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Depends on the carb. CV's and S&S "E" are easy to tweak right in the driveway for almost anything you've got going on performance-wise. CV's (Constant Velocity) will also tolerate differing altitudes well. If done right, push button and go, just like EFI. The old Keihin's were mediocre at best.
Of course, this is coming from somebody who still runs Blue Streak points in my Shovelhead. And some of my friends think kickstart is the only way to go. I like the idea of being able to adjust things without being at the mercy of the cost of re-mapping at the dealer.
Kicking and screaming into the 21st century. That's me. And when your GPS batteries are dead, or the satellite isn't functioning, I hear a compass works well too.
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EFI - as people have mentioned, just push the button and go.
Having come from a carb, I don't miss the whole warmup routine. You have to constantly play around with the choke maintaining the balance between having too much choke and the bike dies, or too little choke and the bike dies. Also, don't dare try to take off on your ride until it's warmed up for a good 3-4 mins, unless you like hesitation.
Took me awhile to get used to not having to reach down and pull a choke out on my 06..hehehe,was just a normal thing to do,had to keep tellin myself its FI dummy......
I've yet to see an EFI totally crash and burn. I would dare to say if you compared the maintainance between carb and EFI, the EFI would be less trouble. It seemed like to me that (at least on cars) every time cold weather hit, the carbs would need some tweaking and could be a bit finicky. EFI just keeps on going. As far as doing mods or re-mapping, the EFI can be dialed in way better than a carb can if you have a good tuner. Many people do their own re-mapping with canned maps and it works pretty good. Not only can you tweak the fuel mixtures, but timing curves also. If I'm not mistaken, on a carbed bike you have to alter the ignition as well as re-jet to get a proper tune. EFI re-map takes care of it altogether. Once you re-map the bike, you don't have to re-map unless you change stuff. I haven't had to re-tune my bike since the stage 1 upgrade, (bike was dyno tuned after).
My fatboy was efi and what I did not like was the high idle did not sound like the typical harley sound low idle I love.
So why does a carb Big V Twin sound more like an old school Harley then an EFI bike? Both bikes require to idle at 1000 rpms. I even saw a youtube post the other day of a '77 Shovel FXE and the owner showed the tach and even though it was bouncing around, it was centered at about 1000 rpms, but of course it had that serious potato potato sound and sounded as though it was idling at 200 rpms and was on the verge of stalling.
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06 FXSTi
Custer State Park, Sturgis Bike Week 2009
I got both, they both have there good and bad, except that the efi wont cough and at stop light and stall.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bikergeoff
What he said...
What they both said...if you like to tinker and understand the carbs, you can get them dialed in and will be very reliable...on the carb bike, when the mirrors start to vibrate, I get out my home made sync tool and I'm good to go for another 10-12K miles...cams and carbs can be fun
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01 FLHTCUI=Full Sac, Pigs, Big Sucker
He's a one way rider on the shriek express and his new best friend is at the throttle more or less...Jack of Speed - Steely Dan
