The bike is ready - but am I?
After work yesterday I was able to pull off the gas tank and give the carbs a once over. I removed them but not entirely. The throttle cables are always a pain to deal with so they were left alone. All the jets were checked and were pretty much fine. Next was the carb sync.
In order to synchronize the carbs, you need to make the adjustments while the engine is running. This means you need to rig up your fuel supply up out of the way so you can get to the carbs. Auxillary gas tanks that hang from above can be purchased.. but they're like $40-50 and I just can't see how a plastic bottle should be that much. Instead, I just use a 5 ft length of fuel tubing and connect my main gas tank. The only thing you need to do is to have it located above the carbs so the fuel is gravity fed since the vacuum lines won't be connected. It turns out the carbs weren't too out of whack. A little adjusting and it was good to go.
I finished up putting everything back together this morning and was able to take the bike for a spin. I wanted to make sure it was running ok even though what I did shouldn't really have any negative effects. I also wanted to start scrubbing in the new tire. After reading on the Sport-Touring forums how a guy dumped his 2006 Triumph sport bike because of a new tire - I was a little nervous even though this is the 3rd new tire I've had.
While I was out I stopped and filled up with gas. Mid-grade was only $2.27 a gallon! It was great being able to top off the tank for under $10! The lower gas prices will be very welcome for this trip.
I also was able to install the racks for my side cases. Looks like the bike is ready to go.. nothing else should need to be done. I've already started a collection of tools I'll be bringing along. I know I probably bring way too much, but if something happens to me (or a friend) it's sooo much better being able to work with normal tools instead of the garbage in the included tool kit that the bike has.
I checked the weather outlook and at this point it looks like we'll be getting wet. I checked various cities along the way and all of them have rain or scattered storms in the forecast. Kind of a bummer... but I expect to get rained on during every trip - might as well get it out of the way.
In order to synchronize the carbs, you need to make the adjustments while the engine is running. This means you need to rig up your fuel supply up out of the way so you can get to the carbs. Auxillary gas tanks that hang from above can be purchased.. but they're like $40-50 and I just can't see how a plastic bottle should be that much. Instead, I just use a 5 ft length of fuel tubing and connect my main gas tank. The only thing you need to do is to have it located above the carbs so the fuel is gravity fed since the vacuum lines won't be connected. It turns out the carbs weren't too out of whack. A little adjusting and it was good to go.
I finished up putting everything back together this morning and was able to take the bike for a spin. I wanted to make sure it was running ok even though what I did shouldn't really have any negative effects. I also wanted to start scrubbing in the new tire. After reading on the Sport-Touring forums how a guy dumped his 2006 Triumph sport bike because of a new tire - I was a little nervous even though this is the 3rd new tire I've had.
While I was out I stopped and filled up with gas. Mid-grade was only $2.27 a gallon! It was great being able to top off the tank for under $10! The lower gas prices will be very welcome for this trip.
I also was able to install the racks for my side cases. Looks like the bike is ready to go.. nothing else should need to be done. I've already started a collection of tools I'll be bringing along. I know I probably bring way too much, but if something happens to me (or a friend) it's sooo much better being able to work with normal tools instead of the garbage in the included tool kit that the bike has.
I checked the weather outlook and at this point it looks like we'll be getting wet. I checked various cities along the way and all of them have rain or scattered storms in the forecast. Kind of a bummer... but I expect to get rained on during every trip - might as well get it out of the way.
posted by Matt at 10:17 PM
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