zixxer wrote:hi lads.
i got rid of the bike. i had a major day of hassle yesterday. I brought the bike back to the guy i bought it from and demanded my money back and he took back the bike. he wasn't going for it at first, but he backed down eventually.
it had gone too far. i had the bike almost 3 months and she performed for only 2 of them as she was supposed too. i paid top dollar for a bike that was literally breaking my heart. I'm disappointed but at least its all over now.
I changed out - carbs, airbox, tank, loom, pickup coil, ecu, cdi, plugcaps, switchgear, all the electrics etc and more stuff im probably forgetting and could never find it. isn't it amazing that you can swop out so many systems off a bike and the problem stays the very same? it got the better of me in the end and one of the best mechanics i've ever met in my life and after over 70-80 hours working on the bike, never found it.
the really mad part is i'm half tempted to but another firestorm! but im afraid of them now.
thanks again for all your help lads, especially Chris and for stickin with me!
A bit late I know, but...
did you check the sparkplug threads in the cylinder head? I've had a similar problem for ages and couldn't sort it out. Then one day, I was having another look at the bike, revved the engine and the front spark plug jumped out of the cylinder head! Checked the thread in the cylinderhead and there's not basically nothing there. The only idea I can come up with is that at some some time the sparkplug was cross-threaded, partially strippping the thread in the cylinder head, and that the vibration and compression has made the sparkplug work loose, stripping the thread in the process - whether that's really what happened, I have no idea, but I can't think of anything else.
I was quoted "at least £500" (!) for a garage to sort it out (cylinder head off and helicoil the sparkplug thread). That's certainly not going to happen, especially since my baby's rather battered, done over 40k miles, and probably isn't worth much more than a grand, so until I can get round to doing it myself (with the help of my mate who's very good with v-twins after having to rebuild his Duke 900 ss when the top end went bang quite spectacularly), I am reliant on the bus and shank's pony. Not the end of the world at this time of year, but once the sun comes out I know it'll p*ss me right off.
I'm torn between sorting it out or making an offer for a tidy black T plate (2000) 'Storm, for sale at a garage I know, 18,000 miles on the clock, offers around £1,200, which seems a pretty good price to me. We shall have to see...
Unless you're going to the dark side of course 
