Sunday ride on my V11

[docc]

2 hours ago, HRC_V4 said:

Thanks, I took her out for a break in ride yesterday, only rode about 8 miles, got a couple of little coughing a 3k rpm, so I turned around and headed back in a lower gear and she was fine.  Drained the oil oil and dropped the pan and had a few little flakes of metal, but nothing that concerned me too much, checked the valves, one intake was a little tight, the other was a little loose, both exhaust were fine.  Both plugs had a nice color to them.  New oil and I will take a longer ride and see how she does.  Got the generator working, but the headlight is still flaky, last time it was the switch, worked fine for the ride, but decided not to work again today.  I also need to address the fuel line cross over, bought a new one and it leaked at the x, put new clear hose on the old x connection, but having issues with the clamps at the carbs, they keep leaking, I may cut the hoses off the new x and rebuild it with new rubber hose and crimp clamps and just use normal screw clamps on the carb ends.

The bike is definitely old school, the sounds, the feel and the riding position.  I really enjoyed it, brakes are weak, but I will keep playing with them, the ride is good, the handling is good, engine is smooth and the shifting is agricultural, but solid. For fun rides down back roads and riding for the pure joy of riding, I think this is going to be the perfect bike for me.  I am still keeping my eyes out for an old California II, I think it will fill the gap between the Ambassador and the Quota.

Well done, Sir! Thanks for the update and ride report, @HRC_V4! Keep 'em coming!

Hey, some things are worth repeating:

[Lucky Phil]

Looks very nice....except. I'm sorely missing the chrome tank panels. I'm if anything on the anti chrome committee but on some rare occasions it's mandatory. This is one of those occasions. 

Ciao

[Chuck]

^^^^ Agreed, but *good* chrome tanks are like RHS.

[Lucky Phil]

52 minutes ago, Chuck said:

^^^^ Agreed, but *good* chrome tanks are like RHS.

Why not re chrome the original? Or this, been around for a few years now. Plenty of places do it and you can even get home kits. Looks as good as chrome and was developed to mitigate the environmental issues of traditional chrome plating.

https://spectrachrome.com/

Ciao

[HRC_V4]

The panels on this tank were too far gone, I talked to the painter about maybe painting the panels in gold, but ultimately we decided no panels and no stripes.  And now having it all together, the lack of panels really show off the shape of the tank, and I really love the shape.  I do have the spare black tank, so I could have it chromed and painted, but without out all the pin stripes, it might look a little out of place.

I am thinking about a ride on the Parkway this fall, I think 45mph and no stop signs might be perfect setting for the bike and me.  Docc, would that be worth a drive/ride half way across TN?

[docc]

Pretty sure this would steal the show at the Seventeenth South’n SpineRaid…..

[HRC_V4]

I will have to adjust my trip that weekend to work on my Ultimate Italian Automotive sin, but I might be able to do that.  My Mother in Law is only about 50 miles from there, so maybe I can can swing by and say high.  I can bring the Quota and Ambassador and ride each one.

Fuel line are fixed, the new X was leaking from the metal section, so old X and new hoses, did a better job of fitting them this time.  I am re-epoxying the light switch, seems that was my issue, but the horn worked but no lights, was able to pull the power wire out and only had epoxy on the very end, I think this will fix it.

[HRC_V4]

Looking for a little help.  I took the Ambassador out on Thursday and made it about a mile from the house and she started sputtering and spitting and lost most power, I quickly turned around and barely made it home.  The main thing I worked on since the first ride and this one is the headlight switch, so I had the key on quite a bit.  Anyway, I pulled the plugs and they both looked fine (slight brown tint), I pulled both float bowls and they were full, maybe a little trash, but looked at both filters and not much in them (the tank valves have filters too).  I pulled jets and they were all clean.  I rechecked points gap and timing, still ran bad.  I pulled the points out and had a little black on the edge, wondering if I burned them slightly with the key on.  Would that have that big of an impact?  I cleaned the points/coil connections, sanded the points, re-gapped them, re-timed and started it and it sounds a lot better, I will take it for a ride in the morning, but a little nervous about it.

[gstallons]

Prolly so . Do you have single / dual point ign. system ?

[HRC_V4]

Single points system, I'll give her a test ride this morning and see if it is fixed.

[HRC_V4]

It ran good for about 2-3 miles, then the same thing, had to run her about 4k-5k rpm to get home (I live on top of a hill), more than I wanted to run her during break in.  Running better at higher rpm seems odd.  I really think it is electrical, wonder if I fried my coil or condenser while I was working on my headlight switch.  The only wire I have not replaced on the bike is the wire between the coil and points, not sure if this is a resistor wire or a normal wire, if normal, I can build it myself, if resistor, I might be able to get the wire and build it.  The tach gets jumpy when it starts to miss, which again I think points to my ignition system.  Need to get this solved soon, or she will not make it next week.

[docc]

Another member just solved a similar problem discovering one of the spark plug resistor caps was intermittently giving resistance in the MegaΩ instead of ~5kΩ.

Easy check, easy fix. Once found.

[HRC_V4]

I'm going to pull the seat and tank tomorrow, check coil, wires, plug ends, and plugs, got to be something in there, fuel would turn my plugs black.

[docc]

I dunno, man. These modern fuels don't seem to mark plugs like the good ol' days.

Mighty easy to pull those plug caps and check the resistance. My buddy found his at three in the morning with his carbs apart on the bench *(unnecessariy). . .

[80CX100]

On 9/3/2021 at 2:32 PM, HRC_V4 said:

The main thing I worked on since the first ride and this one is the headlight switch, so I had the key on quite a bit.  

What are you running for coils?

Iirc the Dyna 5 ohms  (black) can stand a little ignition on time without discharging the power, but that it doesn't take long for the 3 ohms  coils (green?) to overheat and go udders up.

fwiw good luck