Crosswind Stumble

[Squirrels]

So I've made it to Lawton, OK from Washington state.  I've only noticed two things on the trip so far (I still have to make it home).  First is the weeping waterpump.  I'm not going to stress unless the Prestone additive H2O mentioned doesn't do enough.

The other is some odd behavior of the bike on the highway with a headwind, and especially a crosswind.  The wind down here on the planes is blowing between 20-30 mph.  It's mostly been a headwind, which slows me down to about 60-65 when I wanna go 70mph.  However, when it's a crosswind, the bike loses more power, feeling as if I'm beginning to run out of gas.  I have a had time maintaining 60mph, but when I get going down hill or am sheltered from the wind by trees, my power comes right back.

My thoughts are running between plain old too much drag to a venturi effect on the airbox opening.  My flapper is not modified with the coinage, but I'm not sure it'd help.

Any ideas would be helpful.

-Squirrels

[Superfly]

I would ride my Vision up & down the 14 freeway in LA, and at some parts a very windy road (had a strong crosswind almost blow me over a lane once) and never ran into that problem.  I would suspect something else, like a kinked or breaking hose for the petcock, clogged gas cap vent (not delivering enough fuel into your float bowls, causing a lean condition) a vacuum leak somewhere, or your carbs are acting up.  Have use used any fuel additives yet?  You could have got some dirt/rust in the carbs.  Try draining the float bowls, and see if any dirt/rust comes out. 

Let us know what you find.

[louthepou]

Hmm.

Strong head winds will bring your top speed down, of course. But not to a point where you shouldn't be able to cruise at 70 mph, I think. With a bike in good shape, anyway.

And that sidewind thing making things worse than with a headwind, that's just weird. Have you noticed if it's only when winds are coming from one side, or both? Reason for my question: When you ride in sidewind for a long period of time, you tilt to one side to compensate. If the float bowl floats are misadjusted and the fuel level in the bowls are too low (really too low), you could be running out of gas, in a way; the little gas available in the bowls would be found on one side of the bowl, leaving the other side dry.

Other than that, I can't see how a sidewind would make performance worse than with a headwind. The airbox is sheilded ehough so that it should not be a factor with the described symptoms, imho.

Lou

[kwells]

good point lou!

[Lucky]

i thought the same thing when i read it, low fuel level.

also, is the fuel pump working, your not running on 'prime' are you?

does it matter which way your leaning?

if your not going to be making this run often, i'd probably just keep it in the back of my mind for now...

--Lucky

[Squirrels]

I'm leaning to the right, as it's a South wind, and I was heading either South or East.  This problem was consistant between multiple tanks of gas.  I even tried different octanes to see if it was the heat and altitude.  I ususally ride at 500 or less feet.  The plains here I beleive are around 1000 feet in elevation.  I ran on everything from 85 to 89, with no noticable difference.  I am noticing the fuel level in the cone fuel filter I've got is very low once I'm up to speed.  It looks like fuel from the petcock is dribbling into the filter, and being slurped up from the bottom, into the fuel pump.  I've tried changing petcock settings all around, little to no difference.  The temperatures are also different from back home.  Much hotter at 90-95* verse 70-80 in Washington.

I'll check the float bowl contents for debris and report back.

-Squirrels

[Night Vision]

pull your petcock and see if the screen is plugged

[wolf]

Right, crosswind stumble. Same thing happened to the revision last year.
Now, I know this is gonna sound weird---try lifting your right leg to re-direct air flow a bit. Does she pick right up? ( Don't ask me how I figured out the leg thing--but it worked!) (kids, be careful performing this maneuver...)
Anyway,to get to the point: the culprits on my old engine turned out to be those crank case ventillation hoses coming out of the heads--they go, of course, to the bottom of the airbox---where they were happily puking blow-by oil into the box, fouling the air filter.
I've re-directed the hoses to their own little filters,problem solved.Cheaper and easier than a ring job.
She sometimes smokes a bit on hard acceleration up hill--oh well, I smoke a bit sometimes too...

[louthepou]

Just to prove there's never a dull moment with a Vision...  ;D

Lou