06-07-14, 09:18 PM
Massive respect for your knowledgible foc'ers, the problem has gone away! 
Over the week the bike was running even weaker and poorer and I was finding it hard to keep up with the traffic. I had started avoiding motorways and had to sit back behind the traffic on B roads as the bike was not accelerating past 5.5 - 6k, and as soon as it hits that particular rev spot, bike actually slows down equivalent to going couple of gears down and it was altogether getting a bit too dangerous for everyone.
Over the week I tried riding it with tank lid open. It didn't improve the situation.
Today after scanning thru this excellent forum for details, I carefully removed the tank, and peeled back the big rubber cover over the air filter box thingee (I had to remove the bracket where tank attaches to, and the two black plastic panels on both sides of the bike), and took out the air filter. This doesn't look too bad, does it?
![[Image: IMG_20140706_172943.jpg]](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-4lZi1KcuHsA/U7l5f9IFWcI/AAAAAAAAGYA/i1WsUM_hFb8/w428-h577-no/IMG_20140706_172943.jpg)
I didn't have a new one to replace it with, so I cleaned it from inside with the hoover, and put everything back in (didn't forget to turn the fuel back on, thanks to my overly excited three year old girl reminding me), and rode out to nearly open stretch of road and as the rev went past the 7k and then 8k mark I was so delighted it's as if I won a race or something!
Now I don't know if it was cleaning the filter that did the trick OR (embarrassing part) that I noticed the female connector part of the gerbings heated gloves connector lead that I had folded back under the seat had slipped under and was sticking into one of the three air intake squares.... it probably was blocking some of the air going in..!!
Thanks again for the pointers folks, they were all certainly in the right direction. I am considering splashing out on a K&N air filter with the money I saved today (had I got to the local mechanic who said he will strip the bike to see what is wrong).
I have more issues with the bike - idle running is too low and it cuts out all the time, it needs a new right side mirror, main stand, main light is pointing to the left and too high etc etc. I will give it my best shot reading and learning from here. So much fun!
Over the week the bike was running even weaker and poorer and I was finding it hard to keep up with the traffic. I had started avoiding motorways and had to sit back behind the traffic on B roads as the bike was not accelerating past 5.5 - 6k, and as soon as it hits that particular rev spot, bike actually slows down equivalent to going couple of gears down and it was altogether getting a bit too dangerous for everyone.
Over the week I tried riding it with tank lid open. It didn't improve the situation.
Today after scanning thru this excellent forum for details, I carefully removed the tank, and peeled back the big rubber cover over the air filter box thingee (I had to remove the bracket where tank attaches to, and the two black plastic panels on both sides of the bike), and took out the air filter. This doesn't look too bad, does it?
I didn't have a new one to replace it with, so I cleaned it from inside with the hoover, and put everything back in (didn't forget to turn the fuel back on, thanks to my overly excited three year old girl reminding me), and rode out to nearly open stretch of road and as the rev went past the 7k and then 8k mark I was so delighted it's as if I won a race or something!
Now I don't know if it was cleaning the filter that did the trick OR (embarrassing part) that I noticed the female connector part of the gerbings heated gloves connector lead that I had folded back under the seat had slipped under and was sticking into one of the three air intake squares.... it probably was blocking some of the air going in..!!
Thanks again for the pointers folks, they were all certainly in the right direction. I am considering splashing out on a K&N air filter with the money I saved today (had I got to the local mechanic who said he will strip the bike to see what is wrong).
I have more issues with the bike - idle running is too low and it cuts out all the time, it needs a new right side mirror, main stand, main light is pointing to the left and too high etc etc. I will give it my best shot reading and learning from here. So much fun!