Before anyone gets taken in by the misinformation in post #76
A Weber set does not weigh 20 lbs, its quite a bit less. I just checked a shipping box from a set I bought.. under 16 lbs, including box, packing material, and some tools thrown in with the shipment.
We dont run em cuz they are lighter, we run em because of what they do for the powerband, and the ease of jetting, and the fact that they have more circuits than other carbs..
If youre that worried about a few lbs mate, perhaps a narrower rear rim on the gold bike, will help it out.. ![Wink ;)](http://forums.sohc4.net/Smileys/default/wink.gif)
I've contacted an online Weber shop and asked them for the weight of a pair of 40 DCOE webers Frank, they won't have a Honda manifold of course, But I'm sure you'd be happy to add a couple of pounds to his total for that? No point arguing about what we think they weigh, we'll have to wait and see what the Weber expert says, I guess? To answer your question, my wider (and lighter than OEM) alloy front and rear rims are a necessity so that I can run wider, stickier modern rubber, which really improves the handling performance of the gold bike. Along with the other mods, it's proved to me that a CB750 with a stock frame can handle really well, without extensive frame bracing, as long as you use good quality add on parts.
The original builder of the gold bike was Ken Piper, a well known Aussie race bike builder and now a mechanical engineering lecturer at the Australian Defence Academy who built the 1987 Arai 500 race winner, and Yamaha were so impressed that his privateer bike beat the mega dollar factory race bikes that they took him to Japan to build an FZR1000 Yamaha race bike frame for the factory for the 1988 Suzuka 800. Ken is a pragmatist, and while he liked the relative simplicity of the CB750, he built the gold bike to perform and handle like a modern bike, and I've got to say that it's the best CB750 I've ever ridden, and I've ridden many, and have owned more than 20 since I bought my first new CB750 in 1978.
I don't know what it weighs, but I know the wheels weigh less, the front end weighs less, the Yoshimura pipe weighs less, the guages weigh less, the front fender weighs less, the ignition weighs less, etc etc, so apart from my opinion that the fitting of Webers wouldn't be a performance improvement, considering that the 32mm CV's on it work great and weigh probably half that of the OEM carbs, and probably a third of a Weber setup, I can't think why I'd want to add any unnecessary weight for what could only be considered "cosmetic" reasons? And considering Mick's point that you can install modern EFI which would p1ss all over either system and still weigh less, I guess it's just a "form vs function" argument, yeah?