Flooding question

[Doc809]

99 std, cobra shorty pipes no baffels, oem jets, 71K miles, avg 32 mpg on highway.  Riding this weekend at a rally, first gear, clutch out, rpms low to high, lots of traffic.  Not fast enough for second gear. Twice the phat gurl flooded out on me and died.  Turned off fuel, spun her several times and she restarted.  Did fine coming home.  Usual 25 mpg pulling a trailer.  Never happened before.  Where do I start looking?  Carbs? Petcock? Jets? Something else?  Any ideas would be appreciated. Larry

[R J]

99 std, cobra shorty pipes no baffels, oem jets, 71K miles, avg 32 mpg on highway.  Riding this weekend at a rally, first gear, clutch out, rpms low to high, lots of traffic.  Not fast enough for second gear. Twice the phat gurl flooded out on me and died.  Turned off fuel, spun her several times and she restarted.  Did fine coming home.  Usual 25 mpg pulling a trailer.  Never happened before.  Where do I start looking?  Carbs? Petcock? Jets? Something else?  Any ideas would be appreciated. Larry

You said it was flooding.   I'd start looking for a leak in the floats, where they seal,  then all the vacuum lines and fuel lines.     Has the bike been desmogged?

When in traffic like you mentioned above, do you blip the throttle while waiting, like a HD rider does to make people get pissed at loud pipes?

[Hoser]

Open exhausts will reduce your power and lower your gas mileage and cause driveability problems at low speeds Baffles may help.  Could be related to petcock problems also.   Hoser

[Doc809]

Thanks guys.  I am assuming (yes, I know what that spells) that it is flooding.  I smelled gas both times it happened. Will start looking.

[Ricky-D]

Seeing that the carburetors on the Valkyrie are CV type carburetors and additionally, since the carburetors possess no accelerator pump:

There is virtually no possibility of flooding the motor with the throttle.

Look to other possibilities because it's not there! What you are thinking, that is.

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[Denny47]

fuel/air screws too rich?????????? Air cleaner dirty or plugged by mice? done anything to carbs recently?

[Patrick]

Do you think its flooding or just running rich and loading-up ?  If its loading up I'd suggest looking into the air filter, maybe low jets being too big or pilots set too rich,etc. What is the engine/bikes history ?

[Doc809]

Thanks Patrick.  My gut says it is just running too rich and is loading up, based on the way it behaves.  Air filter has been in about 10K miles.  Nothing has been done to the jets since I bought the bike 50K miles ago.  Gonna take it to an independent mechanic here that knows the valk inside and out and has always done me, and the bike, right.  Think  just some fine tuning should solve the issue.  Will have the petcock checked at the same time.  It's riding season and I want it right before we take off on some planned long trips.  Appreciate all the input guys.