Who's converted to carbs?

[gothbiker]

Who's converted to carbs, what do you think of the difference and how hard was it?
And would you do it again?
Thanks mines a 1150 and just looking in to it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[fatnfast]

Just type ' carb conversion' into search. Loads of information will be revealed

 

[nick.ct]

Was going down this route myself, looking at the best part of £1000, parts, mods, time etc. The key to success (black art) is in the modification of the airbox

With that in mind, I thought that it was worth trying one of GSJohns tuning chips, gotta say it does all that I expected from the carb conversion and at over £900 in pocket it turned out to be a wise move. Really easy to do as well

 

[Kenny]

I had it done by Scrimminger about 5 years ago to my Anniversary 1100....cost me about £1100 ..... wouldn't do that again in a hurry ( lot's of Liverpool churches lost their lead flashing just after I got the bill ! )

 

[gothbiker]

Hahahaha thanks kenny and nick, I'm trying to go lightweight and basic, so it's a bit easier to buy one of johns chips? I have one in my 1150, I've seen a few people rave over fitting carbs and I've heard others have gone back to injection


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[nick.ct]

Hahahaha thanks kenny and nick, I'm trying to go lightweight and basic, so it's a bit easier to buy one of johns chips? I have one in my 1150, I've seen a few people rave over fitting carbs and I've heard others have gone back to injection


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There are fewer easier mods than a chip change.

Bearing in mind that with a carb conversion there's a fair few extra, non OE electronics to add, to make it work well.

 

[Paul Young]

There's a reason why everyone has gone to EFi in motors these days, and its not just for emissions.

Carbs struggle to match EFi's ability to adapt to variables like altitude/atmospheric pressure changes, temperature changes, fuel grade fluctuations, etc. It's also an awful lot easier to change the fuelling by plugging in a laptop and reprogramming than it is to strip out needles/jets and rebuild, test and repeat until you get something that works, surely.

 

[gothbiker]

I'm looking for simplicity Paul, thinking a lot less wiring, I don't think for the uk and odd euro run it will matter much, the idea is to be stripped down back to basics, and sadly you can't buy anything cheap to remap the motronic ecu, just looking at all the options, including stand alone ecus, a few friends have built cars and fitted them


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[nick.ct]

I'm looking for simplicity Paul, thinking a lot less wiring, I don't think for the uk and odd euro run it will matter much, the idea is to be stripped down back to basics, and sadly you can't buy anything cheap to remap the motronic ecu, just looking at all the options, including stand alone ecus, a few friends have built cars and fitted them


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The thing is, you cant just ditch the ECU, it does the ignition timing amongst other things. You end up having bespoke electronics which are probably less reliable than the OE ECU.

Also, to get it to run well with carbs, considerable modification is required to the airbox ( as in that's where the black art is )

 

[gothbiker]

I've seen a conversion kit, for the ignition, I'm just looking at all the options, I'm thinking strip down the wiring loom as well


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ijustwanttoseethephotos]

On the 1100 versions, the airbox remains as standard. Pazon make a plug-in ignition unit just for this conversion, I did my conversion about 14 years ago and helped Pazon design the unit.
The conversion is quite simple, mainly just removing a carrier bag full of unnecessary wiring and components, a lot of which can be sold to recover your outlay on the carbs, etc.

 

[gothbiker]

Have you converted your bike ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ijustwanttoseethephotos]

I converted my R1100GS about 14 years ago, used it for 7 years, (by which time it had covered 140K km), then sold it and bought a K100 which I converted to single carb!

 

[gothbiker]

That's great to know, did you think it was better on carbs? No regrets?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ijustwanttoseethephotos]

It worked equally as well as standard, no loss of mpg. Look at the HPN R1100GS desert bikes, HPN obviously thought the conversion was worthwhile.

 

[gothbiker]

I've been looking at photos of the hpn bikes and the works supported bikes all on carbs, and for years people travelling the world on airheads never seemed to complain about carbs


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Paul Young]

My airhead had carbs and they needed to be kept surgically clean if you didn't want problems. Floats would sometimes stick and overflow, needles and jets wore over the years and made it run rich... I'm much happier with EFi but I like the idea of tinkering to see what happens

 

[Kenny]

R100RS carbs ( fettled by Scrimminger ) turned my 1100 into a right healthy beast !

 

[gothbiker]

Kenny are your carbs a nuisance? Im not starting with a doner bike so less to buy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Kenny]

Kenny are your carbs a nuisance? Im not starting with a doner bike so less to buy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I bought a pair of R100RS carbs off the forum and Scrimminger fettled them. It isn't as easy a conversion as you think, new electronic box of tricks ( beyond me btw ) etc. Also, my biggest gripe was if I went onto reserve and didn't flick the petrol tap ( part of the conversion ) quickly enough, then you would have to suck the petrol through again !!!
Guy who bought my bike off me went for a test run, came back and said he'd managed a wheelie in third !! ( Glad be bought it ).
I personally wouldn't recommend the conversion, great to be unique but simply not a great return for the expense.