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I'm stumped. I've been riding my bike with a slight exhaust leak at the rear head for awhile. I finally get it fixed and when I tried to ride to the gas station, I didn't think I was going to make it back.

The bike fires up and idles like normal but when under a load, it feels like she can't even get out of her own way. Almost like she's running on one cylinder.

I held my hand over both tailpipes and the pressure coming out feels the same on both sides. Anybody have an idea what's causing this? The only thing that was touched was the exhaust pipe coming out of the rear head...and the leak is gone.

DG

First take a new look at anything that was disconnected during the fix of the pipe. Electric, fuel, etc...

Could be a clogged fuel filter. Is the fuel tap open all the way?
Spark plug wire loose?

Nothing was touched except the side panel and the exhaust pipes. I'm going to do a double check to make sure a wire didn't get knocked loose. The petcock looks fine and no fuel lines are close enough to where I was working that could have gotten caught in anything.

One upside to the xhaust leak...found out the bolts on the rear sprocked had worked loose again! Anybody got an old backing plate they aren't using?

DG

You could pull the forward plug and see if it is wet. That pipe will also be cooler if it is not firing. You should be able to get the front plug out without taking off bodywork.

plug looks a tiny bit wet, but no more than usual. The front plug looks like that most of the time. I was going to check the tightness on all the xhaust clamps to make sure they weren't leaking and I stripped out on of the nuts. Off to the store to try and find a replacement before I can start her up and see if that did any good.

DG

for a better understanding. You did the repair, drove to the gas station and had the problem from then on or did you do the fix there and the problem was the direct consequence ?
Furthermore what exactly was the leaking problem and how did you close it ?
An exhaust leak could impact carburation, but not that much to create such an effect. Hmmm ....

G.