Top Speed Woes

[Wekadog]

Whoo hoo! Lady Suz'i and I just got back from our first ride. Her first outing in close to two years. All it took was removing the carb to clean out the gum. And then removing it again to get the needle jet the right way around. We looked a bit silly with my car battery strapped to the pillion, but I couldn't wait for the mail order battery to arrive. Fresh gas and a 20 mile ride, and she's not running too bad.

There's a lot of backfiring on deceleration, I'm not sure what that's about. With only 350 miles on the clock, there shouldn't be any stretching of the timing chain.

But what concerns me more is the limited top speed. I couldn't quite make 65 mph on level gound, and it dropped to 55 on a mild hill. That's with me weighing just 190#. My Honda Rebel 250, a very mildly tuned low compression engine, easily did 75 if not 80 on the same level stretch, even when I weighed 220#. I was counting on similar performance.

What especially worrys me is that the PO mentioned he stopped riding Suz'i in the first place, when she was still new, because it couldn't top 65 on the freeway. So it's not a maintenance issue? Not some residual gum in the carb or valves from storage? Do they build bad ones?

Where would a person begin to look in a case where there's not a "failure" behind the problem?

Your guidance and wisdom are appreciated.