Yamaha YZF R1 won't start after resting it overnight on rear wheel stand

So, I was working on my R1 last night, and left the sportbike overnight on the rear wheel stand. This morning the bike wouldn't start. More to the point: the starter did not have the power to crank the engine. I feel that there is so much compression in the R1 engine that scarcity of oil in the usual places make the crankshaft unturnable. I think  from being on the rear wheel stand, somehow the oil got distributed front wise and somewhat leaner to the rear of the engine, since the noise is now pointed down. I tried putting the R1 on 6th gear and push it to start, but I don't know about you, each time I tried that, it proved futile, the rear wheel would always lock after releasing the throttle. After pushing the R1 back in my house, suddenly the engine turned over again and started. Wow!
Maybe it's also time to change the battery. Maybe you are not allowed to just have one wheel stand.

Most probably solved the Yamaha R1 overheating problem

Here you can see the thermostat opening where it should, at 160F (70C)

For the past two weeks my Yamaha R1 was overheating. I was getting frustrated because I didn't know what it could be, and what makes it extra annoying is that the Yamaha R1 is my daily ride and parts are readily available, everything needs to be ordered.
I was pondering and was convinced the culprit was the radiator cap. Luckily for me, I also have a Kawasaki laying around and the cap is the same size and also 1.1 bar (16 psi). I thought that solved my problem (it looked good cause I refilled my radiator) but that didn't last long. My temperature kept rising up to about 210F, then I have to make traffic stops where it goes to 220 then 230, getting scary, but when I drove again, ok it backed off a bit to 210, but still is way to high.
I thought it had something to do with the fresh oil I did earlier on. I could not see a leak anywhere but somehow my radiator always gets empty. I thought I had an issue with the thermostat, you can easily see I was getting frustrated.
Tonight I decided to check the thermostat. First I checked the Yamaha R1 service manual to find where the thermostat is located, funnily enough, it's under the gas tank. I took out the thermostat and tested it in the kitchen with a thermometer in a small pot of water, stirring while it gets warmer. It supposed to open at 70c (158F) which it actually did, slowly. And slightly more at 170F.
The thing is, you see it opening, but you have no idea how much open is good enough. Anyway, I decided not to install the thermostat back in, since I ride in a hot climate with daily temps of 90F. But after doing all this, putting everything nicely together. I found was the overheating issue was....... Can you guess? On the road I filled with tap water, this time home, I put coolant in the expansion tank, and there immediately I could see there was a crack in the reservoir where the green coolant came out. Hard to see with regular water I guess. Earlier I looked at the tank, put thought I was scratches, but no, these where through and through cracks!!!
Okay, it's 12:45 am, how am I gonna solve this? After some cursing trying to get the reservoir out (I didn't want to take the exhaust split pipe out just to get that out) I had the reservoir somehow slanted to access the crack better. I found some JB Weld laying around. I roughned the surface around the cracks of the reservoir, cleaned with paint thinner, mixed the JB Weld, and smeared it all around that surface covering the crack. Now I'm going to sleep, and when I wake up, hopefully the JB Weld did its job, so I can mount everything back, fill the radiator and hopefully this time it solved my problem!!!!
So, it's not the radiator cap, not the thermostat, not the radiator, not the waterpump, but a tiny haircrack in the expansion tank!!!

update: you know..... later on, I also found that my radiator hose on the left front of the bike (near the oil filter had a small leak), this happened from the time I replaced my oil filter and had a hard time with it. I just cut the hose shorter, and now everything is super!

Oil filter change trouble on the Yamaha YZF R1

I needed to change the oil bad on my 2005 Yamaha R1 and I had this same trouble before: last time changing the oil, I replaced the oil filter as well however, I ended up putting the old original Yamaha oil filter back in instead. See, I don't have a Yamaha dealer around that stocks this stuff, so I went to Napa Autoparts and got a Napa Gold oil filter part #1365. The problem is tightening the filter. You can tighten all that you want, and the filter will still leak oil through the rubber seal.

The difference in seal with the original Yamaha oil filter and the Napa Gold one is the one from Yamaha is a round o-ring, while the seal from Napa is a wide rubber flat ring, meaning that there is more surface and the rubber seal is so hard that it almost doesn't squeeze, so you can tighten all you want (up till the oil filter wrench started sliding), and still the engine oil drips along the seal.

So, now you know: don't buy this Napa filter for your R1. I gonna have to end up buying this on ebay and wait a week. In the mean time it looks like it's leaking about 200ml a day.... So I have to keep refilling, and my bike smokes from the oil dripping on the exhaust manifold.

YZF-R1 Gas tank filler cap issue - water entering

I've told you about the issue I had with water entering my gas tank through the filler cap. Here are pictures of how it looks like. I took the filler cap apart, sanded and sprayed it, put it all back, greased it, but after a couple months the same issue comes back, the inside of the filler cap rusts, water comes in after heavy rain....

My Yamaha YZF-R1 gas tank filler cap is rusted. See the water on the right, inside?

Yamaha R1 Rider Nicholas Leighton dies in motorcycle crash

Sad to hear that a fellow rider with the bike we all love so much, the Yamaha r1 had a fatal accident recently.

I am always curious how sport bike accidents happen. The story from a British newspaper reveal that he had 66 milligrams alcohol in his blood. The legal acceptable is 80mg. And yet, he did not drink that day but the night before. Reports of sportbike accidents always talk about the speed the bikers have been driving. In this case, a towed caravan was turning into a street and did not see the bike coming or taking over. Police said that if he was driving between 40mph and 60mph he could have avoided the accident. There were no tire marks. The coroner announced Nicholas Leighton was an experienced motorcycle driver.

Josh Hayes (Yamaha YZF R1) wins at 2011 AMA Pro Road America provisonal

Wow. Anytime my bike does win I am elated. Graves Yamaha Team rider Josh Hayes won the provisional qualifying - and get this - even after running off the track in the dirt, falling on his shoulder and not feeling to well in his stomach during the session AND facing a headwind!! WoW! his time was 2:12.869

Yamaha R1 Rules!

Importance of correct tire inflation pressure on sportbikes

For about a month or so, my Yamaha R1 sportbike felt like driving soft, and I didn't think much of it, knowing it had to do with the tires not being adequately inflated, I thought to myself, heck, the roads here are pretty bad, I don't want to be shaken up by hard tires, so I left it like that.

The consequences of having the wrong tire inflation pressure:

- I noticed that I had to tank more often
- I had to watch out taking curves, felt like I was touching the rims on the ground, having to correct by countersteering (dangerous)
- bike has tendency to swerve

This morning by the gas station, I decided to fill up some air in the tires, 35psi pressure on the front, 45 psi pressure on the rear tire. MAN! When I drove off the gas station lot, I was like having the feeling of being a 5 year old child not knowing how to ride a bicycle. The bike was superstraight and hard, but my brain had a hard time registering the difference of change. I drove like 10 miles to the gas station, subconsciously driving so to speak, and after the tire inflation, my subconscious driving processor (for lack of words) couldn't handle the ride and I was like scared and driving very slowly, my subconscious has to re-learn the bike, it is such a BIG difference. Amazing.

So, guys, always keep your tire pressure in check.