Hey mark g. I bought a Harley to ride not race. If I wanted to go fast I would have bought a crotch rocket. You go ahead and race away, I'll be tooling along behind you enjoying the ride and the scenery. But if you are ever in Central Illinois, look me up, I'll ride with ya(or behind ya).Also, I don't know what the injected bikes get, but I average 48 mpg, in the flat farm country. Mixed riding, two lane, in town, and highway.

 

That's a whole can of worms. In theory, both bikes should have exactly the same power output and a very slight (1 mpg average if you combine city/highway) advantage on fuel economy for EFI. However, I have posted the information from two reviews from MCNews. One was a carbbed sporty and the other was a EFI sporty. The carbed one had BETTER FUEL economy (surprising) and had HIGHER power output (surprising again). Then to top it off it had a faster 1/4 mi. time. You can try to dig up that thread. I think it's called EFI vs CARB (Final Word).

That should make you a firm believer of TUNING and NOT EFI. Any bike will benefit from a good tuner. Take a carbed bike to a good tuner and if it was out of tune you will get back an impressive great running machine.

Ya, but the right EFI will cost your ~$1000.

A LOT. Over time you have to replace oxygen sensors, clean injectors, and replace fuel pumps. That is all stuff related to FI. Hell, it doesn't even have to be old cars. Why don't you ask new nightster owners how many of them are waiting on a fuel pump because of failures. Those are problems with EFI.

Also, if your only excuse is having to use the choke, then just get an AUTOMATIC CHOKE. They make them and they have been used on the buell blasts previously. Once you get that and your carb is properly jetted you probably won't notice any difference between carb and EFI.

 

I always see these posts and to me it is overrated. I think both have advantages and disadvantages. I can sum this up easy. Most newer HD riders prefer FI. Most old timers prefer carbs. I think many new owers are concered about carbs and dont consider them as a option. Many old timers have worked on carbs for years and prefer carbs. I will tell you the modern carbs are VERY good. They have came a long way on this.

BTW, many new customs have a S&S 124 withS&SCarbs. They are putting out about 145 hp.

 

"A LOT. Over time you have to replace oxygen sensors, clean injectors, and replace fuel pumps. That is all stuff related to FI. Hell, it doesn't even have to be old cars. Why don't you ask new nightster owners how many of them are waiting on a fuel pump because of failures. Those are problems with EFI."


Not this Nightster owner....nor any others that I personally know of. I haven't had any issues with EFI. On the other hand, I have seen many people riding their choking, hesitating and sputtering carbed bikes around.Carb tuning is NOT the simple procedure that some would have you believe. There are very few certified mechanics who can tune a carburetor efficiently. Most people who claim to be experts in this area are anything but.

As I have said before, there will always be those who resist the new and improved technology. It was the same in the automotive industry when EFI was introduced. Over time, this argument will becomeas obsolete asthe carburetor itself.

 

They have even fewer certified mechanics at harley dealerships that can tune EFI properly. I never said carb tuning is simple, but the fact remains that is it SIMPLER than tuning EFI. You only have a handful of things to tune with a carb. You can have a hundred cells to tune with EFI. How can something like that not be more COMPLICATED than a carb? Does it offer you flexibility? Yes. Is it easy to tune? No. Is it cheap to tune? No.

 

Does it need to be tuned anywhere near as often as a carb? No... EFI only needs to be tuned after a modification... Unlike carbs which need periodic tuning to maintain efficiency.

 

Yea Carbs are pretty sweet especially when you forget to put Sta-bil in the tank and come springtime you find yourself rebuilding the carb...not to mention the wear and tear on the starter and battery because the extra amount of cranking a carb bike requires to get things flowing.
You may like a carburator if your the type of person who prefers walki-talki's over cell phones
you enjoy the subtle nuances of your Zenith black and white 15" TV over a HDSony 42" LCD.
You prefer the stove to the microwave
an abacus to a calculator
Canyou imagine how cars would be without fuel injection? I rememberplenty of time being late to work on cold morning becausemy carburated car wouldn't start.

Carburators are so 1970's they should be left to lawn equiptment!

 

So true lmao.... [sm=funnypostabove.gif]

 

Fuel injectors plug just as easily as carburetors if not properly mantained. And yes I prefer a stove to a microwave any day of the week. And oh yeah, make that a gas stove. Both EFI and Carb have their advantages and disadvantages and beating this dead horse is accomplishing about as much as pissing up a rope. If you are mechanically inclined, save yourself some money and get a carbed bike. If you are of the technology generation and feel ascrewdriveris as outdated as black and white t.v's, get a FI bike. Either way, get what you want and enjoy it. I personally like carbs because I feel FI is a pain in the @ss for a garage mechanic(I am an ASE certified mechanic) but can tune them with the proper equipment. Yeah my truck is fuel injected, but all I do is drive and mantain it. I am constantly changing modifying something on my bike and don't want to take it to a dealer everytime I do.

 

Both have disadvantages and advantages......both are reliable and both are efficient as well.

Some of you probably remember when the last of the American automobiles were still equipped with carburetors. In 1983-1987....we had feed-back carburetors on our vehicles. They sucked and were worse than the regular carburetors. These were vehicles with a carburetor, but they had all the sensors an EFI vehicle would have.

Be glad they didn't decide to modify the stock CV carburetor into a feed-back carburetor. Instead, they went straight from carburetor to EFI. Thank-goodness they didn't do what the automobile industry did 20 years ago!

A carburetor (S&S Super E being my favorite) is so easy to tune. They just don't get much more simpler than that. If the EFI system on my '98 FLHTCUI ever becomes non-feasible to repair the system, difficult to find parts, or too complicated to find the problem....then comes the S&S Super E carburetor. Until then.....I like the EFI.

When cars first started having EFI.....people were not for it. I wasn't either. They were not very good at that time.....jump forward 30 years.

Today is a different era though.....and EFI is here to stay.