86 500 xc

Most of the time I keep a cut pabts can over carb,and tranny breeather, to keep rain and crap out. I got the biggest uni filter my local bike shop stocks...

keep er oiled up and dont let dirt in! 4 strokes are more tolerant of it but on a 2 stroke any dirt goes straight to crank and rod bearings..

I hear ya on filter!
So no go on drag slick. M&H tires has been coming up with excuses left and right. 1st I was the weather back east, then cuz o that they had to rail car them out here, now "sorry we didn't get enough to send you one. After asking for a refund I'm told I have not been charged and if I have I must prove it! Such bs over a $200 tire! Needless to say they will never get my hard earned $ again, ever!
That said, I may just get a good set of dual sport tires and call it good. Sure like the way it rides on dirt roads round here. I'm seriously impressed! If ridden my sprung sportster down the same roads and feel a lot more narly bumps. Since CA DMV would be impossible I might just green sticker it so at least I'd be legit to ride it somewhere othe than a closed track. Don't get me wrong, I won't be jumping it or riding through the whoops but lots of gravel miles around here!

it probably rides better being a lighter machine....ive helped pull a sportster motor...it probably weighs what your whole bike weighs..

At least. I weighed it. 116 lbs front, 110 rear. That with 2gallons in tank, still a bit more room for fuel...guessing 2.25 gallons capacity.

My buddy brought it to my attention that the sissy bar looks all jacked up so ill post a profile pic...it's not perfict yet but will get sharper a bit more once I fill my torch tanks.

i would try a different carb (keihin pwk or simlar) the vm does not have a spring loaded needle on the inlet valve that together with no suspension and bad reeds might be the problem, i found my old vm also had a very worn slide and would pull air round the slide creating a lean hang on decel (high vacuum).

Jo that sounds more like what I'm having happen. I'm sure the slide is worn, everything else on this bike is/was haggered! The only carb I have laying around is a cv off an old iron head sporty. It has a 2bolt mounting flange so building a metal intake would be much easier! I might have to look into it.

Got to ride for a few minutes today. Pulled plug an snapped a shot...looks ok to me, mabey a bit rich. I'm running 100LL mixed 40:1... Radiators were hot to touch but nothing out of the overflow. Noticing more fuel ou of carb...put hand infront of it and within a minute it was shiney/wet. Ill get some new reeds coming ASAP.

looks good to me!

the fuel mist from the carb could be because of no airbox as well...do your reeds rest tightly against their cage or are they bowed away from it?

They seam to fight tightly but the amount of fuel coming out is not acceptable. It soaks the filter to point of richening it so much it won't restart with out removing it. No dripping but definatly smells like fuel. I get a video of it tomaro evening and post it. It is litteraly sprinkling on the down tube and that's 6-8 inches away. Seams to clean up some with rpm but at idle its no good.

I'm going to dig through a buddy's home yard and see what I can come up with. I assume a 38mm is to small??? 39mm the right one? Like off cr500?

Dang. Lucky!

A video of carb spitting.

a 38 will work well too but i wouldnt go any smaller...i cant see the reeds doing that if you say they lay flat on the reed block...my old 71 scorpion stinger 2 snowmobile wasnt that bad and it had a tillotson with the engine sitting in your lap! there has to be something else going on..

Ill pull reed cage out and take a couple pics and post them. Only other thing I can think is the vibrations are causing it. I have noticed that at higher rpm, fuel spatters out of the overflow tubes as well.