Bike won't rev past 2000 rpm!

[Ravinrabbid123]

Hello all, I'm new to this forum and new to biking and its mechanics as well! I passed my CBT in December and own a Varadero 125, but I'm having a problem: I can't ride it out of my own drive!!

Last week I tried to ride out of my drive, which is a fairly steep gravel slope (I live in the sticks, btw). Everything seemed normal, tick over was normal, pulled in the clutch to move off and revs were normal, but as I was pulling off the bike wouldn't rev past about 2000 rpm and I was moving very, very slowly before I finally stalled on the steeper part of my drive.

Some extra details that might need to be known:

1. I have had my back brakes stick before. They had a horrible squealing noise and acceleration was very jerky, but it did move. My dad cleaned off some rust and dirt (I have the misfortune of NOT having a garage, so it lives outside with a cover over it) and lubed the chain and that seemed to stop that problem. I haven't had many opportunities to ride on it due to this cruddy winter weather but I have rode it a few times after unsticking the brakes and everything was normal then.

2. I bent the clutch lever. I fell off it on the first ride  , and it landed not so hard on the ground, but hard enough to bend it a bit. It has been bent back to normal but I don't know if it would make too much of a difference now though because it hasn't been a problem up until now.

3. I haven't recently fueled it. It's not on reserve but I don't know how much fuel is in it. Again, probably not an issue, but just thought I'd mention it.

I'm a noob and I'm really stumped as to why it won't rev over 2000 with the clutch all the way out. It's as if it's stuck on its biting point. Help and advice would be much appreciated! 

[S Barker]

I've moved this to the 125 forum to prevent people getting confused and replying with solutions to XL1000 problem.

Questions  :

With the bike in neutral will it rev past 2,000 rpm ?

Has the bike got a centre stand ?
If so can you turn the back wheel by hand with the bike in neutral & on the centre stand.
If not is it easy to push on flat ground when in neutral ?

Is it only when you're trying to pull away that it woldn't rev past 2,000 rpm ?

Are you sure you were in 1st gear ?

Was it fully warmed up when you tried to ride it ?

Does it have a manual choke ?

If you leave it to tick over do the header pipes on both cylinders get hot ?

Could there be water in the fuel ?

SB

[Ravinrabbid123]

Here's some answers to those question;

1. Yes, it will rev fine when in neutral.

2. The bike does have a centre stand, and I will have to try that. I'll come back to that one. As for pushing it in neutral, well it will move when pushed backwards down a hill. The problem is that the bike is really really heavy, and with my weak, girly frame I just don't have the oomph to push it on flat ground a lot of the times. I'm sure that'll cause more problems down the line...

3. Yes, it is only when I attempt to pull away (in first) when this happens.

4. Yes, definitely in first!

5. No, it wasn't fully warmed up.

6. Yes... I think so. I better double check that :S

7. I don't know, I'll have to check that. I believe they do, but I'll investigate that soon.

8. I don't think so. Like I said in my previous post, I haven't recently fueled it. In fact the last person to do so was my dad before he rode it over from Hereford (about 50 miles away from me). I haven't used it much due to all the recent snow/cold snaps. In fact I've probably only ridden it 5 times at most! :S

Again, like I said, I'm still a newbie and I'm still learning the ins and outs of bike mechanics. This problem is probably so embarrassingly obvious!!

Thank you for your reply.

[Littleyellowenterprise]

I know this is a really old topic, however, I have exactly the same issue and wondered if @Ravinrabbid123 ever had a resolution?