How low can you go?

How's that looking? Speak up? "Super Pimp", you say? Well, if you insist.

That's a custom seat made from a piece of spare floorboard, some upholstery foam, and cheap (but surprisingly nice) brown vinyl, courtesy of eBay again. It slots into the retaining groove at the front, and has two bolts and wing nuts holding it down at the back. It'll need a bit of re-jigging, but is basically sound, if not quite as supportive as the original. I may put another layer of foam in, as it's only medium density.

In other news, the bike was bogging down at idle and low revs. Pulling the plug after a period of idle revealed it to be blacker than a parking warden's heart, which I've attempted to sort by leaning out the idle mixture substantially. I'd forgotten that I'd been creeping it richer and richer during the Lang Way Roond to try and keep the engine cool (through evaporative cooling) but had taken a good thing too far. Now I'm running it really lean for a bit to see if I can find a happy medium. I suspect that I should be using the choke for a minute or so in the morning, rather than running it so rich that it doesn't need any choke while cold. Further bulletins as events warrant.

And in a further bout of en-tweakening, I've replaced the aftermarket "POSH" branded CDI with the stock one. The bike is very slightly less eager between 5000-7000 rpm, but runs smoother above 8500rpm, where the POSH was missing, allowing a higher push in 4th gear before the shift to 5th. I think the POSH was staying too advanced at high rpm, lowering the top speed. Xian now do a "Kamizake" CDI which they've developed themselves with testing from Forchetto from the Chinese Bike Forum. I may give that a try to see if it gives the best of both worlds.