Sunday ride not what I expected.

Well I kicked Gloria over yesterday and let her idle while I got sorted and got the gear on, my plan was to do my loop out the back of Lindenow and through town and fuel up head to Paynesville for a coffee at Ians cafe, back into town pick up a BBQ chook and some chips for a lazy Sunday lunch, total kms approx. 75, I had given the air/fuel screw a 1/8th turn (clockwise) to lean up the mix a bit, I think thats right, cleaned the plug so I could check it when I got home. This would give it a chance to see how it ran.
The first part of the plan went fine

This is one of the bigger hills I encounter on the back road to Lindenow, I was over taken by a cyclist in this when I was stopped taking this pic. I got him going up the otherside of this valley, I'm sure he didn't appreciate my 2T exhaust fumes as he was struggling for air on his incline attack.

The scoot ran well on this leg of the trip once the hilly parts over you hit the river flats for the return trip, passing through the vege fields and dairy grazing paddocks, so the senses are awakened by the freash smell of cabbage and cauliflower and cowshit all in one, mmmm nice. last time I came this way all the workers were picking the veges and all of them were asians wearing the typical conical hats, I was transported back to my cycling trip in SE Asia and Gloria got nervous thinking I was going to load her up with a 2 tonne trailer to tow into market...most of them waved, I tooted back. I got into town and stopped to fill up. while I was putting in my oil a guy wandered over and we had a quick chat about the bike, turns out he had and old indian from the 30's he had restored and it too had a top speed on the highway of about 80kms too, not that good for a 600CC but he didn't care, he reckons the brakes wouldn't stop him if he went any faster.

It was the local Christmas toy run so there was a lot of bikes in town all fuelling up and coffee top ups before they run, I got a few nodds and a wave or two as I putted past the groups on my way to Paynesville, now I knew the run was on but the route they are taking has some massive long high roads and to be honest I didn't think that the Spring V could handle them just yet, next year she will.

Paynesville is about 25kms from Bairnsdale, I had gotton about half way and the engine started to sputter a bit, I continued for a bit and she did it again, my first thought was that she was fine until I filled up and I was on a dead flat road. Could it be my air/fuel adjustment? I pulled over and gave her an utimatum, are you going to burp and fart and die or make it? She was idling just a bit faster that she normally does, but I hadn't touched the idle screw, but in saying that it was a good steady idle. I decided to abort the paynesville leg and head back into town, if I was going to be pushing her home it was going to be from in town, 3 kms from home and not 15. She sputtered a little bit more, not a backfire type but more a bogging loss of power sputter and only two or three and shed go ok, once in town I thought I'd give her a bit of a workout through the gears and revs and see what happened, it happened a few times but otherwise ran fine, I pushed her a bit harder that I normally do and she passed the test, It's something I will be keeping an eye on.

I added another 25 kms, meaning I could've made the cafe and back, stopped for the chook and headed home for some investigating after lunch.

NOTE. if anyone has any comments or ideas please chime in, I think I'm just being a bit over cautious.