Check your tire pressure

[greenbarn]

Rlearmont:   in all seriousness, dude, sounds like you may want to shop for a better mechanic.  If he missed tire pressure and oil, two of the most basic things......    just sayin....

[mittico68]

i am a mechanic of 35 years and like Mittico says "you can't trust any of us"......... Thanks for that Mitt

Sorry bud, I didn't know... But I'm happy to see that you agree with me! 

[rob f]

 Yup, surprising how much easier a round tire is to manipulate. These Drifters  seem to react to low tire pressure worse than most bikes. When i got mine it was only down about 5psi and found it wallowing around and more so on my gravel roads. There are all sorts of opinions on what is the correct pressure for a tire. Some say, follow the OP manual but my personal thoughts are that the Manual refers to the tire that was on the bike from the factory.
As most of us all do for the next tire change, is find the latest and greatest for a replacement. So, does the new tire get the same PSI as original?.. maybe. Tires have come a long ways since your bike was new in 2000. Better tread, better reinforcement= higher psi (usually)
There are pages upon pages on all the bike forums on the best tires and tire psi. I think i have read most of them. One posting of interest was a fellow that used an infrared heat gun to take readings on his tires after a good run and adjusted his pressure for the coolest running scenario.
What I do personally is read the specs right on the tire. It will give you a max psi at max load. I run 10% under that max.

But take this with a grain of salt, as i am a mechanic of 35 years and like Mittico says "you can't trust any of us"......... Thanks for that Mitt
He is correct though. My life motto is "trust no-one but yourself"
And that is a little "iffy" at times
Rob
Rob

[Old Drifter]

That's why you try to do as much maintenance, service and repairs yourself. If you don't have a factory service manual...get one.

[Troll]

IF you do as much of your own work as possible, then you know who to blame. Reading what you said, if that front tire with so low an inflation pressure, still looked and felt hard, then it's dried out and needs to be replaced. As the cop who gave me a ticket back in '65 for a bald rear on my '46 Knuckle said: "YOUR TIRES ARE YOUR LIFE, MAN".

[mittico68]

So, the moral is: never ever believe what mechanics say... 

[Rlearmont]

Okay, we all know to check our tire pressure, but I had to post this.
I recently purchased a 2000 Drifter 800, I had a mechanic check it over and he gave me the all clear, everything was good to go.
I hadn't ridden a bike in close to 30 years, so I took my new drifter to a nearby parking lot and just couldn't get it to go where I wanted.  Even on the road at speed, I was having a hard time.  I chalked it up to my years off and just thought I was again a Newb and would have to learn to ride all over again!  I was getting discouraged that even after 2 weeks of parking lot practice, I was still having a hard time.
I finally checked the bike over for myself.....First off the oil wasn't even showing up in the glass, so I changed the oil and filter.  I purchased a tire gauge and this morning I checked the pressure in both tires.  I had felt them with my hand and both felt solid and good.
When I put the gauge on the front tire, it didn't even register so I checked the back tire, it only showed below 10 pounds.  I couldn't believe it so I used the gauge on my car tire and the gauge was working as it showed 32 lbs.
I grabbed my compressor and aired up both tires on the bike to the specs and took it out for a short ride.
WOW, WOW, WOW what a difference.  The bike responded perfectly and I had total control.  It felt like I've been riding the entire time.  Everything felt natural and my bike and I were in perfect harmony.  What a great riding bike!!!
I did notice a "knocking" sound when I was at low rpm in too high of a gear.  I thought it may be the gas, so I ran out the tank and filled up with high octane super.  I will see if as I run better gas if the knocking goes away.
I also noticed some vibration at around 50 mph and it eased up around 60 mph.  I figure it's probably the tires or the wonderful New Jersey roads...lol
Next season will be new tires, the front has plenty of tread, but is over 5 years old, the back is getting pretty thin in the tread dept.
All in all I LOVE my drifter and with 46,000 miles on it when I bought it, I know it has been ridden and not sitting for long periods.  I am looking forward to adding many more miles.