Holy Mackeral!!

Okay, I was getting pretty disheartened with the way the bike was going. It seemed like every thing I fixed ended up messing something else up. It was a vicious cycle of repair and try, repair and try.

Until today.

I had a feeling my throttle/butterfly valves weren't working correctly. The bike was having... breathing issues. Well, after a frustrating couple of hours working on the bike, changing plugs, hooking up the carb tune, color tune etcetera ad infinitum, I finally got frustrated beyond the point of reason. I twisted all the idle screws all willy nilly... and heard a remarkable change in how the engine sounded. It sounded... better.

Hooking the carb tune up once again, I noted some movement in the rods that hadn't been there before. Excited, but keeping my emotions so under control I am now an honorary member of the Vulcan High Command, I turned the screws a bit more, trying to bring the rods in line.

Slowly, things started shaping up. Throttle response was better, there wasn't a hang at 2000rpms and above, better yet, the engine didn't sound rough.

The true test, however, was hooking the gas tank back up and taking it out for a ride.

Since I bought the bike, it hasn't responded this well! Acceleration was pretty incredible and the bike idled right where it was supposed to idle.

Now, realistically, I realize that I still have work to do. I still need to figure out why the plugs are fouling and adjust it with the color tuner. There was some mild hesitancy at certain points, but over all a definitive step to wahoooo riding.

All the hard work is starting to pay off... however, I may still need to pull the carbs to do a throttle seal replacement. I think that may have something to do with the problem, but for now, I'm happy.

More tomorrow.