now why are you not adjusting at idle after carb sync like you're supposed to, rather than landing on someone else's arbitrary numbers that assumes front and rear are equal?

 

In terms of Honda, I'm awed by the level of sophistication of present and even older bikes i've owned, eg., 84' 1000 interceptor, 88' 1000 hurricane. Given this predisposition, I would never have gotten into messing with the carb, ccts, suspension, etc., except that, rather suddenly, my SH started popping and farting like a fat cow erupting in digestive distress. I couldn't believe it. I just wanted to do regular maintenance and ride the wheels off the mafucker, not tear into internals.

Anyway, when my hawk started acting up, I was basically at the mercy of opinions and advice of those on this forum to get it back to running well. Somewhere between here and the internet, I got the info posted in my signature which essentially erased the problems, and of course, I've since recommend this group of settings to others. Lord i apologize for that. Do I know which ones were critical and which were not? NO, because I did them all at once. Rot Roe!

When I look at Factory Pro and their products and recommendations, it seems as if they have extensive experience with improving the SH, and it makes you want to buy the shifter upgrade, ignition advancer, etc., and follow their recommendations which supposedly have been documented well beyond my expertise and understanding. If I had the financial means, i would like to make some of these improvements because, for example, I think the shifting is clunk and annoying, and to eliminate this would be certainly help.

i will take your advice on the #48s as well as the tool to adjust at idle to see if it gives me a little more juice, and because in helping Steve29 pull his carbs no less than ten times, it's no longer and issue for me mechanically. So thanks for the help and sharing your knowledge and experience. Apersheate it!

 

About 20 or so years ago I was at a career fair at a high school to promote The Vocational Automotives program I was teaching at the Adult Ed campus. A 17 year old walked up to my display and told me he didn't need to take any auto classes since he already knew everything there was to know about cars, taught by his dad.

I asked him to identify some of the parts on the table. He correctly identified a distributor and a carburetor, but when I held up an ECM (on-board computer), he said smugly, "That's a stereo".

When one of my students would tell me that I must know everything about cars, I would respond, "No I don't. I learn something new almost every day I'm teaching in the shop. And anyone who says they know everything there is to know about cars is a fool".

 

well i was a teacher also, of the mentally challenged no less. I only spent 8 or 9 yrs in this occupation and hung it when I discovered that many of my students were smarter than me. I went to something more in line with my mental ability, hence, a truck driver. In my own defense I'm not quite as dumb as I look, but then there's an element of subjectivity that's arguable here too. haha

 

Yeah nath, my students ran the gamut from exceptionally bright to mentally challenged to ex cons to guys on daytime release from juvie to fresh in the Country no-spik-English.

I'm sure you had many rewarding moments, as I did...as well as many times you were pulling your hair out.

And nath, when are you going to make MotoGP? You're over 500 posts away, but it seems like you're on here a lot. And I'm sure you're a much more ***** out rider than I am.

 

Yeah i loved working with kids and esp those with disabilities. I would have been happy to spend the rest of my career teaching. I just couldn't take the system's status quo attitude, which i would only support if we were at the top. However, when your education system ranks as one of the lowest, and the cost is sacrificing your children, then status quo doesn't fly with me. My family would have to be starving with no clothes on their backs for me to justify this kind of long term compromise which I believe destroys moral character and ruins good people.

motoGP? i didn't even realize there was such a thing. I guess if you live long enough you can accomplish anything. What award do i get for achieving MotoGP status?
Probably a "Big Mouth" T shirt or some ****, huh/

"***** out rider", i don't know about that. I still ride a pretty good pace i would say. I definitely don't cruise for sure. But nothing compared to my younger days when I fell off at least once every riding season.

"If ya ain't fallin off, ya ain't ridin", was my mantra. I lived by this religiously until I quit riding to spend more time with the family in 76'. Fortunately, after the 8 year hiatus from bikes, I have only had 4 get-offs on the street in 26 years. It's not hard to remember these for sure, but I don't want to recount the off-roaders. haha

 

Getting the MotoGP moniker makes you a legend in your own mind, I think.

