canuckxxxx's Single carb manifold build

You've done a fine job.

I have found that once you have a good idle, you know you have no air leaks and you know the jetting is either right where you need it or very close.

OK, I took a 100 mile ride. The bike seems to run about the same as before, but with a better idle when stopped. It is back to dropping real low and threatening to die when rolling to a stop when it is not completely warned up. When warm this goes away. Funny thing is that, even when cold, I can rev it up and close the throttle as fast as I can and it doesn't drop down like that. I think I'll just live with that.

After reading 81 Gwing's thread I have made some changes to the main jets. Ever since I did the single carb my plugs have been very light, almost white, and I would be more comfortable if they were more of a tan colour. Temp gauge does go up until fan comes on sometime, more so than with OEM rack.

So I put the #105 that was my primary main jet into the secondary side and drilled the #95 ,that was in secondary, to 1.2mm (#120) and putting that in the primary side. So if it doesn't work out I can put the original primary main back where it was. But I went for a short test run and it runs fine. So will put some miles on and check plugs.

BTW, I filled up with gas; my mileage for this tank full is a whopping 22 mpg. Pretty bad but that was lots of city riding, starting from cold, as well as testing in driveway. But I should also add that the bike smells like gas after a ride and there are no leaks that I can see. :Awe:

Brian

Nice clean setup.

hmmmmm ...well white plugs smell of gas and 22 mpg dont go together so ....theres something up here

I'm not saying the plugs smell of gas but that my garage tends to smell of gas after a ride. I usually keep the door upen for an hour or so to clear the air. Although I must say that any old bike I've had (2 Suzuki GSs, Royal Enfield, BSA 650) smelled like gas.

I should also add that I always turn off petcock after a ride.

Brian

Plugs say a bit lean. 22mpg say either rich or losing fuel. Smell of gas after a ride seems to indicate losing fuel. Or you burned up near half of that gas at a standstill.

I am not overly concerned about the gas mileage because that was mostly stop and go city riding. I will be interested in seeing what I get on a sustained highway ride. With the lean looking plugs and no external leaks I would expect it to be pretty good.

I've never been too concerned with gas mileage with my cars OEM bikes. As long as I'm satisfied that it is running OK I just fill up when needed and drive till it needs more.

Brian

I use deteriorating fuel economy as an indicator for when the air filter needs to be changed...

Well I finally got a chance to go for a good long ride so here is my ride report.

For anyone familiar with the Calgary area, I took a ride out to Drumheller and back. Logged a total of 195.7 miles (314.9 km) and it took 5.42 USG (20.53 L) for 36.1 mpg (6.5 L/100km). The bike ran flawlessly, temperature never went higher than the end of the skinny line. I am waiting for it to cool down a bit and I will take out the plugs and see how they look.

Drumheller is located in the badlands of Alberta and there have been many dinosaur fossils found there. There is a large dinosaur museum there (Royal Tyrel Museum) and the theme of the whole town is dinosaurs.

On my way back home my route took me to a very old cable ferry that goes across the Red Deer River call the Bleriot Ferry. Thought it would be fun to go across on it.

I know you guys like pics so here goes.

Road leading down to Drumheller. You can see the badlands landscape.
Stegosaurus standing on GW...well sort of.
Red Deer River valley and badlands landscape
Bleriot ferry on other side loading
GW on ferry

Brian

Meant to hit "preview" but hit "post" instead.

Would like to add that weather conditions were ideal with temps in the low 20s C and little if any wind. I ran at 65 to 70 mph most of the trip. So gas mileage is probably about as good as it's going to get. I wonder if the fact that Calgary is 4000' above sea level has an adverse affect on mileage.

I did run it up to 100mph indicated just to see if it would do it, on a long straight stretch. Would have gone much faster.

There was one scary thing that happened but it working out OK. All these roads are 1 lane each way and there was a stretch that was being repaved and it was the lane I was travelling in. The flag girl waved us past which meant that we all had to go into the oncoming lane. We passed the paving operation and then were supposed to get back into our lane which was, then, not yet repaved. Trouble is it had a very fresh, slippery looking coating of oil/tar on it. All the cars went into the oily lane but I stayed on the wrong side in order to avoid the oil. Luckily there was no oncoming cars. I wasn't scared of getting tar on the GW but it looked very slick. Eventually some cars did come and I had to go over into the tar but by that time it had dried some so wasn't too slippery.

Brian

Nice pictures and good ride story, your economy is pretty much what I get on the Rats Nest but I do use plenty of throttle around here :yes:

neat brian

Thanks guys. It was a pretty enjoyable ride.

Here are how the plugs look. #2 seems slightly darker but overall I am very happy with the colour and that they are all pretty close to the same. This is after drilling the primary main jet out to 1.2mm.
This is how they looked before the jetting change. Too white/lean I thought.

I'm also wondering if that Plexifairing windshield is costing me gas. I see that Ansimp and Joe both run Vetter fairings. Seems I read somewhere that the windjammer fairings were more aerodynamic than a naked bike. On the other hand, I think the Plexifairings have been referred to as a "barn door".

I would be tempted to take another long run without the windshield and see what difference that makes.

Brian

hard to argue with that brian....... that rather the ultimate test.....with plugs like that mpg figure is not that big a deal ... its burrning it just fine :mrgreen:

i have a plug that burns whiter that the others. no matter what hole i put it in

[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=127825#p127825:1d0p1rhl said:

81 Gwing » Thu Aug 07, 2014 5:49 pm[/url]":1d0p1rhl]
i have a plug that burns whiter that the others. no matter what hole i put it in

Click to expand...

That's interesting maybe I should move #2 plug to different hole and see.

i like the hondaline fairing WAY better

I love the Hondaline fairing ss. I had on the CB1000C. I loved that bike. At any rate it had the Dondaline fairing. I am running a Vetter III now and I like it, need to trim the windshiels, get some mirrors on it, and I will be good to go.

I am getting just under 45 mpg, but mine is the 1000 and I stripped everything but the Fairing. Took almost 85 pounds off the bike.

Well I might get another ride in before winter sets in for good but it will be over soon. The old beast has performed very well all summer but I think I will take the single carb. setup apart to inspect the condition of the inside of the fuel hose and the rubber couplers at the plenum to runner junction.

My interest in experimenting has been awakened after reading Chuckc's exploits with making a manifold setup with copper pipe but now with PVC. I still think a copper setup would work very well if build properly. The heat conducting properties of copper could have the runners and plenum toasty warm just from the heat conducted from the heads.

Also it would be nice to simplify and cleanup the top of the engine to make room for a car type alternator in the future.

After reading Dan's success using 1" EMT I think that 1" copper plumbing pipe would work because they have almost the same ID. At the heads I would use long radius 90º elbows. I would get some brass or copper doughnuts made up by my machinist friend that would have a channel for the OEM O-ring and an ID that was a close fit to the OD of the elbow so I could solder them. I would make up some more flange plates that would clamp the doughnut/runners to the head but would be floating so the runners could be rotated. With the runners clamped down against the head, metal to metal, there should be max heat transfer.

For a plenum I would use a 1 1/2" or 2" copper end cap with holes sawn in for the runners so the runners would go straight from the head to the plenum. If the holes are a close fit to the pipe the pipes could be brazed to the plenum. The reason I am thinking brazing instead of soldering is that there would be no socket fitting to solder to but just a but joint so solder might not be strong enough. I would get another doughnut made up with an ID the same as the OD of the end cap and an OD big enough for the bottom flange of the 2 to 1 adapter.

There would be no part of my existing manifold that I would use so I can always go back to that if this doesn't work out.