For the doubters

[DGXSER]

My current bike was a barn find of sorts. Spent about 2-3 years relegated to a barn up in the niddle of Ohio, when it was not out in the field anyway. Guy even spray painted the inside of the barn and never moved the bike. Some of you lived through the fun I had bringing it back to life.

Anyway, I did check the valves on it before I ever ran the engine and then tuned, synched when I got it running. Well, after about 6-700 miles, it was running rough, and had horrible vibration at upper RPMs. I actually was starting to think the bearings were shot or something.

Over the last few days, I reshimmed the valves. They had seated in from running it and the gaps were pretty small. Tonight I ran it after the valves and it felt better but still alot of vibration in upper RPMS. So I broke out the color tune and the mity-vac with the plenum. After about an hour of synching, colortuning, and resynching I took it out again.

Wow, I was impressed with the change. Those carbs had been bench synched, and running synched about 6-8 months ago. But what a difference it made in the smoothness throughout the RPM range!!

So those of you who think it is overkill to shim valves, and synch carbs, I am here to tell you, it WILL change things measurably!!

[bikerphil]

That's a good idea Don, my SF has been vibrating a bit and I should check those things. I did richen up the mixture a little and that made the crusing speed 4K knock go away. Maybe a sync too, it's been about 25K miles. I did side gap my plugs and it runs smoother. Gettin yours ready for the rally, XS North East?

[Rickrod3]

Hey Don:


I'm a believer. I notice as I sync Idle smooths out.

So I broke out the color tune and the mity-vac with the plenum.

What do you use the mity-vac for?

Rick

[DGXSER]

Rick,

I use my mity vac for the vacuum gage to synch the carbs. I'm an elcheapo, so I made the PVC plenum as shown in the tech tips, and I tried to find a four way valve like the tech tip shows, but I never found one that worked. So I gave up and just move the tubing form carb to carb and adjust the synchs like that. I know for sure this time it was not as good as using a Morgan Carbtune. But for now, it is pretty dang close. All within about 1/2" of vacuum.

Phil,

Just finally getting her ready for the summer riding season. Switched the tires from the other bike over to this one, put in new wheel bearings up front since I used the old wheel on it, back wheel and all came from the other bike.

I wish I could go to the rallies like that, but I never get enough time off as is. Family trips take up all my vacation time I can get. I get plenty, just never a chance to use it. I do want to make the Key West run just once. Been to Florida plenty over the years, everywhere from Miami to Lauderdale area, Clearwater, Tampa, Orlando, and Daytona. Like to see the keys and by bike sounds like just the right way to do that area.