Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Performance Mods sunday blues

Started out a fine day. Kids gone off, ole lady gone for the day. A fine day for a ride with my honda buddy. Before I went over to his house I shot down the road to warm her up a bit. Been running great lately. But not today. Started breaking up at about 5000 rpm's. Back home I go. The weather's gotten hot and humid here so I thought maybe a bit to rich for the summer heat. Rejecting I go. Down ten points. Off for another test ride,its worse. Rejetting I go back up to 160's. Another test ride, same thing. Well it was running fine the day before and all I did was fill with gas, hum. Drain fuel tank check filters, remove and clean petcock. Fill with gas and off I go. Same thing. The last mod I did was the tbs needles so out they come. Well the miss at 5000 was gone but the temp had droped by the time I got to that so I dont know. Started with 155's K&N's, tbs needles no shims. Now im at 160 mains stock needles no shims, and uni pod filters. It sure is frustrating sometimes. Guess i'll have to wait till tommorrow for the heat to rise again to actuall tell if I accomplished anything today. And it started off as such a wonderful day for a ride.

Vac caps ok? I lost one this weekend and it would miss here and there as a result...

I've finally accepted the fact that these bikes are haunted. One day it starts and runs like a champ, the next day it seems "tired". One day the the TBike pipes sound loud and growl, later in the ride they seem to quiet down. I am done chasing the ghost. As long as it runs, I'm just going to ride it.

Grump, I've noticed those subtle changes as well in sound, how it starts (today it is 83 and about 1 billion percent humidity, and it started like a pain in the butt, until it warmed up for about a minute of consecutive running, but keeping it running till that time was a bit annoying, wanted to die with full and no and partial choke, but once warmed up, ran like a beastie, nice, smooth, powerful. I did close my sparkplug gap from 0.9 to 0.8mm yesterday just to see how it would run, that shouldn't have that much effect, but....

Funny you mention that Grump. On my way back thru VT, MA and CT I didn't feel like it was running strong, then I got off the ferry on long island it ran like a champ. Figures the last 10 miles of a 300 mile day... Can elivation have THAT much of an effect?

Here's today's example. I took the day off - wife's in AC gambling, son's in OC er, doing God knows what.. I took several rides. Still in the 80's but the humidity has dropped off a smidge. Bike started and ran great every time. I stopped in at work just to bs for a few and the bike was running great, the pipes were growling and in fact, a few guys thought I had changed pipes again... Went to leave, bike started right up, sounded good, ran good, went about 800 yards out of work and up to the red light and as the light turned green, the bike died. I figured I forgot to turn the gas on. Nope, it was on. Switched to reserve and it fired right up. According to the odo - I was nowhere near needing reserve, so as I rode down the highway I switched back to the normal position. It ran fine....??

I stopped and got gas anyway - took a little over 2 gallons.
Fired it up and it seemed "tired" again. I stopped one more time and had a smoke under a shady tree. Fired her up to leave and she started and ran like a champ again.
Now before all the "check this/check that" comments, this stuff happens maybe once a month or once out of 20 rides of varying distances. The damm thing is haunted - that's all there is to it..!

How do you guys check your plugs so easily on the side of the road? It's dam hot in there right after you shut it down...

If you're quick, you can check them without shutting it down....

Actually, as you get older, between the callouses and the burnt out pain receptors - it ain't no big deal....

Till an hour later when you wonder "How did my fingers get burnt??"

Ok at least it's not just MY bike that is so hot That's more what I was worried about...

Grump,

Periodically I use a Gas Additive, maybe every other or every third fillup. My bike only has 9200 miles on it, but has run very strong and consistant the whole time. The gas additive that I use does not have any alcohol, just straight additives. So 0.5 ounce will treat 5 gallons.

Currently I am out in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean for work. Prior to leaving home I drained the carb bowls. I generally do this if I am going to be gone longer than 3 weeks. Anyway, when I drained the gas out I inspected it for any contamination, and found nothing but clear gas.

I had to drain the carbs once last year with the same results.

Tom