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Message: [QUOTE="fizzle, post: 1057170, member: 68959"] [b]The Surprise Ending[/b] So, I took the bike to a shop to have the valve shim pad installed. The shop concurred with my clearance measurement. The mechanic also adjusted the needle up a clip on the carb. When I came back to get the bike, the mechanic said that the bike had race fuel in it, which was throwing the carb adjusting off. He explained to me that race fuel, having a high octane rating, provided more oxygen to the combustion mixture, thus throwing off the carburator adjustment. So, I knew the bike did not have "race fuel in it". It had pump gasoline (91 octane) with Klotz lead free octane booster in it. I mixed it in to raise the octane level to about a 96 (the manual specifies 95 octane, which is not available at the pump....at least not here in Montana). Though I am not a chemical engineer, I do know (or think I know) that octane rating is really just a measure of how well the gasoline resists detonation from high pressure (which is why high compression engines need higher octane fuel so they don't knock, which is caused by predetonation). I'm pretty sure that octane has nothing to do with oxygen in fuel. At any rate, the mechanic said all's fixed, bike runs good, just start putting regular pump gas in it, no "race fuel" unless you want to totally re-tune the engine. I, knowing all about octane and such matters, smiled, and took the bike home. When I got home, I unloaded the bike, fired it up, and rode it around the block a few times. When it warmed up, it acted exactly the same way as it did before all the work was done on it.....backfiring, dies when idling, and misses on low end accelleration :bang: So, as a last ditch effort, before I woke up way grouchy tomorrow and called the shop and chewed out the mech for ripping me off, and posting one of those typical "can't figure this out, please help, I wanna ride" threads, I drained the "race fuel" out of the tank, and put regular pump fuel in it, and rode it around. I ran great. Like it did before it had the "problem". Idled fine, acellerated smoothly, didn't backfire. I guess it was the octane booster, not necessarily the dirty carb or the tight valve. The thing that still boggles me, is why. It can't be that otane booster gives more oxygen to the fuel so it messes up the carb settings, can it? :coocoo: [/QUOTE]

Verification: Which ocean is California closest to?