Hi,
Irecently bought a 2006 Vulcan 500 with 200 miles on it and have put on another 200 over the last few weeks.Throughoutthat time it's had a pinging/detonating problem, doing so in all gears and throttle conditions. It is slow off the start, like it's hesitating, but has power at mid-level rpms. The bike seems to run fine with half choke (although rev's too high),the mufflers have small specks of rust, the cooling fan runs alot, and a recent check of 1 of the spark plugs (theright one can be accessed without removing the tank)showed it was white. I drained the gas tank last week and replace with fresh gas with SeaFoam, but no improvement was found.

Being new to the sport could someone confirm this to be a lean condition? Also, might this problem go away following the initial 500-mile valve adjustment? I'm planning to adjust the valves and clean out the carbs next weekand hope that'll help.

Thanks,
Greg

 

I prolly would not worry about checking valves at 200 miles. Then again, I do not have your ride
It does sound like you are running lean or out of sync and need to get things adjusted.

 

+1

your plug def. points to being to lean.