Gunky Carbs?

[SpeedRacerOnline]

- I've been riding Ruby most of the week, and she runs great. Today, it was 33 F on the way in at 5 am, and 61 F on the way home at 3 pm...Michigan!

- Anyway, I had decided that I was gonna run the tank down to reserve before putting more gas in to see what kind of mileage I was getting. I had about 175 miles on so far. After work I fired her up on choke to let her warm up while I got my gear on, and everything was normal. Once she kicked the choke down, I hopped on to take off. She bogged a bit at first, but I knew she usually needs another min or two after the choke kicks down to be really ready and I was just impatient with the beautiful sunshine today. I got to the end of the block though, and she was bogging really bad and took a lot of throttle to go. By the end of the next block, I was honestly afraid I wasn't going to get across the street in time to get out of the way of traffic! Once I got across, I reached down and twisted it to reserve figuring I must be nearing the end. Thinking that should do it, I tried to take off and it just got worse! I had to pull the choke all the way out again and twist the throttle nearly all the way just to get her to move, and she just bogged down more and more. I pulled off on a sidewalk to get out of the way (bad part of a bad town), and she kept getting worse. She got to the point that any throttle at all would stall her out, until eventually she wouldn't even run. Cranks fine, spits a bit if I don't touch the throttle, but just won't go.

- This is the first time I've run the tank down on a 21 year old bike with only 5,700 miles, which means a lot of storage time. I'm guessing the bottom of the tank was probably pretty gunky and she sucked some crud in and clogged the carbs. Sound right, or anybody got a better idea? Tomorrow, I was already planning on doing some maintenance work (chain cleaning, wash, etc.), and now it looks like a bit more. I'm planning on cleaning the tank out, and I'll probably just swap the carb bank from my '94 on to it so I can bring these home and spend some real time cleaning them and order the #20 jet change everybody suggests.

- Oh, the good news to this story; my work is about 40 miles from home, and my parents live another 30 miles past that. It just happened that Dad was about 10 minutes away though, with his truck, trailer, and dirt bike headed to his cabin for some weekend trail riding. He picked Ruby & I up and gave us a ride home. Now that's timing!