Post by buster on Oct 13, 2018 10:09:11 GMT
well its wet windy and miserable outside and if I’m honest I’m being bone idle and cant get myself motivated to go and do something. so I turn to the interweb for inspiration and got to thinking, I’v read (on here) about quite a few cafe racer/bobber type projects and one thing they all seem to have in common is the carburation is difficult to set up (possibly impossible). to the point where I havent read a thread about such a bike where the owner is happy with how it runs.
this has got me to thinking, because my own bike will be running either pod air filters or bellmouths and an aftermarket exhaust (not sure if 2 into 1 or 2 into 2 yet) that cv carbs simply wont work. why not? well mr honda and mr keihin in the development stages of a new bike probably spend an enormous amount of time and money going back and forth ironing out glitches and getting a bike to run as good as it can. so the chances are that a superdream needs an airbox (it probably gives the carbs a bit of resistance to ‘pull’ against) put different filters on and you lose that (and no whacking bigger main jets in wont help). so then to the exhaust, again I’m working on a whole heap of self opinionation here (sorry in advance) but there are limitations in mass production, if you carefully observe the bends in your down pipes you’ll probably see that they narrow where the pipe has been stretched slightly to make the bend, each of these narrow bends actually acts as a restriction, take them away and again it messes with the carb settings (and your wallet, cos a pipe like that costs). uncomfortable truth? the balance box on a superdream is most likely a mass production ‘bodge’ to get round carb and general set up issues (I can hear a lynch mob coming
) and in reality the bike shouldnt need it, but again take it away and you lose the sweet running (and whacking bigger main jets in still wont help)
so how do get a superdream (all right, nighthawk) to run right with the bell mouths and aftermarket pipes? the only way I can think of is to go with old fashioned slide carbs (not bloody flatslides, they only work on race tracks) and probably lots of sleepless nights and swearing to try and get them set something like. I’d welcome any thoughts on this and it would be great to hear from anyone whos actually tried it.
I’ll leave this with one more thought, ask yourself this, am I smarter (in my garage, shed, whatever) than all mr hondas R&D team and all mr keihins R&D team put together? I can only answer for myself and no I’m not...
this has got me to thinking, because my own bike will be running either pod air filters or bellmouths and an aftermarket exhaust (not sure if 2 into 1 or 2 into 2 yet) that cv carbs simply wont work. why not? well mr honda and mr keihin in the development stages of a new bike probably spend an enormous amount of time and money going back and forth ironing out glitches and getting a bike to run as good as it can. so the chances are that a superdream needs an airbox (it probably gives the carbs a bit of resistance to ‘pull’ against) put different filters on and you lose that (and no whacking bigger main jets in wont help). so then to the exhaust, again I’m working on a whole heap of self opinionation here (sorry in advance) but there are limitations in mass production, if you carefully observe the bends in your down pipes you’ll probably see that they narrow where the pipe has been stretched slightly to make the bend, each of these narrow bends actually acts as a restriction, take them away and again it messes with the carb settings (and your wallet, cos a pipe like that costs). uncomfortable truth? the balance box on a superdream is most likely a mass production ‘bodge’ to get round carb and general set up issues (I can hear a lynch mob coming
) and in reality the bike shouldnt need it, but again take it away and you lose the sweet running (and whacking bigger main jets in still wont help)so how do get a superdream (all right, nighthawk) to run right with the bell mouths and aftermarket pipes? the only way I can think of is to go with old fashioned slide carbs (not bloody flatslides, they only work on race tracks) and probably lots of sleepless nights and swearing to try and get them set something like. I’d welcome any thoughts on this and it would be great to hear from anyone whos actually tried it.
I’ll leave this with one more thought, ask yourself this, am I smarter (in my garage, shed, whatever) than all mr hondas R&D team and all mr keihins R&D team put together? I can only answer for myself and no I’m not...
