2013 sucked.
There's no two ways around it. I had a crappy year. And to anyone that's been following me, my Vision crapped out back in June on a trip to Louisville, KY from Pittsburgh, PA. We spent the night in Columbus at a friends house, on the way to a car show in L'ville the next day. Earlier on in the season I had some great rides. We went to a couple of biker meetups and a car show. I was really looking forward to Louisville. 30 miles out of Louisville the Vision decided to have a mid-life crisis.
I couldn't figure it out. I took the carbs apart when we got there. It was stalling around 50 mph and particularly up hills. I left it in Kentucky and came back the next week for the "walk of shame".
All summer long I couldn't get it running right. When I did think I got it running right, it did the same thing on the highway test.
On a whim I decided to take the fuel pump apart and discovered that one of the little valves inside the pump was broken; possibly clogging the flow of fuel. A year ago I replaced all of the components of the fuel pump so I neglected to check it when there was a problem. Luckily a Visioneer from Oregon that I had sold some parts to sent me a replacement fuel pump. I replaced the o-rings on the idle screws and cleaned the carbs like a pro. I also replaced the float needles and buckets. The originals were the wrong size and were showing signs of wear.
After plugging it back in it started right up. I got the sync set perfectly. But for all of my efforts I couldn't get the mixture screws set right. This is the worst part for me. I'm probably not alone, but these damn mixture screws get me every time. Luckily this time our shop has a big-ass fan so I could work on the bike without it overheating.
With the erratic idle and the stumble, I was about to give up, when I started backing the screws out equally and giving the bike 1/4 throttle until I noticed that the idle was getting better, the rev wouldn't stick open, and the idle was levelling out. I'm at about 5.5 turns out when I determine that it's perfect. If I go slightly out on the front carb it starts to bog out again.
Today was perfect for riding. The sun was out. There was no reason to not take the bike out. This Vision has never run so smoothly. It responded to every twist and turn, although I had to be careful because there's salt on the road now. It idles on it's own. The tach needle sits calmly at 1300 rpms. I put 100 miles on it today. I was so happy. The battery is showing 12.8 volts on a 5k mile stator/RR and fresh battery.
I went riding with a friend who has a Honda Shadow. I let her ride the V and she said she wants one now. If it's nice tomorrow, I'm going riding. I missed out on a whole summer because of that stupid fuel pump.
