Jetting and Emulators

[rorycooney]

Sorry for thrashing a dead horse but I've just got one or two quick quetions before I go and make the purchase.

I've been hearing of people having trouble with their engine idling and general behaviour after jetting and unipods. Is this common on the hawk or is it easy to happen if you don't find the perfect carb setting. BTW I've never seen a carb in real life before and i'm considering installing the factory 3 jet kit with unipods from hord myself. Also will I need any special tools as i'm fairly limited to the basics.

I've decided that taking on the racetech emulators as my first lesson in motorbike mechanics is just a bad idea. I've got a bike shop here in Japan that will do it for me although they had never heard of it before started drawing up diagrams of damper rods Vs cartridge and then showing them a printout of an emulator. When boring out the holes in the damper rod, do you need to be very precise or perform any finishing like smoothing or anything. Should it definitely be an easy task for a motorbike mechanic who hasn't seen an emulator before.

Any other advice or problems that any of you have come across would be really helpful right now.

[Sidewinder600]

Jetting/pods

I was pretty much in the same boat when i started working on my hawk (no carb experience), so here's my 2c.
As long as you're fairly mechanically inclined it's not a real big challenge to open the carbs up. The hardest part IMO is actually getting them off/on the motor for the first time since you have to familiarize yourself with all the hoses to disconnect and the best way to yank off the tank, airbox, throttle/choke cables, and the carbs themselves. Once they're off it probably takes 5 minutes to drop in the Factory kit, though since they're apart you might as well take a few extra minutes and spray some carb cleaner through everything. Reassembly is easier with the pods since they do away with that whole airbox nonsense.
In terms of running problems afterward, i think the hawks are pretty forgiving with slightly-off jetting (at least in my experience). Generally at first idle and upper-RPM running will be rougher unless you're the one in a million that has a bike/location that agrees with the recommended settings, but you won't have to worry about it stalling at lights or acting like it's running off 1 cylinder or anything that extreme. It'll be rough enough to bug you though and that will begin your initiation into the black art of carb tuning... From that point my best advice is to familiarize yourself with the different symptoms of running rich/lean and follow the carb tuning guide on Factory's site.
Hopefully somebody else can address the suspension issue since i'm still running my spongy stock front end...

[raul507]

Where in Japan are you. If you need some help I can have your instructions translated. If you have a Honda dealership in your area that would be the best bet. I would of course take both forks off the bike and take the fluid out of them as well. Doing this will make the labor costs cheaper.

[Tusk]

ref: The emulators: I have some pics of my install on my Webshots Page. Just a few. I think I have more and can email them to you if it'll help.

You do NOT have to exactly precise on the drilling. Just eye it up. It's not hard at all.

Keep us informed here.... We'll help you out!

[rorycooney]

Thanks for the info.

Gotta admit everytime I read more into the jetting, the more I get concerned. I'm now reading that the unipod filters are ridiculously loud which is all well and good if your purely racing, but I will be commuting, touring and doing some somewhat spirited riding when I can find some twisties. I know it's a hard question to answer but how loud is loud.

Also do I need to consider this venturi stack stuff or is that for the fine tuning way down the line.

Raul: Good to see another hawker here. I've found a mechanic around the corner from me who seems decent. He's got basically no English but I have just enough japanese to get what I want and he doesn't mind me sitting in and watching/learning.

Do you by any chance no any good online shops in japan for general bike parts of Bros performance parts etc.

Cheers

[jaysun0ne]

i have k&n pods and a two brothers full exhaust system

you can hear the intake sucking when you really open the throtle but the exhaust is what other people will complain about. dont worry about loud intake noise its not that bad.

sounds kinda cool if you ask me
and some one on a bike next to you will never hear it.

[fabitappi]

Hi Rory, I wonder what keeps hawkers resort to a cartridge counterfeit
as their is plenty real cartridge stuff lying around everywhere?

You gotta take either CBR 600 93-98 forks
VFR all models with 41mm tubes...its too easy

swap over lowers to retain the ori single disc look
Making it a good job will also involve a fine tune of the cartridge shims
to the light weight Hawk. Thats all.

As to the Bros especially
just have a look at this:

http://page4.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/d68846392

These NSR250/VFR400R cartridge forks resemble the Brosīs forks in both in size 41mm plus caliper mount .
(they use the same calipers albeit only 25mm pistons)
Itīs amazing how cheaply these sell in Japan!

Fabian

[rorycooney]

Hi Fabian,

Thanks for the info. on the alternative suspension upgrades. I was considering just exchanging forks but I decided not to for a few reasons.

1. I know next to nothing about suspension setup right now and I barely have the time to ride or work on the bike so trial and error of a cartridge setup vs a minimal setup emulator with excellent results as many hawkers here have agreed. I picked the emulators.

2. I don't think that suitable front forks in good condition can be bought off yahoo.co.jp for less than what i'm doing the emulators for. I'm pretty sure that the forks you linked to have numerous problems as indicated by the item description hence the very very low price.

3. I know the condition of my forks and I know my abilities so when I feel that I need more that the emulators I'll look into a better upgrade. If i'm gonna have this bike for life you can be sure it will see alot of changes.


p.s. I'm off to the the bank at lunch time tomorrow to pay the guys off yahoo so provided that I have no language or time problems I should be receiving the PGM rims later in the week. I'll send them off to you as soon as I get them both to my door.

Happy Hawking.

Rory

[stealth95]

Just a quick helpful tip, I found out that before and during you are taking your bike apart, to take pictures of it, this is an easy reference when you can't remember where this bolt went or how this hose hooked up. Makes putting everything back together a whole lot easier.

[stealth95]

Just a quick helpful tip, I found out that before and during you are taking your bike apart, to take pictures with a digital camera of it, this is an easy reference when you can't remember where this bolt went or how this hose hooked up. Makes putting everything back together a whole lot easier.