I've got the bike running pretty well now; fuel system issues have been sorted out and after switching to 92 octane mixed with Sta-bil 360 Tilda runs like a top. Mostly. When I got her she had some K&N slip-ons that I'm not too fond of, though they do sound pretty good. A little bit of research seemingly confirmed my suspicion that they were the source of a sputter and drop in power around 7-7.8k rpm. I have another VF500F parts bike that I plan on pulling the original exhaust from and getting rid of those slip-ons. That being said, the headers, muffler, and collector on both Tilda and the parts bike look like crap. I'd like to strip the rust via electrolysis, but then what? The pitting left over will still look poopy, even if I slather on high temp enamel like Fergie's makeup. I think wrapping them would look cool (leave your snarky comments at the door, please) but I've read that wrapping the exhaust can cause rust problems, which is exactly what I'm trying to avoid. Having a new stainless exhaust system made would be really cool, but I don't have that kind of money. WHAT DO I DO!? I also 'improved' the petcock as described here(thanks, Daugherty!), and now I'm no longer having the bike die like it's running out of fuel at 4k rpm. Interestingly though I now have to keep the petcock on 'reserve' otherwise the bike will suddenly stall out when I shift to second gear. Releasing the clutch and trying to inertia-start the bike doesn't work; I have to pull over, switch to 'reserve,' and start the bike as normal. It's not a huge deal; I've been driving cars with manual transmissions, dodgy/non-existent fuel gauges, or both since I learned to drive, so being vigilant about my mileage is second nature. It's still annoying though, and I'd like to figure out what is going on. Yes, I named her
