What did you do to your bike today?

[Jfries]

i drained the oil. smelled heavily of gas. but on a good note i got all the wiring done(except for turn signals) and i bought a battery.. i charged it and put it in to do some testing. yup horn works.. mainly because that's the only button a dared to push until i get the gas tank fixed and the carbs rebuilt!! all in time..

[Poprock]

Pulled the pigtail plugs off the bike and replaced both sides with aircraft quality components. Replaced a melted headlight connector in the little bag where the headlight was with aircraft quality components. The pigtail latches onto the fairing with a firm click now. It used to fall off about every half mile. Headlight and signals are as bright as they can get, and the bike simply awaits a break in the weather to actually go someplace!
Kudos and thanks to my aircrafty son and to the one, the only Geezer for bringing the project to a successful conclusion.

[motoman]

Decided to tackle the ongoing stumble, black plugs, and what seems to be a lack of mechanical advance of the timing while running in the idle circuit and up to 3800rpm. These symptoms have been gradual over a period of the last three yrs. Each time I've resynced the carbs after removal they loose 2in. of vacuum across the four mercury stixs............Hmmmm...........to make a long story short, it's amazing that replacing my now 7yr.old Interstate battery with a same new one fixes black plugs, allows for a correct idle mixture setting which in turn has vacuum back up to 18in. from the 14in. prior, Mechanical advance(4RO) working correctly, and is actually now tunable, which I'm not totally satisfied with and have to go back thru again. All I can say is when your battery is at a 12.1V and goes to 11.6V when key is turned on, the bike is likely when riding to mimick a carb idle circuit issue and in the case of the later 4RO system, the TCI forgets to wake up and take care of mechanical timing advance. A reminder lesson for me has been that not only is the all important smoke to be kept inside the wires, but also that there is an abundant amount of it to supply primary/secondary ign. systems. The grin from ear to ear was definitely worth the $80 for the new Interstate battery! I'm startin' to get interested in poundin' out some occassional long miles on the Bentley again! Next will be to pull the downdraft carb bank off the ST in order to resolve coolant leak with replacing the two collant elbows and o-rings, which compared to the XS is a real PITA to wrench on. It's durability, MPG and extremely low maint. cost keep it welcome in the stable and IS the 'go-to' scoot for the serious LD trips. Ride safe all! All comments, other tips and advice welcome!

[Poprock]

Road test! And he rode good! 210 miles of every kind of road but dirt. Over the Coast Range, through PDX, out east of town. West along the Columbia River, south through some serious twisties, back over the Coast Range again. Somebody has to do it. 42.5 mpg both legs. We are happy campers here.

[ddragon63]

Road test! And he rode good! 210 miles of every kind of road but dirt. Over the Coast Range, through PDX, out east of town. West along the Columbia River, south through some serious twisties, back over the Coast Range again. Somebody has to do it. 42.5 mpg both legs. We are happy campers here.

Man I wish I got that kind of mileage. Our little trip over Hwy 4 towards Long Beach yesterday I averaged 35.5. But then I again I was doubled up.... Don't seem to get any better than 37 when the wife is with me

[Poprock]

Ddrag, we were going slow a lot(45-50 behind safe drivers), never over 60. I got 38 on a tank once with a 220 lb buddy on back, down the coast and through the Coast Range. Amazed me. I was even "sort of" keeping up with a sport bike. Stay in 5th, 3K to 4K rpms. Air up the tires to max label. Rolls easy, pulls smooth. Bent wrists waste gas. Hiway 4 toward the coast is a nice ride. I do that sometimes. Wind was up Saturday, that might be a factor.

[ddragon63]

Ddrag, we were going slow a lot(45-50 behind safe drivers), never over 60. I got 38 on a tank once with a 220 lb buddy on back, down the coast and through the Coast Range. Amazed me. I was even "sort of" keeping up with a sport bike. Stay in 5th, 3K to 4K rpms. Air up the tires to max label. Rolls easy, pulls smooth. Bent wrists waste gas. Hiway 4 toward the coast is a nice ride. I do that sometimes. Wind was up Saturday, that might be a factor.

Ya we were doing 60 to 65 in 5th on hwy 4. I probably burnt more gas on I5 from Ridgefield to Longview as the speed limit is 70 and if your not doing 70 you will get run over! And I have a horrible habit of passing everything in front of me...

I've got the tires all up to max. I think my mileage problem lies in my right wrist

[ESJr1642]

Replaced the battery box on the "G". OE bolts broke off, had to drill and re-tap the holes..oh boy, had to go get a right angel drill from HF. While the battery box was out, took the time to clean up all the connectors behind the fuse box, as well as clean up all the grounds. Front master cylinder ad calipers were cleaned and kits installed on Saturday, only a few odds and ends left and we might get the first ride on the "G". Start working on the "F" next..

[GLoweVA]

new foot pegs

I put new foot pegs on my G Sunday.
Rode to work monday and wouldn't you know it, I lost a nut off #2 exhaust flange.
I thought it sounded a little louder for some reason !
I think some of the gasket came out too.

I got to hurry up and get my SG up and running, the G needs some serious TLC.

[tv5150]

Rode It

Rode it like I stole it!!!

[Jamie]

Changed out a whole slew of old, tired connections, replaced brushes on pickup coils and rebuilt and installed my starter. Synched carbs and starts right up, still have a valve chatter, so will adjust valves, re-synch (lol) and should be good to go.

Jamie

[tv5150]

After Lunch???

Changed out a whole slew of old, tired connections, replaced brushes on pickup coils and rebuilt and installed my starter. Synched carbs and starts right up, still have a valve chatter, so will adjust valves, re-synch (lol) and should be good to go.

Jamie

Oh Yeah? What ya do after lunch???
Just kidding, you must have some kinda motivation there
OR one big coffee pot!!!

[mack]

Carbs

I had a couple banks of 78/79 carbs sitting on shelf so since both my bikes are ready to ride, I figured it was time to tear them down and finally clean them. Both sets are frozen solid, can't open the butterfly at all. Got them soaking in Pinesol overnight. Managed to get the jets out with only having to drill one pilot. Still have one broken idle mixture screw tip to remove tomorrow. Very pleased to get all eight float pins out w/o breaking a post.

[Brent]

Happpy motoring!

Road test! And he rode good! 210 miles of every kind of road but dirt. Over the Coast Range, through PDX, out east of town. West along the Columbia River, south through some serious twisties, back over the Coast Range again. Somebody has to do it. 42.5 mpg both legs. We are happy campers here.

Good for you Poprock! Glad to hear you got all that timing chain and valve trouble behind you.

Today I changed the engine oil on Harley. Valvoline high mileage oil I used at 180,000 mi seemed to clean out a lot of dark stuff. Surprised me.

Also fixed horn, (needed to back out screw on the back of the Italian made auto parts store horn.) Single horn, before a click, now Beeeep. I used to think not a big deal to have a working horn, (safety inspection no longer required in GA) Then one day on Iron Mountain Road, in SD I changed my mind! The two lane, two way road became a One lane tunnel. Sign read "One lane, Sound Horn, then proceed." No horn... :0 I can say that I was amazed and pleased to see that a bike and a minivan can meet and squeeze past each other, at least in one of those several narrow tunnels.

[Poprock]

Hey, Brent! Nice to hear from you. Geezer has been fantastic, getting me some shinny new stainless valves, helping me install them without bending any, giving me other sage advice. I'd still be down if not for him. Kong has been running well for 2 years now. Seems to get better with time. Had some issues with the fairing pigtail, but that's behind me now. The only thing wrong with him is he has too much gas in the tank. I need to let some out, soon as it quits raining.