Now this wasn't fun

[Seacat]

On Saturday I decided to take the bike to work. On the ride to work everything was going fine until about a mile from work. That's when I noticed two things. The first was my right hand turn signal wasn't flashing although both lights were coming on. The other was I had a loss of power. The bike seemed to straighten out at the light and off we went. We arrived at work without any more problems.

After work we headed for home. Maybe two miles from the parking garage the bike lost power then died. At first I thought I had run out of gas even though I only had 59 miles shown on the trip odometer. I shifted to reserve and cranked the bike without results. I started looking the bike over, checking all of the electrical I could find and cranking the bike every time I adjusted something. Finally the bike fired and we were able to run home even though the bike ran rough and seemed to be missing a lot of power. The only thing was, at high RPM's the bike ran just fine.

Once we got home and parked the bike we changed and took some cool showers. Afterwards I was back out at the bike. I got it running again although it ran rough as hell. After letting it run like this for a few minutes I shut it down and did a simple test. I checked the pipes at the heads. Pipes 1, 2 and 3 were hot. Pipe 4 was still cool which told me that cylinder wasn't firing.

Because of the way this presented I had a feeling it was electrical.

Today I dragged my butt out to the bike and started checking things over. I went to pull the plug on number 4 and found it to be loose. Loose hell, the blasted thing was barely threaded into the well. I removed it with my fingers. When I looked at it the plug was black and wet. It did have a spark though.

I didn't trust the plug so I replaced it with a new one and fired up the bike. It fired on the first crank and while it ran it ran rougher than hell. I was also seeing a lot of heavy smoke out of the exhaust. Not a good sign. I slowly packed up my tools as I let the bike idle. Slowly it smoothed out and the smoke disapeared. I shut it down and went inside for a bit.

Later this afternoon I again fired up the "Beast". This time it fired nicely and ran smooth from the beginning. No smoke was coming from the exhaust as I let it idle.

Tomorrow morning I'll be taking it down to the local station and refilling the tank with nice new gas and letting that run through the system for a bit. Then I'll pull the plug on number 4 and see what it looks like.

I'm curious how that plug loosened up like that.

Cat

[gonebiking-2]

I`m willing to bet that the last person who had the plugs out, didnt tighten it sufficiently, and over a period of time it worked its way loose, hence the misfire and all the other associated problems. With a refuel, give it a good run and that will clear any unburnt oil and fuel that has accumulated in the exhaust system. Been in that position myself. Good bals through the country side and everything was right as rain

[Seacat]

Okay so all the plugs have been replaced. It runs and runs well. All jugs seem to be firing nicely. I am still getting a whisp of gray smoke from the exhaust, but you have to look for it to see it.

Because of this I'm not overly trusting of the bike even though I have put a couple of miles on it.

Tomorrow I'm heading out to get a new Compression Tester with the adaptor to fit a motorcycle. I want to check that cylinder.

Cat

[Seacat]

Did the Compression Test this morning. Man was I relieved.

Cyl. #1-- 170 psi
Cyl. #2-- 165 psi
Cyl. #3-- 165 psi
Cyl. #4-- 170 psi

I'm loving it.

To celebrate I took the bike out for a short run. I wasn't planning on anything too long, just a short round trip of maybe 10 miles. I was also planning on filling the tank.

I hit the road while the wife stayed at home. She knew it was "Me" time. Ten miles later I pulled into the gas station and filled the tank. As I was resetting the odometer I had an idea. I called the wife and told her everything was running nicely and I was going to ride a bit longer. I could hear her sigh even as she told me to be careful and to have fun.

I pulled on my helmet and fired up the bike and listened to the engine rumbling quietly beneath me. I pointed the bike north and west. Before long I was on the back roads about ten miles inland. I found myself zig zagging north as I enjoyed those wonderful curves in these little roads. The sun started shining down on me and still I rode. I was in my own little slice of heaven. Traffic was almost non-existant on these little two lane roads.

After too short a time I hit a town I knew and banked the bike to the right. It was time to start thinking about heading home. I had been on the road for over an hour. I had been cruising at between 35 and 40 MPH. The road I was on now was a bit higher speed, I cranked the bike up to 50 and was enjoying it even though the road was rougher than an old Cob. The bike handled it well though.

Then I came to a nice north south road. One I hadn't ridden before but knew about. I knew where I was and the distance I needed to ride. Thirty miles to go. Thirty miles too few.

I crank up the bike to the posted speed limit of 60 MPH and put my feet on the highway pegs. It was cruising time for the Cat. I had a nice wind coming from the north but it wasn't doing me any good, it was coming from behind me. I was sweating freely and couldn't care less. The bike was rumbling quietly beneath me, I could feel the heat from the engine and the vibrations from the road. Calling this heaven would be an understatement after what I had been going through with the "Beast".

As I came cruising closer to home I pulled into the same gas station. As I topped off the tank and reset the odometer the guy inside poked his head out and asked me if I had been riding the entire time. When I admitted that I had been he just shook his head while muttering about crazy bikers riding in this heat. I laughed to myself as I paid then headed back out to the bike.

When I pulled in and parked the bike I was soaked. My denim jacket was a dark blue instead of it's normal light color. My vest had beads of moisture on the outside telling me I had sweat through it once again. Heading inside I skinned down and headed for the shower. Looking in the mirror I could see I looked like a drowned rat, soaking wet and with my hair tangled.

My wife took one look at me, poured me some coffee and informed me she wanted to go riding tomorrow morning. Well the beast has a full tank and is sitting in the carport waiting. Somehow I think I'll be back in the saddle again tomorrow morning before the sun comes up.

Cat

[Shiftless]

Fun ride report. =D