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Short bike update
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It was a wet morning, schools are closed for some reason, it really didn't
look that bad out to me. We had a bit of snow last night and then some
rain, then the temps dropped and froze everything. By the time I was ready
to leave for work it had warmed up to a degree or two above zero. There
were some snow flurries and the roads were slushy and a bit icy. This is
typical carb icing weather for the bike, so it was a good chance to see if
the new oil bathed air filter will make a difference. I also added an ounce
or two of isopropyl alcohol to my almost full tank of gas.
I was off to a great start as I slid down the driveway and knocked over the
garbage can I just put out. Once I got off our street it wasn't too
slippery, and I was behind a salt truck pretty much up until my on ramp for
the highway. The bike ran along great on the highway, I passed the off ramp
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What's all this salt doing to your bike? I generally avoid riding if
the roads are icy (only 2 wheels ya know) or if the roads are salty.
Aluminum parts don't generally get along very well with salt.
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hehehe if I thought like that I would never have rode, might not have
been salt for snow/ice - but beach salt takes it's toll all year long
if it;s nice enough to clean it it;s nice enough to ride it
AH #103 BS#80 FHBE#8 FLF SENS
58 FLH - 02 K1200LT - 07 GS-A
MC insurance info at www.bikershut.net
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that I had to take the last time the bike started cutting out on me and was
going pretty good. I reached a stop sign about 1/8 of a mile from work and
when I started to go I could tell that only one cylinder was firing. I
hobbled to work and fortunately the one cylinder was enough to pull the bike
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Exactly. I have to do my part to let it rust away so that I have to get
another one and keep those sales numbers up. I think they sold about 126 of
my model in the US in 2006.
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Giving it a nice white film. What's it doing under that? Not sure yet,
I'll find out when I wash it.
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True, but this is my daily driver, it's not a show bike so I won't lose any
sleep over some tarnished aluminum. I'm planning on coating the underside
of the fenders and possibly the hack sometime this summer with something so
keep the rust off, more it keep it stronger structurely than for looks.
I'll also be doing the inside of the hack. I'll use some sort of bed liner
or POR15 or something.
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up the slippery driveway to the parking lot. After parking the bike I
reached behind the left carb and pushed the little lever up that the
throttle cable is attached to and I could tell that no fuel was getting
through, or if it was it wasn't igniting. So once again I think I've got
some carb icing going on. This could be a misdiagnosis, it could be that
the cylinder isn't firing, but based on the conditions under which carb
icing happens, I'm still leaning towards that as the culprit.
For the first time since owning the bike I actually put a cover on it. It's
suppose to rain some more today so to save me some possible grief I decided
to dig out the old cover I bought while in Florida. I'm sure this is much
to the dismay of whatever it is that's sleeping away in the little cocoon
that's on it.
So, the new air filter and the alcohol in the gas didn't cure the problem.
The other suggestions are to warm up the air before it gets to the air
filter. This may take more effort than I'm prepared to do while the weather
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Since we are talking about food and cooking...
All you need is a lunch of chili dogs and some hose...
just be careful of solids instead of gas.. do don't push too hard.
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A couple of rolls of duct tape to hold the hose on, err, in, err,
whatever...
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ASSHOLE#104 Len
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is still below the freezing mark. I'm going to grab a drink, help
yourselves to one on me if you're still here.
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The just above freezing temps plus wet conditions sound ideal for
making carb ice.
Besides the vacuum cleaner hose mentioned elsewhere, you could also
try to build a "box" around the carb to trap engine heat and keep the
whole carb warm. You could probably rig up a proto-box outta
cardboard and duct tape.
If that works, you'd want to make the final version easily
removeable. You don't want it on there when the outside temps are
warm.
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What's easier than just cutting the duct tape? An interesting idea
though. I think if I do anything it will be the option of running the air
past a warm part of the engine before it hits the airbox.
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