Long time no post. Couldn't take the off idle behavior of the VM34's, picked up a set of stock carbs off ebay and rebuilt them. Using stock air plenum with a 3d printed adapter to run a K&N air filter and made a small aluminum hanger to hold up the plenum.
Started with 40 pilot 105 mains but couldn't even accelerate it would go so lean. Found another person with basically my same mods and he went all the way to 125 mains to get his bike running well. I went to 120's and still very lean on the 3rd clip. Dropped to 2nd clip and could ride it but still saw A/F ratios of 16 under light throttle. Went down to the first clip. Now too far, light throttle is in the 13's; went full throttle and saw 10.5. So I dropped to 115 this morning, still on the bottom needle slot. Haven't ridden it after making those changes but I think I will be very close. I also put 38 pilots on the inner 2 cylinders since when sitting at idle the outer exhaust headers are always 20-30 degrees hotter than the inners. I'll hold off judgement until I'm all done, but after I put several hundred miles on the motor (and getting that vacuum up) I might try going back to the VM34 kit, it just has so much more power.
One thing I can say for those who are thinking of doing a build, exhaust obviously makes a difference but I never wanted this bike to be loud. Using the exact same exhaust I've had three different carb setups and the amount of noise the bike makes with different intakes is tremendous.
CR26's are animals. The cold start circuit is barely functional and mildly terrifying, with fuel sometimes spitting out of the carb inlet. Idle has to be at 1500 rpm in order to stay running and they are loud as #$%*. But from 1/4 throttle and up this bike is pretty damn quick (I have the weight at 360# wet).
VM34 kit starts and idles like a dream. Cold start is a little annoying in that there is a separate choke lever on each carb, so you get it running with both and after 10 second or so you close one of them and ride away. Close the second pretty much as soon as you get 1/4 mile down the road. Rips from 1/4 to full throttle. Total dead spot just off idle, to the point where you have to lightly feather the throttle (and I mean
lightly) just to get to 2000 rpm and then you can pull away from a stop. Also, quite loud (if the CR's are a 10, these are at least 7). Needle changes super easy with carbs on the bike
Stock carbs with pods. Can't speak to their performance but can say they are a pain in that the clutch hanger has to be bent at a weird angle in order to run them. Much quieter than both aftermarket solutions, about a 4 on the above scale
Stock carbs with air plenum and K&N. Idle perfect, cold start perfect, quiet as #$%*, about a 2 on this scale (again, all with the same exhaust). Jetting changes are a pain in the ass, but after pulling carbs about 20 times I no longer get pissed about it and am becoming pretty efficient with it.
Question for body people. I painted my tank finally. Used 2k primer, that sat on it for months. Recently sprayed body color with lacquer, let it set for a couple days and then sprayed a 2k clear. Popped my gas cap to fill it the other day and found this:
I know the lacquer won't like paint fumes but 2 figured the 2 part epoxy clear would handle it fine. The clear was applied a little past the color in the tank lip. These bikes originally came with what had to be just lacquer - what does one do to prevent this?
