I hope everyone reading this is having as exciting a Labor Day weekend as I am. Not only did I bring the scrambler up to the cabin yesterday, but the tag and registration arrived just before I took off. Score!
THEY CAN'T TAKE IT BACK!
Some of you guys said you really dig the Wincycle carb, and you clearly know a lot about bikes. People at the White Rose vintage bike meet recommend the carb to me, too. So on Monday I picked up one up. The clutch cable interferes with the choke on the "Sheng Wey" carb the CL's previous owner installed, which has been driving me nuts, and worse, the intake and outlet are obviously farther apart than the OEM Keihin's- this deforms the airbox connecting tube, pinching it quite a bit. That's just not smart.
PROBABLY NOT WHAT HONDA ENVISIONED
So I figured for less than $50 shipped, it'd be worth having one of these on-hand if I get to ride the bike this week. I think I'm glad I bought it (more later).
As soon as I got here yesterday afternoon, I unloaded the bike and went for a short ride. Much shorter than I'd hoped, unfortunately. The bike started out great but died less than a mile from home. Bummer. When I tried restarting it, it'd rev up for a second or two then cut out. So eventually I gave up and pushed it home. I checked the usual stuff: the battery was good, there was a strong spark, compression was OK at 130 PSI. For whatever reason the turn signals would occasionally glow in unison when the motor ran. Not knowing much about old-bike electrics, I decided to test the rectifier. It's fine. Next, since I'd bought new points a couple weeks ago, I installed them. I got excited when I discovered the gap on the old breaker was way too tight, but after installing the new one the bike still wouldn't run. Then I bolted on the new Wincycle carb. The bike fired right up and ran better than before! I grabbed my lid and did a 10-mile back-road loop. A few new issues became apparent, but nothing that would've kept me from riding more if it hadn't been getting dark and the bike low on fuel. Sweet!
This morning I was psyched to get on the road again. I added gas from my mower can and somehow the bike started on the first kick. This really got me pumped, and I set off again. Then, as luck would have it, the motor cut out at almost the exact same spot it did yesterday. So lame. This time I couldn't get it to run at all. I figured the mower gas had gone bad. So after I pushed the bike home again, I popped off the float bowl. The gas did look a little cloudy. When I removed the petcock cap it was full of sludge. That was a surprise. I must have pumped a hundred gallons of water through the tank after I cleaned it.
After I reinstalled the fuel cap and float bowl, I got another instant-start. Confidence restored! Before tearing up the driveway for the third time, I put a 10mm wrench and small blade/Phillips screwdriver in my pocket so I could empty the filter and fiddle with the mixture screw if I got bored at a pit-stop.
I'm not normally superstitious, but this time I headed the other direction out of the driveway. It worked! I made it about 10 miles from home before encountering a new problem: as I pulled in the clutch to stop for traffic in town, the engine revved up all on its own. I hit the ignition and pulled over to take a look. The top cap on the carb had loosened completely. I screwed it on tight when I installed the throttle cable yesterday. Have you guys with the Wincycle had this problem?
Last night I discovered the turn signals aren't working 100%. They light up, but slowly, then stay on solid for a lot longer than they should, then eventually start blinking but at an irregular rate. I didn't consider this a show-stopper for my ride today (since I now have an antique plate I'm pretty sure they're legal no matter how they behave, so long as they're on the bike). In traffic, though, they're kind of dangerous, so I was eager to make my way across town. Unfortunately, there was a big festival going on and the streets were gridlocked. In what turned out to be a bad decision, I gambled on a mile-long shortcut on the highway. I'd already had the bike up to 50 a couple times and it felt like it had more to give WFO, so I wasn't too worried about top speed. To be safe, though, I waited for a break in traffic before turning onto the road. Taking this little bike from a dead stop to highway speed was a lot of fun. Since I'm still on the old tubes and tires, I chickened out and held it steady at 55. Which turned out not to be for long, because a quarter mile from where I was set to exit the engine died completely. I coasted as far as I could but had to pull over at about the worst possible spot- right before a 300'+ bridge with a really tight shoulder over a river. There are plenty of heavy trucks on this road and they haul ass. My options were to 1) abandon the bike and phone for a lift, or 2) push it Usain Bolt-style across the bridge at the next gap in traffic. The shoulder before the bridge wasn't much wider than on it, so I was encouraged to act fast. I decided stopping with the trailer to load the bike later would be at least as dangerous as the sprint, if not more. So I went for it. It was a hair-raising run but I avoided the semis. Right at the end of the bridge was an exit and a nice shady pull-off where I could inspect the bike.
THE BRIDGE
I waited about a half hour for the engine to cool before removing the petcock cap. After the sprint across the bridge, setting the bike ablaze would've been too much excitement for one day. When I took off the cap, the filter was clean. That wasn't really what I was expecting. Then I started cursing myself for not bringing more tools. But at least I could have a look the float bowl since this new carb has that cool snap ring. So I pried it off and discovered the needle jet and holder rattling around in the bottom of the bowl. Hmmm.
MYSTERY SOLVED!
MY TRUSTY TOOL KIT, PERFECT FOR CHINESE CARBURETOR REPAIR
I'm lucky I had all I needed to pull the carb and reinstall the needle jet, though having a 12mm wrench would've been nice as the 45-year-old side cover plastic feels a bit brittle to be yanking without first removing the seat. It worked out OK in the pinch I was in. I guess I was a little rattled by the run on the bridge, too, because I installed the jet upside-down. Haha. The bike predictably ran like crap on the ride home but I didn't want to deal with the side cover, etc., by the side of the road again, so I rolled with it. It's sorted out now and I'm looking forward to another ride (with a more extensive tool kit) tomorrow. I know I'm not going to impress any Iron Butt members, but I'm pretty happy to have put close to 50 miles on this thing between yesterday afternoon and today.
Oh yeah, the bike is a blast! I hope I can fix all its issues (besides the self-disassembling carb and wonky electric, the gearbox is less than fluid). I think it put more smiles on my face in one day than my big bike has in 10 years.