell them about it

[LesterPiglet]

Bloody odd that adding safety gear can affect your claim. Insurance companies. 

[hairygit]

As I said though, ANY excuse, they always ask if the bike has been modified, and the small print will tell you that faliure to disclose any mods may result in your policy being invalid, they just want to know all the facts, some mods will not affect your premium, but fail to inform them at your own peril

[Tomb]

I'd have to fill in two pages of mods for the insurance on my bikes, when I explain that they say do any of the mods make the engine go faster, "nope" I say. Then they ain't bothered with the mods. As said already I think they have a good idea that bikes 30+ years old might have non-standard part here and there.

My bikes are all on an agreed value policy so whether the mods add value, like a fairing and hard luggage, won't make any difference to the amount claimed.

I do see the point about any injury compensation claims, interesting stuff.

[K2-K6]

The insurance companies are trying also to operate without being ripped off by rigged claims which is to all of our benefit. That level of scrutiny will also uncover areas that we may think are innocent but can ultimately affect a claim for damages we may be making.

It's a good point that if you are in contention over details after an accident you will most likely find yourself up against the other party's "experts" in trying to not pay to return you to your pre-accident position.

I'm not averse to a risk of one sort or another but on this point I feel you'd be banging your head against the wall if trying to argue it.

The crux of it is that the second cable is originally designed and installed as a critical safety measure by the vehicle's manufacturer, YOU now have to try and argue against a professional vehicle engineer as to why you have removed it, what's gonig to be your answer?

I think each owner can do as they want to their bike, but would stop at advising someone to remove such an item.

Sidetracked the original post a bit, apologies.

[Fairview]

Glad my original post has sparked some lively debate, thanks for the advice - all of which is useful.

On the subject of insurance I also have a '92 TDM bored out to 898 and with so many modifications it is unrecognisable as a TDM (thankfully) including FZR1000 swing arm and wheel, Aprilla RS250 seat hump, flat slides, high level Renegade cans and so on and even with these declared the insurance wasn't much more than the CB. I think it is always better to declare mods as the amount of interest the insurance company take in the bike will depend on the size of the claim, if you've ploughed in to a line of bystanders at 80mph (God forbid) it would be reassuring to know that at least your insurance is valid.

As for the bike, I ha vent yet run it without a filter or with a new one when it finally turns up but I did take the old one out. I was mildly surprised to find that what I now know to be the 'gas scavenging device' had a plastic cap over the end of the steel tube. It looks like the sort of thing that would be removed on fitting. I can't imagine this is connected to the running problem as surely the engine breathes sufficiently through the filter but I'm also sure this cap shouldn't be there - any ideas?

Thanks again.

[Bryanj]

No the cap shouldn't be there, the tube is to put the oily vapours inside the air filter so they go straight into the engine not via the paper element to clog it up