REPORT - the first hundred+ miles
Yesterday, I put about 36 miles (around 60 km) on Lucille. She ran very well and I was delighted.
Today was a ferociously hot one in Windsor-Detroit and so I spent the morning working on a report. Around noon, I ventured into the garage and carried out some service tasks as well as the typical things one does after an engine rebuild:
- Adjusted the final drive chain;
- Checked the air in the tires;
- Ensured that all of the lights and the horn work properly;
- Re-located the PAMCO E-advancer unit to a more secure spot under the LH sidecover behind the airbox;
- Re-torqued the cylinder head acorn nuts (each one took at least 1/4-3/8 of a turn);
- Re-torqued the engine mount and other chassis bolts and fasteners);
- Checked the timing chain tensioner (unchanged from 0 miles);
- Check all four valve clearances on those interesting elephant’s foot adjusters (one intake was a bit loose);
- Re-checked the ignition timing (also unchanged from 0 miles);
After all that, it seemed that the only thing to do was to hop on - go for a boot around the County! Soooo, I headed out to see my riding buddy Lakeview (wasn’t home but no biggie) and then I rode back to Windsor. That made a distance today of just under 100 miles - for a total since the rebuild of 129.7 miles. The entire run today was on secondary roads - and I kept the rpm between 3000 and about 4200 - with the occasional burst of speed to around 4500 rpm.
Lucille ran like a dream - the engine didn’t miss a beat and became noticeably smoother and quieter as the miles rolled by. I think those elephant’s feet adjusters are really good - the engine is so quiet. In fact, when I filled up after the trip, the guy at the next pump observed that he had owned an XS650 back in the day - but his was never as quiet as mine. BTW - my fuel mileage to this point is 54,92 mpIg (miles per imperial gallon). I think that would be around 44 mpUSg. Whatever - I’m delighted with how she runs - couldn’t be better.
So...any advice? How many more acorn nut re-torques should I plan?
Once again, many thanks from the help and encouragement!
Pete