Maybe a t-shirt with Rossi's ugly mug on it...I certainly don't want to be associated with Valentino Rossi though. I mean he rides great, but other than that, I think he's just weird.

Jets vs Steelers game is turning into a nose picker. But I can guess who you're rooting for.

 

what about a jorge shirt?

your guess would be wrong because I root for underdogs, and just like to see a good game, but not seriously interested.

 

Don't wanna **** ya off again, but what is your opinion of this article on air screws:

http://www.thumperfaq.com/fuel_screw.htm

 

did i say air screw again?

 

Well I haven't gotten pissed yet......
but to answer your question, it is pretty good but it is for a race set up, not a street bike.

The places where I disagree are as follows:
1) there is no need to turn the adjustment screw in until the engine almost dies. A slight drop (or 50rpm as the manual calls) out is plenty.

2) after turning the adjustment screw back out until the rpms peak you turn it out an additional 1\2 turn. While this does cause a slight loss in power, it prevents the engine from going lean if conditions change.

If you wanted to you could set it to peak but do you really want to carry an adjustment wrench with you and keep resetting the the adjustment for peak power throughout the day? It's not something I would want to do.

 

what about the 1800rpms for setting?

good way to lean carbs out for for high altitude instead of worrying about jets too.

 

I was cheering for Lorenzo all last season, and he prevailed. Although some of his victory celebrations were kind of...weird. I'm being politically correct here.

 

Humidity has a big effect on idle air/fuel mixture. In the mid '70s when I was a tune-up mechanic, I quickly learned that if I adjusted the idle mixture using the lean best idle method on a day with normal humidity, the car would come back a week later when we had a Santa Ana condition with very dry humidity, the customer complaining of rough idle. So I started adding approximately 1/4 to 1/2 extra turn out (rich) on mixture screws past lean best idle, depending on the car. It varied slightly on different types of carbs, depending on how sensitive the mixture screw adjustment was. I never had a come back for rough idle after that.

There were idle CO specs that had to be met for smog check (usually about 2.5% CO max, at that time), so you didn't want to go to rich, but you wanted the customer to be happy.

 

http://www.thumperfaq.com/fuel_screw.htm


seem like people who ride to higher elevations may need not only to own a pilot screw adjustment tool, but to carry it with them. Probably could just stop along the road, turn the screw in a 1/2 turn and keep on gettin it into the clouds.

and, by the way, you're going to have to do something about that abysmal fuel mileage too. To correct that issue, just turn the throttle adjuster on the right clip-on with reckless abandon and exuberance. Not only does this correct fuel mileage, it also elicits other benefits like laughing and hollering to yourself, not unlike some of the homeless people walking the streets of any major city.

 

Nath, that's what you have a FloCommander for....

 

so, does this mean you should oversize jets and pilots and let the flo commander sort it all out, because if you didn't have enough fuel(OEM jets and Pilots) for say a K&N and gutted slip-ons, it wouldn't be able to deal well with the too lean condition? Or?

does the flo commander alleviate the need for a sync too and a special tool to adjust pilots?

 

I don't know what fuel mileage I'm getting, but my fuel light comes on at 128 miles fairly consistently. Of course with 15/44 gearing who knows what that means. i have ridden with other SHs with oem gearing and we have been very close in terms of fill ups. I'd guess about 35mph.

i know what you mean about riding "the pace", staying in a rhythm, and using engine braking and basically smooth accel and decel. I nullify the engine braking with neutral throttle and trailbrake typically, but like you, prefer the 5-7K range. You live in a perfect place for twisties. I've passed through that area quit a few times when i drove semi. Nice motorcycle country and a little longer riding season than up north too. I'm coming down and stay at your house for a while. haha

 

Nath... Sorry, but this time you get it as a smack upside the head, no sugarcoating...

Those questions tells me that you have no idea what an FC is... Go search, read, and then I'll answer questions... No point in doing it until then...

 

well no ****! that's why i asked the freakin questions and I think they're good questions.

