We live on a little island and mostly drive around the edges a few feet above sea level. Our speedster is very happy with this. Since I'd put around 500 miles on the speedo since I last had to be towed home (fan blew up), my wife said that she was ready to go somewhere with me.
She said it was hot and she was going stir crazy working in the yard, so we should drive upcountry. On Maui, upcountry is most of the island. We live on the world's largest dormant volcano, Haleakala. There are a couple of nice little towns upcountry with breath-taking views of both the north and south shores as well as the surrounding islands. And, it's a lot cooler up there (it got up to 90F this week!!!).
We loaded a couple of beach chairs on the luggage rack, masked up and picked up sandwiches from the 808 Deli. Then we motored up to a deserted park in Pukalani. It was heaven to get out and drive, the food was great, views beautiful and it was cool!
We packed up and drove up Haleakala way past the Kula Lodge and then turned straight uphill towards the Lavender Farm. With some sputtering we arrived and sat on the grass and watched folks flying their RC airplanes up the mountain. Really nice.
Now we get to the carb part. When we were ready to leave, the car started but wouldn't idle. I was curious about how rich it was running so I got Marianne to keep an eye on the air:fuel ratio while I kept the engine running. 9.5 to 1 was the reading she got. We checked our altitude app and it said we we about 4500 feet above sea level. Needless to say, we headed back down the mountain.
Haleakala peaks out a little over 10,000 feet. If the engine was drowning in gas at 4500 feet, the summit was out of the question.
I'm running Kadrons and it's a snap to change out the idle jets. The idle jets control the fuel up to around 2500 rpm when the Kadron transition over to the power jets.
At sea level, the engine likes size 50 idle jets and size 125 main jets. Since the upcountry roads are twisty and usually filled with tourists on bikes, I cruise rather than race around. In the Speedster, that keeps me mostly under 3000 rpm so maybe I can manage the altitude change with just the idle jets.
I've ordered a set of 40s and a set of 47s. We'll see how far up the volcano we can go with some leaner jets!
