Motorcycle Thoughts

My beloved Honda Shadow-aero is still having problem. Earlier I posted about the problems that the motorcycle was having. It is clearly experiencing a problem in the idle or low speed jet. When the throttle is closed the engine pops and spits from the exhaust pipe. When coasting the popping gets worse. Then when rolling down a hill (which are plentiful in the NorthEast Ohio area) the popping and spitting are much worse.

In an act of desperation I attempted to use a fairly strong treatment of Sea Foam. Unfortunately the results were not very good. It seems that matters got better, but the problem never went away.

I have no choice, I am going to have to have somebody take the carbs apart. Most would probably not be too concerned about this, but this is MY bike. My bike is My bike, I have had this bike since new, I have made the bike all my own. I have labored to take good care of the machine. It only has one seat, 98% of the miles on the bike are with my butt in the seat, so the bike is truly MY bike. This causes a problem for me regarding letting others touch MY bike, let alone place a wrench on it. Fear of scratches or general disrespect to the bike are always weighing on my mind. The search will be long and hard. The time frame is short, because I really need to have this bike available for use. The Gold wing is nice but the Aero is MY bike

The Bike has been stuck in stasis for a couple of years. When I lived in Michigan I put it away for the winter one year according to the instructions. This included fuel stabilizer and draining the carbs.

Since then the bike has not run right. I believe strongly that the idle jet is plugged up because it is popping at closed or slightly cracked throttle when coasting, or going down hill.

I bought a can of sea-foam mixed it into the fuel tank. I started out conservatively at 1.6oz per Gallon. I shook the bike vigorously and ran it idling the best I could get it to idle for about 10 to 15 minutes. I then shut it off for the night. The next day fired it up and it seemed to be running better, but it is difficult to tell. I rode it for a while around the neighborhood. Again, seems to be getting better. Now it is good and warmed up, sure is good to ride it again. Rode it on and off for the next few days, short mostly. In the mean time emailed the sea-foam people to get some descent advice about their product. Didn’t necessarily like the tone of the email rather condescending, either way, they assured me that the product could be mixed at 2oz to 1 gallon very safely. Finally, went camping took it down to the camper despite the threat of rain, still nice to ride. Emptied the tank the best I dared, poured the rest of the can in and topped her off with the premium petrol from the local station. Seemed to be popping less, perhaps it is getting better. Got it home after the weekend (just beat the rain). Right now I am in California, so the Shadow-Aero is sitting at home in the basement hopefully getting better.