I grew up working on cars carbed and FI. I built my first engine about 22 years ago. In my experience, FI since the late 80's early 90's is just as reliable. I've got a FI 89 Bronco pushing 300k miles and never had an issue with the FI. I've got a supercharged 99 mustang that I tune myself with a laptop and a wideband. Tuneability on FI is leaps and bounds above jetting carbs if you know what you are doing.

Really what it comes down to with FI, is cost, and fear of the unknown. It is more expensive to setup a FI system, and then there is a little bit of a learning curve, although it is not as complicated as most think once you get into it.

 

Carbs, I like to make the EFI guys wait for mine to warm up.

 

I have an 08 so its injected; I like the way it runs and its certainly reliable but in the long run there's just way too much to go wrong that can't be fixed on the fly. Also it lacks the "soul" that the carbed bikes had. If I had my choice I think I'd go carburator.

 

I like my carb. because you can't fix injection on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere with a screwdriver.

 

Just curious, how is a laptop going to help you?

 

Ya know, I'm just curious. How many of you have actually "fixed" your carb on the road? I'm not talking about the older bikes, I'm talking about the twin cams. For that matter, how many EFI guys have been left stranded because of their EFI?

 

The laptop will come in handy when you need to read the malfunction and various parameters associated with it.

 

Laptop could be handy if you have all the equitment setup to datalog, but a more common situation would be getting any malfunction codes, which can be read on the odometer readout without any extra equiptment. It is a very nice feature that I wish I had on my cars.

 

22 years ago we were working with OBD1 and while a scanner may have helped, it wasn't the end all fix all at all. 25 years ago we were working with very slow basic computers (cages) and had been for roughly 3 years. We could read basic codes off a flashing light on the dash when the ALDL was triggered however, finding the actual malfunction was another story. OBDII came around about 13 years ago and the age of the laptop came in, which is great if you like playing video games and reading a multitude of possible issues that could be causing the malfunction but never knowing which one was actually causing it as each code had its own share of the pie so to speak. I would rather ride and while the accuracy of tuneability may be advanced in the X-Box generation I have encountered far more problems with FI and computers than I ever have with carbs and basic sensory function in almost 30 years of working with FoMoCo and GM before I left. If you know what you are doing it's hard to beat the simplisity of an advanced form of toilet, which when cared for properly as opposed to being abused as is the normal case, that toilet don't screw up.

You're right in that FI is way more expensive to stay with and even if you know it, the expense doesn't stop with just the FI, it continues in your time, effort and product required to dial the thing in in the first place. FI is a product of the BS associated with global warming and the EPA as opposed to being necessary to accomplish anything other than robbing you of your money, keeping software companies in business and helping to prevent folks from tampering with what the EPA originally intend, which was reduced smog levels. You're also right in that it isn't really complicated however, finding the specific malfunction through the use of a diagnostic tree that was written by some idiot that never played with a unit that wasn't right off the shelf perfect is complicated because it fails to take into account all the variables except those found in a perfect world of that shelf.

You can keep FI and everything associated with it. I'm going riding on my bike with the advanced toilet that delivers fuel in a manner that I have set it up to do and while doing so I will be spending the money I saved on gas, which allows me to ride even further....

 

Ah but cages can do it if you own the right ones. Cadillac has been able to do this for years. You will also need the laptop to store the diagnostic trees so you can figure out what the codes mean unless you can store them all in your head. If you had a bagger you could always take the shop manual with you....