anyone have experience with side-gapping and loss in fuel economy? I'm just asking because during my last service interval about 5 tanks ago, I side-gapped for the first time. Since then, I have gone from ~42 MPG down to 36 MPG, consistenty. I haven't altered my riding style or routes, and have filled up using the same octane from several different filling stations. I've been filling the tank in the same manner (e.g. w/ bike on side stand vs. upright) as before.
The only other thing, setup-wise, I changed during this last service interval was to remove the shims on my stock needles. If anything I would think that that would improve my milage. I have the mixture screws set at or below the old settings (3.25 turns) and I balanced the carbs as the last step of the recent service.
Also of note is that I did replace 7 out of 8 valve shims, but I can't imagine how getting those back into spec would have anything to do with fuel economy.
To further diagnose (after I have confirmed the 36 MPG one more time at the end of this tank) I plan to do the following:
1. Replace plugs with same (non-side-gapped), run a couple of tanks.
2. Put my needle shims back in, balance carbs, run a couple of tanks.
Mainly I'm just looking for other sources of my problem, and trying to determine whether the side-gapping could be the culprit.
TIA,
Joe
