I'm riding to work this week(12-mile round trip), so I thought I'd do some maintenance and repairs on my bike, Snow Tiger. The fuel line had ruptured several days ago, and I finally found time to replace it.
It had rained several times last week. Even though my wife had covered Snow Tiger, I was surprised to see how much oxidation there was on the bottom bracket, kick stand, sprockets and chain. So I wiped my bike down with WD-40 and oiled its chains and sprockets.
When I pushed my bike around, there was an annoying squeal coming from the front wheel. This occurred as Snow Tiger rolled forward or backward for the first few inches. When I wiped down the front disc with WD-40, the noise went away completely. I decided to clean the rear disc too, then remove as much residue of the WD-40 as possible.
While adjusting my brakes, I noticed the rear brakes needed its pads replaced. I'll order new ones.
After pulling maintenance, I gassed up Snow Tiger and pedalled to the nearby park. Whenever the tank and fuel lines ran dry, Snow Tiger had a hard time starting up. If my bike had its OEM saddle tank, I wouldn't have had this problem. The issue is that the 4-liter Peanut tank was mounted far away from the engine. The fuel lines and filter was also below the carb level. Gravity's working against Snow Tiger here. After a few pulls, fuel entered the bike's large automobile-size AC fuel filter. However, the Tanaka 47R engine still could not suck the gas up to the carb. The filter was midway between tank and carb. I disconnected the fuel line at the filter inlet and propped it above the carby. After a few pulls, Snow Tiger roared to life. I killed the engine, reconnected the fuel line and yanked the pull-start. The Tanaka engine fired up and away I rolled.
At the park, I tested my bike's ability to climb up the grassy knoll. If it stalled, I'll adjust the carb's "L" needle. Then I rode out of the park onto a long stretch of road. It's on a slight incline, a good place to tune Snow Tiger's high end. If needed, I'll pull over and adjust the "H" needle.
Everything checked out okay. The bike had no low or high-end issues. I rode to the bottom of a steep hill, cruised in and out of the mini-mall, then motored back to the hill's base. This was a good place to see how Snow Tiger pulled up a medium-size incline that's several hundred yards long. My first gear is very low(113-tooth), so I tackled the hill in second gear(87-tooth) from a stop. Snow Tiger pulled without hesitation. I'm very apprehensive about shifting under load while riding uphill. This is especially if I skipped every other gear. After slacking the gas, I shifted to 4th(67-tooth), waited 3 seconds, then rolled onto the throttle. Before I reached the hilltop, I carefully shifted into 6th gear(50-tooth). Snow Tiger pulled uphill without lugging, at half-throttle.
My bike was running perfectly.
It's 5am. Soon I'll ride to the store and get some gas, oil and a new spark plug for Snow Tiger.
I can't wait to see daylight.
