Ride Report From The Fongderosa

[Carl La Fong]

I missed out on a ride, with Squirm and his buddies last month. I broke down about 50 miles from home. The bike started running real lousy. I didn't have time to look at it until last week. This is what I found in my fuel filter. Almost a teaspoon of rust particles. I blame the crummy, ethanol laced "motor fuel" that we are forced to burn. The alcohol attracts water, which condenses inside the tank and forms rust that flakes off. I did install a good, cleanable filter and I think it did a good job of capturing all of the crud before it got into the carb. So, yesterday, I fearlessly set off again. As I approached the same intersection where I conked out last month, I spotted half a dozen of the guys at the gas station. I figured, this is a good omen. We headed off for another 40 miles or so and met up with Dave and the rest. Off we went to Big Bear, a local mountain community and resort area. Had a great lunch and BS session afterwards. There were some naughty words and references to various sexual activities, so it's a good thing that tender ears were not present, lest they begin to bleed. In all, a good day. I have raccoon face today, as a reminder to pack sunscreen next time. I don't want to risk loosing my youthful appearance.

[V-MAN]

Glad it was a simple solution to your problem and you had a good riding day to make up for the day you lost.

[CanuckHoss]

What does the inside of your tank look like Carl?

I put in 3 oz of gasline antifreeze every 3rd or 4th tank here to absorb any water from condensation (instead of it laying in the bottom of the tank creating rust there) as our temperatures vary so much from day to nite.

Glad you had a great ride..

[Carl La Fong]

^^^^^I dunno. I'd need a borescope to see inside. The unleaded filler restriction plate gets in the way. Since all gas is unleaded, why do we still need those stupid things?
I just have to check the filter more often. It may have been just a one time thing since the bike sat for over a year while I did all of the mods to it.

[Iron Maiden]

Carl, that is amazing to see how much rust a fuel filter can stop from going into tbe carb - WOW!! Thanks for sharing. Bill and I will be doing a 10k mile service on both bike/trike and we have now added another item to replace - THANKS! Any other ideas are always welcome.

[SQ4MN]

Here in Vegas some stations sell 100 octane race gas at the pump. It has no ethanal or alcohol. It smells like gasoline used to smell and it can sit in your tank for years without gumming up. I keep it in my hot rod and my Volkswagon, my TRIUMPH and my Chopper. I started using it in antique motorcycles years ago and never had to rebuild carbs after that. No matter what MAJIC FORMULA I added to the shit they call gas nowadays if it sat in the old motorcycles for very long the carbs would have to come apart and be cleaned. Any small size holes in jets would gum up and floats would stick etc. The V8 bikes would seem to be ok but if they might sit for a while I still use race gas in them just for insurance. The Chopper mainly gets used for shorter trips usually around Las Vegas so its easy to keep it topped up with race gas. The trike doesn't get ridden enough so it gets race gas too. The BH gets ridden on the far trips and race gas isn't available once I leave here so it just gets the lousy gas sold everywhere. As long as it doesn't sit for to long it works ok. There were about 15 bikes on our ride and three of them were v8 bikes. We had perfect weather and it was a fun day. Our club has at least one ride every month. Since we're on the west coast that means at least 12 rides a year in normally good weather. Usually the rides are just for one day or the whole weekend. So far every year we've also had at least one major ride lasting up to ten days.

[randy burkey]

Carl, Glad you got your fuel problem straightened out..Hope it stays that way. And as Squirm was saying about fuel, I have a small airport near home and buy aviation fuel for use in my dirt bike.. I was told the av gas uses stabilizers as airplanes tend to sit for long periods at times and it prevents spoiling and clogging the carb..My dirt bike sits for months at a time with no problems.. Plus it smells good when burnt! Randy

[SQ4MN]

Carl, Glad you got your fuel problem straightened out..Hope it stays that way. And as Squirm was saying about fuel, I have a small airport near home and buy aviation fuel for use in my dirt bike.. I was told the av gas uses stabilizers as airplanes tend to sit for long periods at times and it prevents spoiling and clogging the carb..My dirt bike sits for months at a time with no problems.. Plus it smells good when burnt! Randy

Another good thing is av gas still has lead in it which is great for valves.

[hogv8]

We have all kinds of gas stations around my area that sell 91 octane non ethanol gas . I've been burning it for a couple of years now in my bikes . A can of Seafoam once in a while also helps clean things up .