Turns out that most of the trouble was a bad seal at the intake manifold. Many, many attempts to repair it has finally resulted in smooth running. I even have a new spare carb now which I bought when I was SURE the old carb was toast. It also helped to go back to the previous set of mufflers over my really LOUD drag pipes. The complete lack of back pressure in those pipes wasn't helping a bit and now the bike can hit 70mph in about 4 seconds. Pretty good for an otherwise stock 34-year-old bike. Compression tested out at a solid 150lbs in each cylinder, also really good for an old bike. I'm pretty sure somebody rebuilt at least some of this motor before I got it.

I've spent the summer building my confidence in this bike. It handles like a John Deer dragster. It wants to go fast and straight. Just putt-putting around causes it to sputter and buck after a time, so you gotta blow the fouling out of it every once in a while. I haven't taken it far, but I've ridden it a lot this summer and I think I really like it. I might just keep it even though there's been interested people wanting to by it.

This winter the bike gets new tires and painted rims (black, of course), a new chain-tensioner shoe and painted exhaust pipes (black BBQ paint works great for this).

Next Spring it will be entered in the Vintage Motorcycle Show in the Rat Bike category. I'm pretty sure I'll win, too!