If you're planning on doing significant engine mods, carbureted engines are way easier to tune. Throwing an EFI bike on a dyno costs a lot of $$ and doing it over and over again will break the bank. You can tune it with a fuel pack or something similar, but if you want it running perfect you'll have to spend some money to do it.

 

wow, great replies guys, Now I really do have food for thought. Price wise, a carbed bike is cheaper to buy so I can get a 1200 for the price of an 883 EFI so thats good news, as I see it its 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. so if the right bike comes up at the right price, carb or EFI sounds like it should be something I dont need to worry about. Thanks for all your thoughts.

 

I didn't think I would ever own an EFI bike. Now I have 3 of them.

I still prefer carbed...less expensive to tune, easier to work on, less expensive to repair, sound better at idle, not battery dependent, etc.

When I got my first EFI bike I was constantly reaching for the choke and the petcock....they weren't there. lol At the time I found that irritating, but now years down the road I don't miss that at all.

I am now fairly proficient at tuning EFI bikes with a variety of tuners, and I do like being able to monitor various things that can only be done on an EFI bike. (not that they need monitoring, just being a bit of a gear-head I find it interesting)

BUT, it is far more time consuming AND expensive to get an EFI bike running at top performance than a carbed bike, coupled with potential for more expensive repair, and not as great a sound...my next project bike will be an 04-06 Carbed Sporty.

In fairness, I now have close to 200,000 miles riding time on a variety of EFI HD's and have never had an EFI related failure, and it is nice to not even think about elevation changes.

Crap, I just re-read what I wrote and realized that I might like EFI more than I thought! haha

Still, for a fun, good sounding, easy to work on bike, I'll go with carbed.

 

I couldn't fix either as my wrenching skills are minimal to fluid changes and plugs. But I can say that I prefer the EFI as I don't have to fool with the choke and it fires up instantly.

From a simplicity point of view, I'd rather have the EFI. Cold starting an EFI vs a carb is a no brainier.

Just my opinion though but since I haven't spent my last dollar on my bike and don't do my own wrenching 100% it probably makes my take less than others. I'd probably be a RUB or wallet biker to some so take it for what it's worth.

 

Has anyone actually experienced firsthand an EFI problem? I am genuinely interested. I usually have 5-10 bikes at any given time and being a fan of vintage bikes most of them are carb'ed (my favorites are all carbureted but not for that reason) but more and more I have one or two FI's. Maybe I am just lucky but I have never experienced a FI problem yet. I even have a FI ATV that I literally never mess with and I abuse it hard! Taking apart my carbed ones is expected maintenance every few years at this point. As a guy who likes to wrench on my own I am curious what some have seen (other than a dead battery of course)?

 

EFI is very nice from a "just start it and ride off" perspective. If you buy a good tuner then yes you can adjust the idle, plus you can tweak as much as you personally desire - from letting it auto tune itself to datalogging and manually adjusting each point in the map to be perfect.


I was surprised that, unlike with a car, EFI doesn't appear to get any better fuel mileage.


The one downside to EFI that I didn't anticipate is you can't use your entire tank of gas. With a carb you can pretty much use it to its last drop since it's gravity fed, but an EFI bike will start sucking air around the 1/2 gallon mark.

 

My first EFI bike was a Husqvarna dirt bike in 2008. Never looked back. Carbs are a pain in the ***. I used to carry a small laptop with me in a hydrator backpack just so I could putz around with the EFI for fun while on rides. I never could understand the "carbs are easier to work on" mentality. What could be easier than plugging in a tuner or laptop and typing or pushing a few buttons?

Eventually, it became annoying having to wait on my "carbed" riding buddies when they would stop to change jets on rides involving large elevation changes because their bikes wouldn't run right after a few thousand feet.

On the MX track, my son can switch modes on his EFI Kawi between races with a simple calibration plug. There's also aftermarket tuners that are so simple to use, I routinely see young teenage riders at the track adjusting their bikes with no help from Dad. NO ONE who is serious about racing MX with a 4 stroke would even dream of buying a bike with a carb these days.

I run my Power Vision on the Harley as a "permanent" accessory because it is so dead-nuts simple to use, I couldn't imagine life without it. Even when I'm not using it to auto tune, I'm using it as an instrument cluster.

I dunno... to each his own I guess. But to me... evolve or perish.

 

I used to run from the San Francisco bay area to Denver across I-80/25/70 fairly regularly on my old FXR with an S&S Super "E" and never, not even once did I have to stop and re-jet.
An S&S is like a friggin Rock with jets...It's the most primitive design you can get in a carb, and yet it ran fine through all of those elevation changes.


Now I have an HS42 Mikuni on the Dyna and it even has fewer issues with elevation changes.

 

I was talking dirt bikes. If you change elevation over 2000+ ft on a 250 dirt bike (2 or 4 stroke), you WILL experience changes. Do you absolutely *have to* re-jet...? No. You only have to re-jet when the fuel screw or air screw stop working and your bike runs like a battery-powered kid's toy.

 

Then your other post was way misleading and melodramatic....."evolve or perish" Seriously?
We're talking about a fuel delivery system here.
We are also talking about Harley Davidson road bikes, not dirt bikes.
That's like comparing a Cadillac to a Go Kart.