Spent a fair bit of time talking with "people in the know". Michael knows of what he talks about. just read the link, you'll see. He is also a great guy who spent a good hour with me on the phone. Bought a bunch of parts from him and got advice and copies of documentation on XS650's that took years to accumulate. Everything from exhaust pipe lengths through to valve spring pressures. Very impressive.
During our conversation about everything! we touched on carbs. There are lots of solutions out there, but almost everyone of them involve modified 2 stroke carbs. These just can't be tuned fully. Michael says if you get the WOT dialed you'll be missing partial throttle or somewhere else. They just won't tune up perfectly. This includes the VM's and TM's
So taking that and running only really ends in two places for me that's Mikuni RS's or FCR Kehins.
So today the new Mikuni's showed up. mmmmmmmmmmmmm More nice things.
These are the real deal. Got an accelerator pump and everything. Topham in Germany provides the kit with a base tune ready to go for the XS or so I am told. Once again. like all the other nice parts, $$$. Got some K&N's to go with them. Still lots of modifications to do to them, the cable linkage needs to be moved to the other carb, that will put the cables in the center of the bike or otherwise they'll be fighting for space with the stock petcocks. Looks doable though.
