"no really, you should just get a bike with fuel injection"

 not the sexiest advice, but what can you do...


took the lady on back to six flags in jersey on sunday - pretty decent
ride - this is after about 800 miles last week

no problems along the way


sun sets, we hop on and ride out of the parking lot, onto 537 which
runs along the edge of the park ... and my carbureted VL800 died!

three backfires while getting up to coasting speed, still just in
third gear, a terrible drop in torque with a quick revival followed by
a total drop ... throttle still 1/4 open ... so i carefully glided
over to the shoulder under an underpass and called for a tow

$400 later ...

the shop calls me today and tells me the problem is the carb

i tell them that's the only thing it can't be since i was in there 2-3
weeks ago for it to be taken all apart, soaked and scrubbed, and that
they did it, the bike runs beautifully, and there's got to be some
mistake

shop says it's free - and i'm glad it's free, but ask for further
clarification of why this isn't a mistake - and they tell me any tiny
particle could have jammed up the carb and crapped out the engine (it
wouldn't start at all)

...and that because carb'd bikes were meant to be run on 100% gas, and
that there's been ethanol in gas since like 1995, i should really just
get a FI'd bike

so...they're doing another soap-n-scrub, and it's under their 30-day
warrantee ... they made it sound like they may have missed something
when doing it last time, or they may not have, and that it was likely
to happen again (!!)


now my insurance company is trying to make it their fault so they have
to reimburse me the $400 ... they seem like a good shop, intuitively,
and were highly recommended (like by the guy who got my bike running
over the winter, for free, the 30-year-biker buddy of my fireman
friend)

oh well...hopefully i'll be back on the road for the weekend

trying to figure out if i should plan any nice long trips, and when i
can stop worrying about a repeat of this problem



so...most bikes have FI now ... maybe i'll get ABS too ^_^



c

 

I don't have problems like that on my '88 bike.

At one point I did have stuttering and hesitation.
It turned out to be crap in the tank and was fixed
by draining the tank, cleaning the screens and
installing a new in-line fuel filter. Worst case,
you might have rust which might require coating.

FI can be nice but carbs shouldn't be a maintenance
issue and doesn't seem likely to accept dirty gas
much more cheerfully than a carb would.

 


WTF?  Insurance for mechanical failures ???

Hope they flushed the lines and tank the second time......and replaced or
installed a fuel filter.

If you have more than 2 carbs,  I'd say the story is pretty suspect.

A 4 banger will usually run (like crap) on 3 and a tiny particle would have
a hard time affecting more than one at a time.  ;-)

 
i have roadside on my policy; i get reimbursed for towing or if
someone has to come out and give me a jump, etc...

 c wrote:

  That doesn't make much sense.  Tiny particles that can jam up the carb can
also jam up injector nozzles.  If your fuel is dirty, then the logical
solution would be a fuel filter.


  Is ethanol supposedly the source of the particles?  I've been running
ethanol laced fuel in my carbed bike (4 carbs) for years and I've never heard
of this problem.  

  Sounds like a tale that the shop made up to cover their screw up when they
rebuilt your carbs the first time.

John

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