Monday, Apr 28 2014 [25,729 miles]
Some of my planned Monday tasks were pushed to Tuesday. That leaves time to take a look at the R69S and see if I can discover the cause for the excessive knocking heard first start.
Excessive gap
Let’s see what is wrong
How did I do that?
And that?
Fixed?
The source of the noise was obvious. But why? It was not a subtle error. I’m hoping that I was an idiot and accidentally rotated the crank twice after setting the valves on left side.
After adjusting the right side I rotated the crank and popped off the left side valve cover just to check. It was as I set it on Saturday. The only thing left to do is back the bike out of the garage and see how it runs.
It runs. Well. I put about 5 miles on the bike with a stop at the gas station for some fresh premium fuel. No issues. I rode without ear plugs and didn’t hear anything excessively bad. That’s the best I can say since the bike always sounds noisy when I don’t wear my earplugs. Plus, I hadn’t yet installed the front cover.
The bike is cooling down. I’ll install the front cover and take it on longer rides to break the new parts in over the next week or so. It’s good to have two working bikes in the garage, again.
Saturday, May 3 2014 [25,759 miles]
Break in ride #2
This afternoon I installed the front cover and took the bike for its second break in ride. It was a perfect day for a ride. Blue sky with the temperature hovering around 70 ˚F. I spent most of the ride in 2nd and 3rd gear running between 30 and 50 MPH.
The engine has never been smoother in the almost 15 years that I’ve owned the bike. It has never sounded better, either. It felt good to get out on the old beast. I’m hoping these changes will last more than 3 or 4 years.