I know... what a weird title...
I had all kinds of stalling and rough idle issues this spring and early summer. I broke down and took it to the shop. They took 15 minutes to fix the bike. I talked with the mechanic and he said it was a cracked vacuum hose. I took it all in stride and moved on.
Well, this week, I was getting ready to ride to work. I was not taking a lunch bag (with the holder for my coffee cup) that I normally hang from the grocery hook so I had to find a place for my coffee cup. My coffee cup is a tallish metal cup with a plastic lid that screws on and seal the coffee in and insulates it to keep it warm for hours. i decided to place it in the underseat area and hold it in place with the towel I use to dry my seat when I have dew or rain on the seat. I placed the cup up near the front hinge and wrapped the towel around it. Apparently it was too close to the hinge, when I I tried to latch the seat latch and lock it closed, it made a loud, solid POP sound. fearing the worst, i opened the seat back up thinking I would either see a bucket full of coffee, a busted cup or a dent in the seat. Nothing! No damage seemed apparent to anything. I moved the cup back a little and tried it again... success.
I loaded up my daughter, took her to school, and then I rode to work. I then started noticing that it was bucking and stalling like it was before. It only is an issue during idle and ungassed decelerations.
I opened up the inspection hatch at the bottom of the met-in bucket this morning. Even a blind man could have diagnosed this issue. The vacuum hose at the front edge of the inspection port had a huge gash in it. I pulled the bucket (four bolts) and snipped off 1/2 inch of the hose, shoved it on to the fitting and it was all good. I will get a new 2 inch piece of vacuum hose to fix it properly but I was able to get going this morning and back to being smooth running in less than 10 minutes.
I will take photos when I fix it correctly.
