Everything is right with the world. My baby runs and she runs strong.

Tonight I fixed the fuel leak and fired her up, but she wouldn’t idle without the choke pulled out. I heard something leaking. I thought it could be an exhaust leak or some kind of vacuum leak. The vacuum caps were all in place but while investigating I noticed that I could practically pull the left carburetor out of the rubber manifold boot even though the clamps were all tight. Turns out the manifold boot was in backwards (not my fault! it’s not marked and both ends are identical to the nekkid eye). Once I corrected that the bike ran like a scalded ape.

But then there was this noise. I’d heard it late last year and thought it was just a dirty belt drive. It was a rubbery squeak whose frequency was proportional to the speed of the bike. In my investigations I found that the front sprocket nut was loose on the drive shaft. This allowed the front pulley to wobble and create the squeak as the pulley went in and out of alignment. So I got everything cranked down properly and no more squeak.

As I said, all is right with the world and I’m riding my bike to work tomorrow. Then begins the three week shake down because three weeks from now I’ll be in Nelson, BC.