Triumphrat

eric nyc

Well I just got a call from the garage. They say they need to clean out the carbs. $350. Also re-jetting them since apparently there was something wrong when the original owner had new pipes installed. Am I getting gauged?

Baltobonneville

No good deeds go unpunished.

__________________
Marty
2005 Bonneville Blue 790cc, AI removed, Staintunes RC, Uni filter, no snorkel, 118/40/NBZT "Thruxton" needles/1 shim/3 turns, tachometer, Ikon 7610s, Ricor Intiminators, Dunlop GT501s, D9 gauge panel.

norton74

Sorry for your troubles, Eric. You deserved better.

This doesn't help you; but, EFI Bonnies would probably not have this problem. Carbs are easier for the backyard mechanic to deal with; but, EFI can be more trouble free.

eric nyc

Had that thought, but the flipside of the argument is god knows what might have gone wrong with an EFI system in the same circumstances. Throw a computer into the mix and who knows. A hard knock or a laydown could do any number of things to a digital processor or an electrical lead. Six of one, half dozen of the other. I wasn't getting out of this without at least one decent sized shop bill no matter what.

eric nyc

Well my first instincts were confirmed. Pilot jets were clogged and the carbs needed a thorough cleaning. Honestly, I think some of that was a problem with the original owner not having it serviced regularly and I was planning on changing the jets in the Spring anyway so I just bumped the whole thing up a few months. Just picked her up from the shop and she runs like a dream now. VERY smooth at low RPM's. Love it...not so much the bill, though.

luckyduck

Not necessarily. I had similar issues as you had on my Bonnie for the last 2 months. Hard to start, surging and bogging idle. Pops on overrun. Most of these problems would clear up as the bike warmed up (except for the popping).

Turns out one of my manifold o-rings was toast. Replaced it today and the bike runs much better.

BTW, that's an enormous bill for cleaning out the carbs and changing out the jets. I'm not trying to make you feel bad about this, but unless they did a complete and thorough tear-down followed by a build-up with new seals, $350 could have simply gone to them spraying a bit of cleaner in there for 10 seconds and calling it a day.

eric nyc

They tore down the carbs and physically scrubbed them out. Maybe a bit of an overreaction (my first thought was to spray some cleaner in there myself) but honestly, I was nervous about the original owners maintenance practices, had been having some other more minor carb issues before this latest thing, and wanted to have a mechanic open the carbs to just give them a good diagnostic and re-jet them anyway. Just got pushed up. It's just money, right? Joys of motorcycle ownership.