Carb adjustment: new air filters and exhaust

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

Carbs

The carb rebuild is not hard to do yourself. Just follow the guild on here and take your time and dont skip "ANY" of the steps, remove and clean the emulsion tubes! If you are changing the "C" clip hight on the needle, get some good snap ring pliers $11.00 at Mikes http://www.mikesxs.net/products-7.html And invest in a real good set of screwdrivers if you don't have one, a perfect fit for the different sizes's is great, and soak your jets with penitrating oil if they don't come out easy. Good luck with your bike and keep us updated

[Danny Crawdad]

I have pods and a 4->1 and a proper re-jet + tune, and it was worth every penny. I did not feel any noticeable loss in low-end grunt, and have more mid-range power. No rideability or reliability issues at all. It rides just fine in low-speed low-RPM rush hour traffic, and flies when I have open road. If I had to do over again, I absolutely would, in a heartbeat.

[TADracer]

As you can see you are getting both sides or the arguement. There is alot to be said for leaving it all stock because this is the best compromise for a street ridden machine where you want excellent performance with drivability (perhaps that should be rideability). On the other side some mods CAN give you better performance and with alot of tuning you CAN gain back the rideability too. Its a matter of how much work you want to do (and keep doing) at every tuneup.

What I can tell you from experience is that you will have to go alot farther than just a carb adjustment to get it right.

I direct you to the statement under my signature.

[Danny Crawdad]

I think it really all comes down to the tuning -- my brother in law has a bike shop and has worked on old metric bikes for 30+ years. He had the carb broken down, cleaned, rebuilt, jetted, on the bike, and tuned in around an hour. I asked him last night if it was a "nightmare" to tune, and he laughed at me.

However, I probably couldn't have done it nearly as easily on my own. He had the tools and experience to make it look simple.

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

Dyno

The only way to realy tell your power gains (without a Dyno) is to take her to the track. If you turn in the mid to low 11's, you have improved on the stock tune, if not, you haven't, or, you can't ride Either way, if the changes put an even bigger smile on your face when rideing, it is worth it

[Danny Crawdad]

Well, like you said, even a track is not a good way to test the tune unless you have done multiple passes and can make nearly consistent runs. I can't .

I don't know if any power has actually been *added*, but I can tell a shift in the power band from OEM. I don't spend a lot of time below 3k on this bike unless I am starting off from a stop, and I haven't noticed any difference there. Maybe my driving style is different, but I usually cruise at around 4k

What I'm getting at is that modding the intake/exhaust/jetting isn't sounding the death knell for your bike. It isn't going to turn it into some unreliable wreck -- mine runs as well or better than ever, and in the thousands of miles I've put on it since the change, I haven't had a single issue with the carbs aside from when I had some dirty gas.

But don't hack up the stock pipes, OP, do what I did and stick them in the attic for later

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

Oem

Not picking on you Danny, that is why I didn't use "quoat" in my last post. I think most of these bikes have some, if not many mod's, especialy exaust, as that is the 1st thing to go, due to rust or ease of replacing. My thought is only about preformance, you won't gain much without big $$$$ IMHO. If someone wants more sound, cool look or just something different, I say, what ever makes them smile is what they should do, it is their bike

Well, like you said, even a track is not a good way to test the tune unless you have done multiple passes and can make nearly consistent runs. I can't .

I don't know if any power has actually been *added*, but I can tell a shift in the power band from OEM. I don't spend a lot of time below 3k on this bike unless I am starting off from a stop, and I haven't noticed any difference there. Maybe my driving style is different, but I usually cruise at around 4k

What I'm getting at is that modding the intake/exhaust/jetting isn't sounding the death knell for your bike. It isn't going to turn it into some unreliable wreck -- mine runs as well or better than ever, and in the thousands of miles I've put on it since the change, I haven't had a single issue with the carbs aside from when I had some dirty gas.

But don't hack up the stock pipes, OP, do what I did and stick them in the attic for later

[Danny Crawdad]

Oh, I know! Just thinking out loud myself. And I can take some picking on, too . I probably deserve it a lot of the time, just ask my wife.

But I agree 100% about not getting big performance gains without big $$$. Pods, jets, and exhaust aren't going to transform the machine into something it ain't! Any HP gains are going to be pretty negligible, but it can tweak when the power is delivered.

I honestly wish I could get less sound... I'm thinking about sticking a DB Killer or re-packing the exhaust on mine. Quiet is good, in my opinion.

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

Pipes

I am with you on that. One of the MANY things I love about my stock exaust is not telling every Johnnie Law man where I am and what I am doing But, they have to catch me 1st

Oh, I know! Just thinking out loud myself. And I can take some picking on, too . I probably deserve it a lot of the time, just ask my wife.

But I agree 100% about not getting big performance gains without big $$$. Pods, jets, and exhaust aren't going to transform the machine into something it ain't! Any HP gains are going to be pretty negligible, but it can tweak when the power is delivered.

I honestly wish I could get less sound... I'm thinking about sticking a DB Killer or re-packing the exhaust on mine. Quiet is good, in my opinion.

[cywelchjr]

Oh, I know! Just thinking out loud myself. And I can take some picking on, too . I probably deserve it a lot of the time, just ask my wife.

But I agree 100% about not getting big performance gains without big $$$. Pods, jets, and exhaust aren't going to transform the machine into something it ain't! Any HP gains are going to be pretty negligible, but it can tweak when the power is delivered.

I honestly wish I could get less sound... I'm thinking about sticking a DB Killer or re-packing the exhaust on mine. Quiet is good, in my opinion.

Remember that the OP is talking about OPEN pipes. A good 4-1 can indeed be tuned to perform well with only a small loss down low and a good increase in the mid to high range. But if you get rid of all the back pressure, the system becomes just about impossible if not impossible to tune, as these bikes do need SOME back pressure. Most of the professionally made systems for these bikes were tuned to provide enough back pressure to keep the system happy, but when you start playing with things and go with straight pipes, this is when it can become impossible to get a bike that's got decent manners on the street.

[Danny Crawdad]

Whoa, I somehow missed that -- you are absolutely right about that. Same is true in most non-turbo vehicles, too. Open pipes sound like crap and perform like crap due to loss of exhaust velocity.

[cywelchjr]

Whoa, I somehow missed that -- you are absolutely right about that. Same is true in most non-turbo vehicles, too. Open pipes sound like crap and perform like crap due to loss of exhaust velocity.

Yep, he says right in there he wants to go to pods and take out the baffles. The pods aren't really much of a problem, you can easily tune around them, and an aftermarket exhaust (even with pods) the same, but pull the baffles even if you leave the stock airbox in place, let alone with pods, and the bike becomes almost impossible to get tuned for even performance.

[petejw]

leave the exhaust,
stick the pods on,
bump the jets up 2 sizes
and ur good to go.