Bike was running perfect the other day, not missing a beat, put it in the garage, shut it down. This was thursday. Now it's saturday, I go outside, and start it up, something isn't totally right. I figure the bike is just cold, maybe it needs to run out a little gas. Bike is now warm, and I take off and it has a missing sound. I thought maybe it was bad gas, and the tank was low, my reserve was on. So I went and filled it up with premium. No difference, ran that tank completely out throughout the day, and it's still doing it.

Pulled the tank, pulled the spark plugs, etc... Plugs were a bit fouled, gap wasn't perfect, electrodes were worn. Bike has 15,500 miles, stock plugs. Cleaned them up, wire wheeled the carbon off. Put it back together, still the same thing. I'm confused. I am hoping that new plugs is all I need, but if not, what else should I look into?

I just find it weird that it ran perfect when I parked it, and now it's a night and day difference, total loss of power. Feels like it's running off 3 cylinders.

 

Well, start to diagnose the problem yourself.

-1st remove your plastic (if you haven't already) so you have access to all your plugs and wires.
-With the bike running and warm at a constant idle, take a pair of insulated pliers, and if you would like wear a pair of insulated gloves (a plug wire tool works best, just don't grab the wire with bare metal tools and wet hands... but even if you get a zap, it won't kill ya, just scare ya) pull of one of the plug wires. You should hear a noticable change in engine rpm and it will run even more poorly. Put that wire back on then. When you get to a cyl where you pull the wire and you hear no noticable change in the engine, that is the cyl giving you your problems. Now focus on the plug, wire, wire insulation, connectors, ignition for that cyl. If all seems well with the spark, check for fuel problem or worse a compression problem. Chances are spark is you man. I'd change the plugs, wires anyway.

 

You can also "quickly" touch the head pipes to see which one is running cool. It's a little faster(and more painful) than taking your tank off first, but you will probably need to get under there anyway.

 

well, got it running beautifully again. Amazing how plugs can just go bad so quick. The stock NGK's that honda recommends were 25/piece! So I picked up the Cr9ehix plugs for like 13/piece. I found them at sparkplugs.com for $7 but I couldn't wait a week. We've had rain here in michigan for about 2 weeks straight (literally). Extra 20 bucks to be up and running today. Did an oil change while I was in there. Washed her too. Today was a good day

Love it.

 

What brand plug is that?

Doesn't the stock ECU store maintenance codes?

 

It's an NGK. http://www.sparkplugs.com/results_cr...CrossWarning=1

check out that link. It shows which plugs will work for the bike. I got the very first one, only I paid almost twice as much per plug.

 

YOu should post that info in the maintenance section.