On the road again, whooHooo!

[Milton]

After just a little more than a year sitting idle and slightly broken I've got my 98 back on the road. Just did an 80 mile ride with the boy on his KLR650. WhooHOOOO, lookout Tiger on the prowl.

Last year I thought that my carbs were dirty as the bike began to run quite poorly. So I shelved it and dug into it to find that 4 of my 6 intake valves gauged at 0, yes that is correct, 0 clearance. 2 intakes were < .004. Dreaded valve recession of the 98s, or just maybe poor maintenance on my part as I let it go 10K miles between okay clearance and 0.

Anyhoo, being the cheap bastard that I am, and with Mustangs advice I reshimmed the intakes with existing thickness - correct valve clearance + 1 size smaller. 2 shims needed to be 2 sizes smaller.

Cleaned my Keihin carbs, which really wasn't required as they were uber-clean, but made the 98 pilot jets 105, by twisting an indexed drill through them and shimmed up the needle valves with 2 flat washers each to make about .04 thickness. Could not find washers that came any thicker.

New x-ring chain.
New Oxford heated grips. (highly recommended cheap and of high quality).
2 new PIAA horns.
Carb synch.
Sealed rims.
Stinko 705s.
New Wally World battery.

And it now runs like a scalded cat. I don't ever remember is running this well. Mid-range power is amazing.

Thanks all who have contributed advice to me regarding the Tiger.

We'll see how the valve recession holds up.  Bike now has 57500 miles and if I can get 4 more adjustments out of it then I think I will have gotten my monies worth out of the old girl.

Leaving for Top of Rockies rally Wednesday morning and will probably ride about 1500 miles. I'll let the forum know what my mpg is and how the bike holds up.

Thanks,

Milton S.

[Sin_Tiger]

When they run good they are amazing. Safe ride and    ride report.

[Mustang]

[theclowncrusty]

Keep the posts coming, love it when someone takes the time to get their bike running right, and not just ride the thing to death then change them..... (Rant over...lol)
Crusty

[Milton]

Should have also mentioned that I changed the fork oil. A couple of years ago I added a new spacer for preload an inch and one half longer than the stock one and added a mix of 10wt and 15 wt fork oil. Never happy with the results.

This time I added 20wt fork oil, and for me this has certainly stiffened up the forks to my satisfaction. After about 1000 miles of riding with the 20wt I can say that for me the forks are now performing as I like.

[Milton]

As an aside, I got the day off on Saturday at our rally, so decided to ride some gravel and dirt. Spent most of the day off pavement but at the end ended up on HiWay 141 and blasted off to Gateway for a late lunch. 80 - 100 mph for 30 miles .. woohooooooo. I do like this bike. Not many bikes that are so capable of both roles.