4 cycling mystery solved!

I have been reading a lot of posts lately about engines that four stroke a lot, some all thew time. I have a bike here I built a while back, and have been unable to sell it due to the fact I couldn't get it to ever break into a clean 2 cycle.

I changed the stock plug and wire, tried every setting on the needle, soldered and re-drilled the jet to the proper size, ect.ect.

If I put the "C" clip on the top notch, it would STILL 4 cycle and have very little power, if I moved it down it would get more power on each lower setting, but the 4 cycling was still there, no better, no worse.

Finally, today, I said "I guess I'll just go run this one hard and see if it's a ring sealing issue, break-in problem, ect, I'll either cure it or kill it." (I was just a bit frustrated, having run this bike for 20 miles or more and still running badly with everything I'd tried.

I was doing my "pre-flight inspection" and noticed the throttle cable was a little loose. The adjuster at the top of the carb is all the way out, so I looked at the throttle assembly. Apperently, I overlooked a shoddy fit where the cable housing goes into a sleeve and into the throttle housing. I used my aircraft cable swaging tool to squeeze the sleeve down tighter, and pulled the slack out of the cable before doing so.

THIS WHOLE TIME, THE ENGINE WAS 4 CYCLING BECAUSE THE CABLE WAS ONLY PULLING THE THROTTLE 3/4 OPEN AT BEST!!!!! I never got a good carb setting due to an overly large jet to begin with, and then the throttle not opening all the way meant I never really had a shot at setting the carb right.....

Yeah, I feel stupid being the "Godfather of motorized bicycles" and all to have let such a simple, tiny problem cause me so much grief.

I'm gonna go ride.

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If it ain't broke, and you mess with it long enough, it will be.