Keeping it running  By  kevinharrell (Read 637 times)

I have a Honda Twinstar, a two cylinder motorcycle and an ancestor of the Honda Rebel. Well, rather than hooking it up to the battery tender I go out to the unheated Northern Ohio garage every few weeks and start the bike up. About two weeks ago after warming the bike up I noticed that one of the exhaust pipes was cold indicating that the engine was only firing on one cylinder.

Today I went out to start the bike again, but, before starting up the bike I checked the spark plug on the side that did not fire the last time. The plug looked like it still had life to it, and fired a spark when tested. I reinstalled the plug and started the engine and found the exhaust still cold on that side.

Well, I had a vague recollection of having a "spare" but not new sparkplug somewhere. I found this "spare" sparkplug after a short search and it did not look new, but, not that bad. I installed it and although it did not fire at idle, it did fire and heat up the exhaust when I held the bike at half throttle.

Looks like I will be buying a set of new set of plugs soon.

The moral of this story? Do not overlook the simple fixes and maintenance items when getting your bike back on the road this spring.