Not quite yet...

Oddly enough, the weather has been decent enough the last few days to ride the bike to work and around town. I'm glad I haven't winterized it completely yet because I know I would be banging my head at all of the missed opportunities.

I also spent about $40 for those iridium spark plugs I mentioned a while ago. Holy crap, what a difference! The bike handles like... well, a whole new bike, although plug pulls have shown that I am running very lean. That will be something for this spring definitely when I attend the carb clinic in Ohio. I am having difficulty adjusting the screws to the proper setting. Maybe someone with a bit more experience in tuning can give me a hand.

Something odd happened on the way to work last night. As I was getting close to my destination, the bike's rpm's suddenly jumped to about 4000rpms at a stoplight. The bike started running very oddly (try starting off from first gear when your rpms are at 4000 and see if you don't have the same problem). It stayed up in the 3-4000 range until I shut it off. I turned it back on and it bounced right back up to 4000 so I adjusted the idle screw and that seemed to fix it. Not sure what caused that malfunction; seafoam treatment? I doubt it would have such a dramatic effect all at once. I am going to post this to the list and see if anyone has a suggestion. You can't accidentally "bump" the idle, it's in a very difficult to reach place. Hopefully this is not a significant problem. I rode it today without any problems, however, riding out to my favorite little breakfast place in GL.

I plan on riding the bike tonight and possibly tomorrow a little bit. The temp is supposed to be in the 60's! But, it's going to get cold this weekend...

Will I put the bike away???

Irksome...

Well, I've put the bike away for the winter... almost. The tank is full, seafoam in place and I may pull the battery out in a week or so. It's supposed to be nicer tomorrow, and I just may go for a ride. I still have work on it that I need to do, and will probably toy around with it a bit (including that maddening colortune that I am finally getting the hang of...) I would like to do a complete tear down of the bike, getting it cleaned up and shiny for the spring.

I am going to have to repaint the gas tank and find some sort of sealant for it. I dripped gas onto the paint and it ate into the clearcoat. I sanded it out, but it's not the same. I feel I can do a better job the second time around, now that I have experience with it. I like the color... but the next time I think I am going to do a bit more sanding.

I took the plugs out again and took a look at them. It appears to be running a bit lean. I don't know if that's because of the weather change or what it is. I need to do a fuel adjustment.

It's been a great experience working on the bike for much of the fall, and I look forward to this spring. I'll still post here a bit, whenever I work on the bike, and post pics as well.