Sooo, my Connie has been sitting for a few months (dead battery, plus a broken footpeg bracket that I had to replace, plus I threw in some Kneesavers just for fun). I recently replaced the battery, and the bike was being a little bitchy on the startup. OK, a lot bitchy...
As far as I can tell, the idle circuits were plugged, so I had to use the enricher a lot to get the bike to run.
Not wanting to pull the carbs, I bought a can of Seafoam (split between two fillups). I regularly treat the bike with the stuff a couple of times a year, so it was due.
Well, while things didn't clear up immediately, the bike is now running more or less normally, after three longish rides with some 'sitting' in between. It can idle now at around 1000 RPM without the enricher, and I can now engage the clutch at lower rpms (this was problematic before - usually resulted in a stall).
She's's still not running perfectly, but pretty close...
I'll be pulling the carbs at the end of this riding season for some SISF love (rebuild, new jets and overflow tubes), but right now they are functioning more or less as they should, so I bought myself a few weeks of riding.
It's also interesting how you don't realize just how much you miss riding the Connie until you get back on her!
Just another note that Seafoam helps sometimes... I'm delaying the inevitable carb rebuild (procrastination - gotta luv it!), but with about 50K on the bike, and 10 years of use, I'm just happy that the bike still performs well!
I don't like the idea of my bike having 'down time' while I send stuff for rebuild/replacement, but this winter I have a few SISF upgrades in mind, assuming that my budget finally cooperates...
