Coughing Duc

[Cris]

such a nice day today (cold but nice), i decided to take the duke out of hibernation. the bike has been standing for about 5weeks now. got her started first go, but it coughed a bit. thought this normal being such a cold day, and bike standing still for a while. however, after riding for about 30minutes, it still hadn't gone away, especially at idle, and kept cutting out. opening up the throttle didn't cure it, felt like something was holding it back, and it felt very underpowered. it wouldn't go over 5500rpm, and i'd used up alot of petrol very quickly. i usually get about 130miles before the petrol light will go on, but today, i got to 90miles!

at idle, the bike continues to miss a beat, sounding like a cough. the bike never got pass 80degrees on the temp gauge, and it never felt like normal throughout the whole ride.

anybody got any ideas as to what's going on? bike only had a major service 1000 miles ago. is it because of the cold? had the petrol gone off? (actually i had to fill up, and it made no difference what-so-ever).

:(:(:(

[Shazaam!]

Sounds like it's running on one cylinder.

[Derek]

I would have reckoned on carb icing, mine does it something awful when the temp drops below 10C. Other possibility is a blocked pilot jet. Unleaded leaves a gum when it evaporates which can block up the jets. I always drain the float bowls when I lay the bike up for the winter.
However you also mention using a lot of fuel which doesn't add up with these, are the chokes sticking on?