What I think i know, to oversimplify, is that the FC controls rich/lean settings in both carbs, maybe a little like FI, and this seems that it would also dynamically sync them in the process since it would make 2 carbs act as one, but not sure.

No big deal though. Although it seems like a good concept, I really can't afford one right now anyway.

 

Eeaachhh, dang it... I'm just annoyed tonight...

The FC is a purely mechanical solution, no intelligent electronics... And it has absolutely nothing to do with the pilotscrew... The adjustment made on that affects the carbs/bike just the same regardless of the FC...

The FC does affect sync, in the way that once you have sync'ed at "high idle" the effect of the FC keeps the carbs better in sync through the revband... Something along the lines of what you said as " 2 carbs, working as one"... But you still sync the same way, and you still need to do it just the same...

And if you want to adjust the pilotscrew, you still need the exact same tools...

And again, if you have the wrong size jet's, main or pilot, the bike will run like crap... FC or not... The FC is a finetune, and just like when you count the rotations on the pilotscrew and it gives you a hint that you should go one size up or down on the pilot, the FC gives you the same kind of hints on the main jet...

The FC doesn't replace any one part on the carbs, or bike... It complements a whole bunch of them... And combined with someone that has some feel for his own bike and owns a philipshead screwdriver it "replaces" a dynobench for basic setup...

I have written more in detail in an older thread... Might be an idea to read that...

What I was referencing in the first reply about the FC, was the leaning out/fattening for altitude changes... Just like you can change the tuning a bit for spring/fall/summer you can change it for altitude... The range of the FC is equivalent to roughly +/- one jet size on the main jet... Ie you are essentially riding around with let's say 180-185-190 jets in your bike if you have 185's in there... Like you said, oversimplified... But almost true...

I have a dynobench, a wideband/narrowband analyser, and a whole bunch of other tools... So far the FC has done more for the tuning of my bike than the rest of them have... Granted, the FC alone wouldn't have been a miracle, just useful... But combined with the rest of the tools to read the results, the FC is close to friggin magic...

 

I forgive you. At least we know you're not perfectly rational all the time! You are human after all!

According to your explanation, it seems that you still need to get all your ducks in a row before you can derive any benefits from the FC. Getting the right jets, needle settings, correct pilot number adjustment, etc., is the difficult part. It takes only a few minutes to sync and probably the same to adjust pilots if the tools works, once you have your setting correct, so i don't know if it's worth it for a little fine tuning. The fine tuning descriptor says it all for me. thanks for the expo. Sorry you're annoyed tonight. Tells you that it's time to grab a cold one and mellow out.

 

Well... You are missing the good part...

The finetune is one thing... The others are the on-the-fly adjustment... And like I said, the ability to get hints on swapping the main jets a size up or down... Which is what makes it a "DIY dynobench"...

Trust me, the finetuning is the small part of the advantages...

Yeah, cold one it is... Or in my case a glass of 32 year old single malt... Jummie...

 

so you think it's worthwhile then, Maybe it's one of those things you have to experience to appreciate.

For me, when I got the engine running smoothly, no popping, farting, or stalling, I thought, this is amazing. Now it's time to get to my favorite back road and bend some turns.

The SH has more torque than the bike I had before, an 88' 1000 hurricane @ 130hp, although it would do 160mph without any drama,i.e., like you doing a hundred. But i don't get much from hyper speed fast in a straight line any more, although it it is fun occasionally. The point is that having perfectly linear power from zero to 150 isn't something I'm **** about as long as the mid range torque is adequate for the twisties.

I would like to try one though just to feel it for myself. All the reviews I've read seem positive, but most IL4s.

 

thanks, just kiddin though. If I didn't have to help with some grandkids, I would like to ride down past your place to Daytona for the races weather permitting of course.

Youghiogheny, nice roads down there too. Used to do some camping at Spruce **** and some repelling and spelunking in the National Forest. I'd be plenty happy riding Somerset into West-by-god, a lot more accessible than where i'm at now, although I'm not complaining. There's some nice low traffic twisties around here thankfully.

You need a dual sport up here for sure. Then you don't have to whine about all that **** on the roads because it's ridable with a dual sport.