So I went for a long (1,000km) ride this weekend. Here's my observations:

General lack of power - the throttle response is very poor, pretty flat really. Doesn't pull like I believe it should. On Saturday, it topped out at only 110kph and rpm was maxing at about 5k. The next day, after rev'ing the heck out of it, the revs got up to 7k max where it started coughing but at least the top speed improved again (150-160kph) but still very poor throttle response over the full range. The mechanic had said he'd only adjusted the air/fuel mix by 1/4 turn for slight fuel increase as apparently exhaust popping is due to lean mix?. At low speeds, its 'ok' but the problems are more noticeable at mid/higher speeds. It felt a bit like riding a 4 cylinder bike which was only running on 3 cylinders. (have since discovered a reason for this - tank had accidentally been left on 'reserve' by mechanic hence I suspect some crappy fuel got into the carb)

Fuel economy is bad - this weekends long run returned only around 14km/L. As mentioned below, this should be up around the 20 mark.

Aftermarket exhaust - very noisy and pops like hell on deceleration. My riding friends even experienced some 'spray' on their visors when riding behind me and saw a little smoke and actually a flame on deceleration which although quite cool, is not really desired..

Valves - have been adjusted

Oil/filters - have been changed

Battery - new

I've read about various elements that can wear out in the carb on these bikes and that the top end sometimes needs to be overhauled at this mileage however my mechanic doesn't believe these should be so worn at this stage. Unfortunately I don't have a proper work space here and my decent tools are all back in UK so can't do much personally.

__________________
Mike


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