Wont go uphill

Bike runs well and pulls hard thru the gears no missing or problems. Goes fine under load ( front wheel against a brick wall does a great burn out) I have a mountain just up the road aways. Bike runs great for aobut 500 meters then starts dying and backfiring, loses all power and i need to pull clutch in just to keep it running, while it is siting with clutch in pointing up hill it revs fine , turn it around head back down the hill onto the flat and its pure as can be again , turn it around point it uphill and smae thing happens. Its,, like doing a hill climb to see how far i can get . This is not a outragously steep climb but it is pretty steep lesser inclines dont seem t o affect it at all. I know i seem to come up with the weird questions but hey someone has to

Further info, new plugs, pazon ignition, clean bowls , twin amals , i was thinking a carb or petcock /water issue maybe when it was pointing uphill but it runs fine on the hill when under no load(clutch in to stop it stalling and dying)

It sound as if something is rolling back inside the fuel tank and eventually starving the carbs of fuel. Most likely is water, but I would have thought you would have evidence of that inside the float bowls. When the bike is on the offending gradient, undo the tank pipe and catch a sample of fuel in a glass jar. Water is easy to spot. It will settle to the bottom in globules. Is it just the same with both petcocks open? Check daft things like battery security. A loosely secured battery could move and ground itself, thereby robbing power to the Pazon. It's an odd one for sure. Fascinating though.

How much do you weigh?









(sorry, couldn't help that)

If you have the stock air filter, check that it's not clogged with oil from the breather overflow. I had exactly the same symptoms years ago after overfilling the oil tank.

I thought of water first up but no sign of it after pulling the bowls on returning, and as soon as i turn it around and head downhill it runs fine, i would have thoguht once water entered it would stuff things up no matter what level. Also thought of gunk in the tank moving back to cover fuel outlet, i had that problem years ago on a bulldozer and it took ages to diagnose. The filter is something i will check. I did actually overfill the bike a month or so back and had oil blowing back into the filter a little. Checked all electrical so pretty sure it is fuel. It actually sounds like it is running out of fuel, you know the sound of the engine running but not firing as if cruising alond and hitting the key off and the quick twisting of the throttle to try and keep some revs happening.

In repsonse to the weight lol , 85 kg and if she cant pull that up hill without dying then heaven forbid i will trade her in for the dreaded HD word

You mentioned a dozer fault, had a tractor do exactly what your Norton is doing. It turned out to be a leaf in the fuel tank that floated over the fuel outlet only going up steep hills.
Could be the breather in the fuel cap partially blocked and not letting enough air into the tank when using more fuel going uphill, (even allowing for your light weight) try opening the fuel cap next time.

hi rocky,how high is this mountain,could it be an altitude problem,the higher you go the leaner things get, try using the choke next time and see what happens,just a guess tho

Was a leaf also GRM, took a diesel fitter hours to work it out, Altitude is not an issue. I run with both taps open all the time, will clean fuel lines petcocks and bowls and air filter and let you know if any change. Thanks guys

Although I had the same sort of problem with our VW bus and it turned out to be the little disc of plastic that sealed the cap on the bottles of lead substitute we used to dump into that car, it doesn't sound like a leaf or such if the problem occurs EVERY time you go up that hill. Chances, anyway, of a leaf sealing off the tiny standpipe which is covered in a screen 'condom' sort of filter are nil. No leaf alone will seal off the entire flow of gas into the tube. Could you have two standard gas taps and a half tank of gas?

I'm surprised a plug would make it quit. I've never seen that.