Recently went from 200' above sea level to just under 6000 feet and have been riding in temperatures of 40 degrees and below

figured I'd end up running rich.

plugs are on the black side with the element still basically dark brown, which seems "just a tad rich" to me? No dyno accessible right now.

SO...I pulled them to look...and the rear one was slightly wet from fuel. Not oil because it evaporated almost immediately when I pulled them

Bike cold starts a little hard, but runs plenty solid once it's warmed up. SLIGHT pop on decel (probably an exhaust leak cuz I can smell it at idle sometimes) but other than that....plenty of power it seems, plenty of kick on both roll-on and WOT blasts...

so...rejet first? what should I consider regarding that slightly wet rear cylinder?

 

Not sure if you have this link, but it is useful for reading spark plugs:

http://www.dansmc.com/Spark_Plugs/Sp...s_catalog.html Take a look and see which plug looks like yours and then assess if you need to rejet.

 

I've seen many, many diagrams of plug condition

Funny...back in SoCal I'd have very light brown elements and light deposits, but now even the electrode is brown/black sooty

OBVIOUSLY it's running rich and needs a rejet

BUT...I guess my main question was:

does the rear cylinder plug being slightly wet with gas indicate a more serious problem?

 

Try another set of plugs first or switch front to back and see how the rear looks.
Have you got adjustable pushrods? the rear may be a bit tight if so.
Could be a number of things including rear valves,plug wire etc. Or coincidense from elevation change.

 

wouldn't most issues affect the ride?

yes, rods are adjustable, but were set correctly. I do set them slightly tight but not enough to keep one open

and then...the fact that this came about after coming to elevation...seems pretty clear, no?

I put some new NGK plugs in there.

Maybe once it finally does get crappy enough I'll just put stabilizer in it and re-do the intake seals, and a few other things. Surprisingly there's still riding weather ahead.

 

Sounds like you need to go down one jet size.

 

update

got some NGK plugs BPR5ES-11 I believe. Gapped at .040

ran the bike for about 35 miles with two stops. pulled the plugs and the elements were white.

Spark advance was set to 6 out of 10 on my DTT. Backed that off to 5, and cleaned the air filter.

ahahahhaha...did too many things at once! now I'll never know wtf is up!

 

HaHa, bin there dun that, we defiantely need to be more patient when we're trouble shooting, back to square one.

 

I think your problem definatly has to do with the altitude change. If the bike was tuned to run properly at sea level, then it will probably need to be rejetted to run properly at that altitude constantly. I know changing the altitude either makes the engine run richer or leaner, come on someone help me out here which is it??? race car guys rejet carbs based on whatever altitude they're runnin at, hope that helps kinda, me I'd do one more set of plugs and rejet based on that and see how it goes!

 

Lean, higher up has less air...so less gas!
My old Shovel head in the '70's was jetted for 5K ft and when I went for long distance rides I got 63 mpg (aveage), but had to really be easy with it!