So, I was just driving out to work, pulling about 65-70mph (which was kind of tough since I'm a bigger guy). The bike was warmed up and fresh full of gas. A few minutes (5? 6?) into the ride, the engine kind of made a backfire sound and acted like it wasn't getting any gas to it (engine still sounded ok, but revved down). About a second later, it kicked back in (almost like it shifted into gear, but no additional sounds), and kept going. It did that two or three more times, so I backed it down to about 55 and it ran alright the rest of the way (another 6? 7? minutes) without any problems. I stopped at a gas station and checked it over--didn't see anything wrong. It started right back up and moved the last minute or two to work at about 30 mph.

I'm hoping the problem was just that the bike don't take too kindly to my kind running her too hard. But does it sound like it might be something else?

I've got a way home that doesn't take me over 55 mph, but I'm still worried about when I leave here and afterward. Any ideas of what I should be expecting? What should I watch out for in the future?

Thanks all!

Next which your petcock to prime and see if it continues.

you can replace the vac line too.

I had that happen to me after the bike sat for months after my surgery, and through a couple of blizzards. I dumped some gumout carb cleaner in the gas, and it worked. And I was all ready to take the carb apart. Runs fine now. Guess I got lucky

I dont think you've got any worries as far as overtaxing the bike. I dont know how "big" you are but you'd have to be really really big to over tax it at 65mph. You might not get much faster than that, or you might accerate slowly but it wouldnt do what you describe. Sounds like a carb or petcock issue. I vote vacuum line between the petcock and carb. Its cheapest and easiest to address.

When I got mine I decided to make my first ride a turnpike ride to see how much more power it had than my previous bike (a honda rebel 250 that I was not comfortable with on the turnpike). I rode about a half hour to a friends place. About 5 miles away from home on my way back the bike stuttered popped and died. I limped home a couple miles at a time waiting 5 minutes or so each time after it died before it would crank back up again. I got on here and read about the vac line. Took a look at it and it was BARELY scratched but i cut an inch off the petcock end and reattched it anyway and didnt have any problem afterward. A few months later I opted for the newly discovered raptor petcock to avoid it happening again.

Manual petcock conversion, about 25 cents for the nyoln screw ..... unless you want pretty, then it's around $3.

jamesmackelroy wrote on 05/17/10 at 20:20:03:

Well,FWIW,I weigh about 280 pounds.My route to work includes 20 miles of interstate,which I run 70 to 75 mph on for almost the entire way.I say that to say this,I had the same issue as you until I converted the petcock to manual operation.Mine didn't have any leaks,but the rubber disc behind the plastic disc in the vacuum side that acts as a restrictor to damp the vacuum pulse had turned to goo.
Now,if I'm feeling weird enough I'm getting about 90-92 mph as top speed.