I finally got my Suzuki Akira's long running fuel leak problem fixed - a 650 baht part was replaced and it hasn't leaked since.

However, there's another problem that is I'm sure unrelated to that fix, as it manifested long before and hasn't been effected by that repair - the bike has a lot less torque than when I first got it. This manifests itself both off the line, and in its ability to maintain speed in very high gears. Basically 6th gear is virtually unusable now, and the bike will not go over 80 - it used to pull along very nicely at 80-90 in 6th. Now, if I shift into 6th, it just slowly loses speed even with the throttle all the way open.

What could be causing this? No parts were changed, just different mechanics fiddling with the 'tuning' or 'mixture' of the bike, I assume. I haven't changed the gearing or anything.

It still accelerates fairly well if you 'wind it up', but there's almost no power at all below about 3,000-4,000 RPMs. I know everyone will say 'its a two stroke', but it really wasn't like that before, there was a nice strong pull up to 4,000 and then more above that. It really isn't very enjoyable to drive a bike that as nothing below 3-4k.

I had the same problem with my Phantom after a major repair, did you ask them to do anything else, think hard, it may have been an innocent comment?. I told them casually that it was running a little rich and they really screwed it up.

What about the plugs, that is the place to start

CQ,

Do you have a spare bedroom and beer? Sounds like I need to come for a week end and have a gander at your bikes.

Ahh the usual weekly cry for help, by CQ

CQ,

Do you have a spare bedroom and beer? Sounds like I need to come for a week end and have a gander at your bikes.

Well, you should bring a big truck with you, to load his/her collection of unreliable crap dinosaur bikes and recycle them to something useful..

Ahh the usual weekly cry for help, by CQ

CQ,

Do you have a spare bedroom and beer? Sounds like I need to come for a week end and have a gander at your bikes.

Well, you should bring a big truck with you, to load his/her collection of unreliable crap dinosaur bikes and recycle them to something useful..

Well thanks VocalNeal you're always welcome, I have a couple of spare rooms but like most spare rooms in Thailand they're useless because no air-conditioning.

As for you Turtleton, I wouldn't call my bikes 'unreliable' - I mean, they get me where I'm going just fine 99% of the time. To say a bike 'is lacking in torque' doesn't mean it is unreliable. Its just a minor adjustment. It is true I've had one lemon and maybe one or two so-so bikes, but after buying at least a dozen in the 3,000-6,000 baht range, most of them are good - a 90% success rate isn't bad.