Misfiring on startup? Calms down after a while.

I'm bidding on a s/hand filter on Ebay as I chucked the original one.
Redex didn't seem to do anything, neither it would appear did the Dry Fuel. Tomorrow I'm taking it for the mot so it'll have a long run then, I'll report back after.
 
Ok so checked, out of the box 1mm around 41thou both plugs.
I'm waiting for the used airfilter I won on Ebay (£8.50 inc post) to get to me, I'll be well happy if it's just the air filter issue.
 
Ok so I found my old air filter after ordering one on Ebay, on this occasion I didn't have the HD plugs in as I brought them home for photographing, so I put in my previous Iridium plugs.
Same misfiring at the beginning as if nothing had changed, I'll have to return with the HD plugs to get a colour comparison after a run as the Iridium plugs are difficult to see clearly what colour they are.
HOWEVER, I thought this was an anomaly, but it's happened twice now, again, I'll have to conduct a test, but I used to get historically around 80 miles out of peanut tank before the low fuel light came on, and twice now the fuel light has been coming on around the 45 mile mark.
I'll have to conduct a full to full test, but just wondering if that misfiring could lead to massive fuel consumption?
 
Ok, my bad on the fuel consumption, I think that I forgot to zero the trip meter and after 23 miles it does look like 1/4 to 1/5 th fuel gone, so I will update once the zeroed trip reaches the 80- or so when the low fuel light should come on.

I add cleaned (as much as possible ) spark plugs and then did the 23 miles, some motorway, some minor roads.
I attach a photo of the plugs here.
The misfiring happened on cold start with the old filter and the HD Gold plugs, but like before, once it had a mile under its belt, excuse the pun, it was if nothing was wrong.
One thing I did notice was the abrupt loss of ignition and abrupt resuming of it making me think it's an electronic fault, this assuming, as I am, that a split second of fuel shortage would not make the bike misfire like that, but what do I know? Nothing.

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How old are the batteries ? I had a glide where the batteries were dying and causing the isolater to cause intermittent starting it may be worth changing them 🤔
 
Cheers, but I recently changed them. I'll try the other fob that has a brand new battery in it just be sure, however, when the batteries were old in the past, the bike emits ear piercing alarm sounds, so unlikely to be that.
Still, worth giving it a try, so I will.
 
OK UPDATE:
I'm in the middle of France and doing multiple fills at petrol stations has highlighted something.
I always got around 80 miles out of the tank before the low fuel light came on, but now is coming on at 100 miles, so clearly running quite lean.
There's two of us on the b ike and we're heading into Spain where no doubt it'll be hotter, so should I be concerned about overheating?
I don't go over 70mph and most of the roads picked are twisties, so probably lower speed.
I had noticed on the way here that the bike was running lumpy almost a feeling that the timing was out if you know what i mean , and on one occasion the tickover dropped to a very low speed.
I'm thinking blocked injectors or fuel pump problem, could be to do with ignition, but if you look at the history (bike being laid up for 10 months) it seems more likely to be fuel.
Anyway, it,s still very rideable, but I suppose I'm most concerned at this point if I'm doing any damage to it.
TIA
 
I doubt its ignition as its sounds like a sensor twatting about and ign is not adjustable on your model if your worried pop a plug and stick a pic on here i am down in calp at the mo getting 25-32 degrees and everything is running hot and yours should be ok with these temps 👍😎
 
watchman said:
I doubt its ignition as its sounds like a sensor twatting about and ign is not adjustable on your model if your worried pop a plug and stick a pic on here i am down in calp at the mo getting 25-32 degrees and everything is running hot and yours should be ok with these temps 👍😎
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Thanks watchman, I hadn't noticed this problem over the initial misfiring before because I wasnt riding two up with all the luggage too.
I've noticed it doesn't like being in too high a gear, presumably because there isn't enough fuel, due to it being laid up for so long could it be as simple as a blocked fuel filter?
I diktat have a plug spanner, but will see if i c an borrow one
 
Unfortunately there is nothing really simple about a blocked fuel filter. It is in the tank, it is a tank off job.

It can be a game of Tetris to get the fuel pump out of the tank as HD made the hole just slightly smaller than what would give easy passage to the pump.
 
Andy from Sandy said:
Unfortunately there is nothing really simple about a blocked fuel filter. It is in the tank, it is a tank off job.

It can be a game of Tetris to get the fuel pump out of the tank as HD made the hole just slightly smaller than what would give easy passage to the pump.
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So it's a Harley dealership then.
 
semmyroundel said:
So it's a Harley dealership then.
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It can be done by you but you must have the correct procedure, i.e. Workshop Manual, at hand and the Tools to do the job. It's no good going in blind and hoping for the best.
I am sure YouTube will have a Vid. of the correct way to do the job which will help if you want to D.I.Y.
It doesn't have to be H-D Dealer, a good Independent will be cheaper.
 
softail898 said:
It can be done by you but you must have the correct procedure, i.e. Workshop Manual, at hand and the Tools to do the job. It's no good going in blind and hoping for the best.
I am sure YouTube will have a Vid. of the correct way to do the job which will help if you want to D.I.Y.
It doesn't have to be H-D Dealer, a good Independent will be cheaper.
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Advice much appreciated, but we're on a holiday trip and as you can imagine on a sportster two up there's little place for baggage let alone tools. I may have attempted the work at home with the right tools, but in France and Spain I don't know that there are any indies, at least any I would trust.
I suppose my biggest concern is if I run any risk of damaging the bike in the the meantime running it in this condition, for the time being , I'll accelerate slowly and not let the engine labour
 
Yes, a Lean Mixture! Can you change the Jet for a richer one or if you don't have a spare jet it is easy to lift the Needle one notch to get more fuel into the engine. You only need a Phillips Screwdriver.
 
Given where he is i would leave be with the crap fuel down here they are not blisteringly white and altitude will change em again and i think the bike is a fi model 🤔
 
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