mwest
Tuned and Synch'ed
See last post for 5/11 update.
A little background. Sunday before last, I did a 6 hour ride on my 01 Cal Special (with 50k miles) all on backroads ranging from first gear twisties to 100MPH straights. Bike ran flawlessly all day. Being spring, there are lots of bugs out on the central coast so the bike was really ugly when I got back.
This last Saturday, I washed and detailed the bike but didn't ride it till yesterday. On the way into work in the morning (57 mile commute) the bike surged a couple of times while cruising on the fwy about 70MPH in 4th gear. It was like the engine cutout for a fraction of a second and then came back on.
After work, I rode to Alviso for the Bay area monthly Guzzi Dinner, which is 3-4 miles from work. On the way over it surged a couple more times on the freeway at a constant speed in the same RPM range as it did in the morning.
After dinner, I had the long ride home in the dark and the problem became more frequent. probably did it 15-20 times while riding home. Always felt the same as though the engine was cutting out very briefly. Always when holding a constant RPM around 4k +/- 200 and never while accelerating or decelerating. Didn't seem to be related to vibration or hitting bumps either. When it happens, there is no interruption to lights, gauges, or any other function that I could see.
Naturally, I'm scheduled to go to the Visalia Not-a-rally next week and not comfortable riding around in the middle of nowhere with this kind of intermittent issue and hoping to sort it out quickly.
My sidestand switch was disconnected years ago. I've never had a problem with my electronic petcock and tend not to think that would be an issue as it doesn't seem to be related to vibration.
As I said earlier, the bike ran great prior to getting washed so perhaps I got something wet or knocked something loose while cleaning. Or perhaps it doesn't have anything to do with that. Maybe a sensor going south, perhaps?
One other tidbit to note is that a year or so ago, I noticed my tach kind of drags when it gets around 4500. If you're accelerating and watching the needle, it climbs gradually and it gets around that area, it slows down for a few seconds and then seems to recover. Don't know if that could have anything to do with current issue as it's been that way for a long time, but thought I should mention it.
Any ideas of what to check and how to check it would be appreciated. If there is a part I might need for testing, I'd need to get it ordered asap in order to get it here in time.
A little background. Sunday before last, I did a 6 hour ride on my 01 Cal Special (with 50k miles) all on backroads ranging from first gear twisties to 100MPH straights. Bike ran flawlessly all day. Being spring, there are lots of bugs out on the central coast so the bike was really ugly when I got back.
This last Saturday, I washed and detailed the bike but didn't ride it till yesterday. On the way into work in the morning (57 mile commute) the bike surged a couple of times while cruising on the fwy about 70MPH in 4th gear. It was like the engine cutout for a fraction of a second and then came back on.
After work, I rode to Alviso for the Bay area monthly Guzzi Dinner, which is 3-4 miles from work. On the way over it surged a couple more times on the freeway at a constant speed in the same RPM range as it did in the morning.
After dinner, I had the long ride home in the dark and the problem became more frequent. probably did it 15-20 times while riding home. Always felt the same as though the engine was cutting out very briefly. Always when holding a constant RPM around 4k +/- 200 and never while accelerating or decelerating. Didn't seem to be related to vibration or hitting bumps either. When it happens, there is no interruption to lights, gauges, or any other function that I could see.
Naturally, I'm scheduled to go to the Visalia Not-a-rally next week and not comfortable riding around in the middle of nowhere with this kind of intermittent issue and hoping to sort it out quickly.
My sidestand switch was disconnected years ago. I've never had a problem with my electronic petcock and tend not to think that would be an issue as it doesn't seem to be related to vibration.
As I said earlier, the bike ran great prior to getting washed so perhaps I got something wet or knocked something loose while cleaning. Or perhaps it doesn't have anything to do with that. Maybe a sensor going south, perhaps?
One other tidbit to note is that a year or so ago, I noticed my tach kind of drags when it gets around 4500. If you're accelerating and watching the needle, it climbs gradually and it gets around that area, it slows down for a few seconds and then seems to recover. Don't know if that could have anything to do with current issue as it's been that way for a long time, but thought I should mention it.
Any ideas of what to check and how to check it would be appreciated. If there is a part I might need for testing, I'd need to get it ordered asap in order to get it here in time.