Leadville and back: Riding around Leadville...and problems

Other riders went all sorts of places on the next day on Friday, Jack Smith made a 450 mile run that included Black Canyon.

Then there were riders that had some trouble. Matt was having charging problems on his 82 Magna, and that bike has been Steady Eddie over the years. Kent, also had charging problems crop up while out on his 20xx FJR1300. He was 10 miles from town when he called for help. DeWayne took my bike trailer out to get him with his pickup truck. The FJR fit on the trailer just fine and was soon back at camp for repairs.

Mo and Steve had pulled into camp, giving us a little class with their 2 very fine 84 VF1000F V4s on a nice trailer pulled behind a beautiful late model Mustang. They had gone for a ride, and Steve had sudden death syndrome happen to his bike....It died at speed and never fired again. Eventually, 'Big Red Mo' was able to retrieve Steve and his bike with their trailer.

Jack Smith (left)......BRM (Right)

[BTW, Kent got his FJR back to North Carolina by buying a car battery (and strapping it to the passenger seat) that would fit in the Mustang who lived in NC also. Kent took the fuse out of the headlight to minimize electrical use of running his motorcycle. He then rode along with the Mustang switching batteries with the Mustang when necessary. Pretty clever, I thought.]

I thought that I could diagnose the VF1000F's problem but was completely stumped after examining the beast. This is what I found....

1. I was able to pull #1 & #3 Sparkplugs. There was compression

there, but to my fingers it felt weak....maybe half what there should

have been...just IMHO.

2. I drained #4's float bowl into a beer can bottom. There was the

proper amount of fuel in that Float bowl.

3. There was plenty of battery to grind the starter/engine for testing.

4. I pulled the screws used for carb sync on #1 & #3. There was

zero vacuum there during engine rotation with the starter.

5. Also no vacuum at the carb intakes in the air box.

6. It had spark on #3 & #4. I didn't test the other 2.

I gave up further testing.......What could the matter be???

[Infomation came out months later when Steve tore the engine down that one of the two timing chains had broken. It bent valves and ruined the crank case as well.]

So Saturday came and went with many cycles filing in and back out in a frenzy to get as many Co roads under their belts as possible. Many riders had to be back to work on Monday or Tuesday....in the east.

Jack Smith had done an SS1000 on the way to Leadville and was going to attempt a BBG 1500 on the way back to Pittsburgh.

On Sat I didn't ride so I could rest up from more than a week of riding every day. I kept having thoughts about Steve's VFKF. Nothing shed any additional light on his bike's malady.

The camp mascot wanted my chips.

Later we all went to Quincy's steakhouse for dinner. Seems they have Steak or prime rib for 8 (small) or 10 dollars (larger). That was very good for a pleasant change in our diets.