Lean running front cylinder

[Rockdoc]

Hi all y'all,

In case you haven't read my introduction post, at 75 I'm old to motorcycles but new to Suzuki Intruders. My current bike is a 2002 Suzuki VS1400. When I purchased it the bike had 9,525 miles on it but had sat in a garage unridden for 5-6 years. My only problems have been cleaning old fuel gunk out the carburetors and the PITA job of resynchronizing the carburetors (using twin vacuum gauges) after every recleaning. Dealing with things like the hidden pilot screw on each carb (thank you so much EPA) and all the other crapadoodle things on modern carbs that have made me grow to love fuel injection. I suppose I should be happy, after my son died of brain cancer back in May I purchased the bike as a distraction project to take my mind off the lose of my son. The bike's been an excellent distraction. In fact, I call it my Suzuki Distraction.

After diddling with the bikes two carburetors for the past few months I finally got it running well enough to take it on a decent test ride. Yesterday I rode out to Copper Hop Ranch Nanobrewery to give it a 44 mile test ride and enjoy a few craft beers during the ride. (CHR brews some really delicious beer!). The bike ran beautifully the entire ride, in fact better than I'd hoped for. About half the ride was on an asphalt range road where I kept it at 45mph so I wouldn't surprise any cattle in the road (I live in rural SE Arizona). The other half was on a state highway with a 65mph speed limit, though I did wind it up to 75 and 80mph for a few short periods (it was a test ride after all). During the few stops I made it settled to a nice idle, no backfiring, pops, stalls, or other issues. Both times I started it, the first when it was stone cold, it instantly fired right up, again when I left CHR after it had sat for 2.5 hours, it fired right up. No concerns except one... After several carburetor cleanings, synchronizings, opening up the pilot screws wider on both carbs, and even installing a cooler spark plug on the front cylinder, the damned front cylinder, based on its white colored spark plug electrode, is still running lean. My research, mainly on this website, indicates that what I have is a common problem and many people say to just ignore it. I don't mind ignoring it if I know for certain that it won't cause damage to my engine long term. Does anyone here have a fix for this problem?

Steve

[Herb]

With the alcohol fuel the plugs should be white or slightly gray.
Both of my plugs are white, like they are supposed to be with regular gasoline. These bikes run best, and cleanest, with regular gas, and if the plug isn't blistering or turning brown the mixture is correct.

Running a higher octane will result in unburned fuel and a rich reading.

[sgtcall]

Herd makes a good point. What gas are you using? The 1400 runs best on 87 octane.

[Rockdoc]

When I purchased my Intruder there were several things I immediately liked about it.

1. It used a shaft drive instead of a chain drive. I mean when is it ever at all enjoyable to service a messy, dirty, oily, drive chain?
2. I liked the overall look of the cycle and the bikes overall high quality really stood out.
3. When I researched the bikes horse power and torque I quickly learned that it had terrific low RPM torque. That's a characteristic I really like! At one time I owned the opposite type of bike, the notorious Kawasaki 3 cylinder, 2-cycle, Widow Maker. Crappy low end torque but at around 7,000rpm the horsepower and torque came on like gangbusters. When I inadvertently lifted the front wheel off the road during a hard shift into second gear at 60mph I pretty much had enough of the quirky two wheeled POS.
4. And finally, being somewhat frugal, I really liked that the engine uses regular 87 octane gasoline and that's what I've happily used in it.

So far I'm impressed with the bikes performance. However, mainly because of my height, it's not the most comfortable bike I've ever ridden. I'm hoping I'll get used to it though.

Steve

[sgtcall]

These will fix your comfort problem. I am 6 foot 1 and they were perfect. https://refinedcycle.com/FC4-Forward-Co ... 83-FC4.htm

[Rockdoc]

Thanks for the tip sgtcall, it looks like it would work just fine. It sure beats moving my butt up onto the rear seat for comfort!

Steve

[sgtcall]

Thanks for the tip sgtcall, it looks like it would work just fine. It sure beats moving my butt up onto the rear seat for comfort!

Steve

The price point is one of the best deals you will find for new forwards made for an Intruder. They are sturdy and I could even stand up on them if I needed to. The chrome seemed to be good and I never had any issues with it. The thing that convinced me to buy them is they move your feet 6-7 inches forward but stay at the same height as the stock pegs. Many forwards on the market raise the position of the pegs. They took about an hour and a half to install but you will need a lift that allows you to access the stock controls from the bottom or find a way to hold the bike up with no side stand. Make sure to order the pegs that come from refined cycle. There are several to choose from, hint, the rubber o rings that come with the comfort pegs do move around a bit over time. I ended up just taking them off completely. Solid pegs may be the better option.