My story is a snooze compared to Ed's saga (The Flying Credenza) but even Homer would have trouble competeing his epic tale. The trip out was a breeze. We just ate peeled grapes and softly encouraged Ed as he drilled holes in his muffler for more Rocky mountain climbing power... grunt, grunt. As he finished his build we joined the teeming masses in slow registration but tolerable scrutineering. The Big Red One passed with a few tugs, raps, and a shake. Last year I toasted the engine so this year I'm running an assembly of '82 XR 500 ebay parts. STDer Bill A. mated this to that and warned me that he believed the crank was loose and suspect. I shrugged, added a straight pipe and some taller gearing and headed to the line.
Last year I used the stock 36mm Kehin and topped out at 101 mph. This year, on this engine, it started breaking up in the higher rpms and never saw the better side of 90 mph. The clutch slipped a bit as well. I tightened the clutch and wedged on a 38 mm Mikuni. I had a full collection of jets for it but the first handful I grabbed gave the plug a nice light tan look. The engine growled like only a straight pipe thumper can and demanded to be let loose on the track before it killed something. It ran an easy 104 mph, a personal best. Now that I know it will hold together I will feel better about redlining it through the gears.
I didn't have anything to compete with Ed's piston failure. I did drop the carb float bowl drain nut on the return to pit road. A short walk of shame and deligent search later and I was back in business. A weird thing did happen after we trailered it. Just sittin there it suffered a spontanious tire failure and instant deflation. I guess it didn't want to return as the only running STD bike.