More grumpy stuff. My R65 wouldn't start the other week, so I had to take the pickup to work. It turns over fine but wouldn't catch. Got spark, but the left plug was really black and oily. And smelled of fuel, so I knew it was getting that. I don't usually test compression on a cold motor, but I did, and got less than 90 on the left side and 150 on the right. I don't have a leak down tester and didn't try adding oil to narrow the problem down to rings or valves, since it's so easy to just pull the head and see what's wrong. It turns out my exhaust valve on that side is tuliping pretty bad and the oil control ring's gap is pretty wide, out of spec.
My grumpiness is because I only have about 30,000 miles on that valve. I had the heads done by Steve Prokof (spelling?) and he didn't replace the seats -- said they didn't need it. For now I'll just put in a new valve and rings, and keep riding until I get my Triumph painted and it's forks rebuilt, then send the R65 heads to the Beemershop for the whole deal with new seats and valves and all.
I was tempted to buy those R65 heads on ebay, a hair under 300 dollars, but since I have another bike I don't know that I really need to accumilate spare engine parts. So for the next couple of weeks I guess I'll have to use my bicycle for my two-wheel fix. At least with it (and the bus pass provided by my employer) I can do my hundred mile a day commute for free.
