Well there is a God and he loves us. What a happy ending. After much thought, we removed the right side exhaust and looked into the exhaust port w/ a flashlight. Connected an airhose to the spark plug hole and pressurized the cylinder. Low and behold there was debris stuck to the valve and air was blowing out, big time. We compressed the spring and spun the valve further exposing the debris. With a long allen wrench we lightly scraped at the material and out popped a piece of rubber 2x the diameter of a pencil eraser. There were a couple of metalic pieces that were scraped off the inlet side of the valve and retrieved with a parts magnet.
Feelin pretty good we hooked up the pressure gauge and spun the motor with the starter. 130 PSI cold. Yes !!! Rehung the exhaust, closed the valve covers, installed the plugs and fired it up. It rumbled to life smooth and quiet. My Buddy rode it about 8-10 miles and reported that it ran fine.
The next day, checked valve lash and it had not moved during his ride. Changed oil and filter and went for a good ride.
Wow, this bike is a cream puff. Might be a smidge quicker than my tourer. We will find out.
Conclusion; when we changed the air filter, it was filthy. We can only speculate that something on or from the filter fell into the #1 inlet stack when we removed it.
This story does have a happy ending and perhaps someone may benefit from it.
ps: Very sorry to hear about our fallen partner. Our prayers are with him and family.
