Gas @ 67,661 – 3.572 gal E10 93 @ $3.949/gal = $14.11. 130.2/3.572 = 36.5 mpg
Gas @ 67,800 – 3.819 gas E10 93 @ $3.799/gal = $14.51. 139.1/3.819 = 36.4 mpg
End @ 67,803 (152 miles)
Got the R 60/2 speedo back from getting rebuilt. Cost me about $375 all in, with shipping, duties, etc. I’m glad I got it done before gov’t tariffs raised the costs any more. Dude who did the work forgot to send back the U-shaped mounting bracket and big nut. At least he still had them! He said he’ll mail them to me as soon as he can. Not a big deal, I’m not riding or even working on that bike until after our vacation next month. Knowing I was going to write about having professionals do certain things on my vintage bikes, I asked him if I should avoid mentioning his name. I thought he might have been doing the rebuild as a favor to me, so I didn’t want to “out” him as doing that thing regularly if he didn’t want me to. He demurred, so I’ll keep his name a secret from the MOA cognoscenti.
I rode back to Morton’s again (AGAIN!) today using US 301 and VA 2. I thought they had some event going on and people were going to be there, but I must have gotten the day wrong. They had donuts though, so that was nice. I bought a pair of those fancy BMW 2-in-1 gloves (I think Held makes them), thinking ahead to colder months and that it would be nice to have one pair of gloves that’s waterproof. It was nice to buy something that wasn’t parts for a change. I also got a decent air gauge, I’m tired of opening up my tool roll to check the tire pressure on my bike. Now I’ll have one hanging on the wall. Easy peasy.
Rode to Tappahannock on US 17. I figured I’d get lunch there (got there about noon), then ride home on US 360. I got lunch at an Irish pub. Food was OK, not worth $23 plus tip, that’s for sure. Onion rings were OK though.
As it turns out, me thinking the bike was running well before my fiasco except for that occasional idle thing was about 80% flawed. It did not run well. It ran … OK. Fine, maybe. But not good, and definitely not well. After George adjusted those couple of things and synched the carbs, NOW it runs WELL. I might need to bump the idle speed up a little until I can rebuild the carbs, but for now it’s fantastic. The buzziness at 3500-4000 rpm is now just normal motorcycle vibration. In town, idling at lights barely cracked 1000 rpm. It’s like riding a different bike. I’m stunned and told George so.
US 17 between VA 2 and Tappahannock is a clean, clear, low-traffic four-lane divided highway with a speed limit of 60 mph. I absolutely wrung the bike’s neck on this stretch of road, almost inappropriately so I might add. Kept it near 4000 rpm most of the time and at 5000 rpm for a good stretch. The speedo indicated 90 mph, so I was probably going 75.
I’m also really pissed at myself for letting this go as long as I did, and for letting it bother me as much as it did. I’m always hard on myself, but this shit got ridiculous. Adjusting the carbs, synching them, cleaning off the surface grime – these are all things I should have done in December before even bringing the bike home! I even have a carb balancer – A GOOD ONE!! But I was so excited to get riding and the bike ran OK, so I just blew it off. Foolish and short sighted. Embarrassing, even. Stupid!
I’d love to say it won’t happen again, but I know me. I stopped at Mom’s before coming home to get the numbers off the carbs on the R 60/2 I’ll start getting parts to rebuild those carbs ASAP, and maybe even the video from Bing.
Carb numbers are
• R 60/2 – 1/24/133 & 134
• R 90/6 – 64/32/11 & 12
