tauntis

Hi,
I have had a couple of threads for questions and help and found this site amazing. I have only 1 ride under my belt with it...(the one home in the rain) so no testing it out...I wanted a winter project to fix and upgrade. I after doing some repairs wanted to do some upgrades. I have put a K&N on, price was same as OEM and now reading am nervious about tuning..I am looking at putting on a older set of slip ons as well..just want to improve sound and engine breathing..not a HP junky...is this worth it or am I creating a endless challange with tuning...no Idea if its original jetts or not but it was factory pipe and filter so I would say it was.
Any thaughts?

ranchomice

Welcome! I've never had a K&N but I've heard good and bad. As far as cans, the sound you get cannot be matched! They do require some jet changes. I put Erions on and had a member here shim my mains and install #48 pilot jets and it runs great. Good luck and enjoy the ride.

r80gsman

dido on the welcome.. i too have just bought a hawk. after being away from honda sport bike for about 10 years.. the cans will bring the sound out which is like no other. jetting, depends a little on your elevation.. if you are upthere you may not need as big a jump b/c u may already be rich due to altitude. however keep in mind they are CV carbs that compensate well for alt. changes...

jet kits, (kinda dummy proof, not cheep in my book) but motorcycle supperstore, and dennis kirk. are your friends.. you can get packing for the older cans there if you need it.. it will be cheaper to order things from them than elsewhere on average.

carb sync tool... buy one or make one. search on google../ youtube.. homemade carb sync....ect. i can mostly tune by ear due to the experience with bmw boxers. but the tool makes it quick and easy.


i am not a big believer in the CCT trouble's department. however new oem CCTs are 120$ with everything u need. and if the bike has some miles and unknown rider miles (hard) might be a good investment.. there are manual CCT, ebay.. 90$ shipped.. when i get the chance i am going to put in oem CCTs.. piece of mind. if you have a Haines manual there is a color pictorial of valve check(i have yet to do an adjustment for a shim-bucket, unless it is running poor) for each cylinder u can change them for each cylinder at TDC for that cylinder.

i have not done this yet, b/c my sprokets are new.. seams that most here run a 16/43 sproket set up to get more response at a given speed. stock is 16/41. for the track i have read ratios all over the place. the further the deviation the more the speed o is off, and apparently there is a fix for that also.

cheers
jim

tauntis

Thanks... for the welcome...I love the info on this site so much experience and tech.
I have not ridden a bike for about 10 years as well...didn't want the 4cyl wind up..liked the thump and torque of the vtwin..it sounds like I will need to rejet weather I have a K&N or stock if I run two brothers or other cans. I read a thread that you can keep stock jets if you just change the exh and keep the oem filter. Has anybody gotten away with it. I am at sealevel if that helps. I have changed all fluids brake flush, clutch flush, coolant,eng oil,oh and had the front forks rebuilt..they were clunking on compression.All the oils were a horrid color. It was a rebuilt bike and looks like they didn't do that great a job. Forks were bent, cooling fan didn't work,bar ends are ground and throdle sleeve is broken. Oh they just cut and twisted the bare wires for the LED sigs up front. I didn't mind some of the small thing to do as I just finished my shop and wanted to play a little..it has 38k. I also have a question about starting in spring with running lucas fuel stabalizer. Do I need to drain the gas and add fresh or can I ride with the fuel in it?

Tweety

If you change the exhaust you will benefit from re-jetting... No matter what airfilter you are using... But you will almost never explicitly need to...

The K&N has a significantly higher flow than the stock filter and this is only useful if you have an otherwise modified engine... On a stock engine you get a peakier effect with a big dip/hole in the middle of the rev-range... It can be adjusted to the point where you get a decent running bike, but not without re-jetting...

I personally dislike the K&N filter just as much as the stock CCT's... If you want to know why go read the older threads...

Little_Horse

75% of the reason to switch to manual adjusted cct's is to cure the failure paranoia. Replacing a cct with oem does not solve this problem.

VTRsurfer

Welcome!

As for jetting...with stock filter and slip-ons I took the advice of 8541hawk (I think he helped ranchomice as well) and just went up one size on the slow/pilot jets to 48. I had already shimmed my needles. Added a pilot screw adjustment (2.5 turns out), and it runs great at sea level (I can hear sea lions barking and waves breaking from my house). I've only been as high as 3,000 feet since the carb work, but it also runs great up there. It's super strong all the way through the rev range.

I've used K&N on a former bike 25+ years ago, and have chosen to stay with stock since.

Enjoy the torque!...and the sound!

7moore7

+1 on this

As much as this has been discussed, I have yet to hear a really good reason NOT to switch the CCT's to manual. The only negatives seem to be that you have to adjust them like every 15k miles, and you can mess up the install if you aren't careful... both of which seem minor to rolling the dice on blowing an engine

Also, look up bafflectomy for your stock pipes- basically you open them up to sound nicer. It's a pretty cheap upgrade if you don't have pipes yet

superchickencornermonster

'Love 'dem Chickens! Welcome to the world of V-Twin awesomeness! I agree with switching to Manual adjusters. My stock cct's went out on my 2003 at about 30K miles. I put new OEM cct's in and at 42K, they are starting to sound out of whack again.Tightening manual cct's is really no big deal, it only takes about 30 minutes.

For performance: If you're looking for modest performance upgrades with great sound, start with a stage 1 Jet kit, K&N air filter (non-modified box) and put some pipes on the back. I've got Scorpions on mine and they sound amazing! Now, there's not a lot that you can do to make your bike's horsepower get up to a modern Inline 4. I've done a lot of stuff to mine, but still am just over 113 hp at the rear, with modest improvements in Torque. But, what you can do is make your bike more competetive through suspension, brakes and: this is the most important: KNOWLEDGE. With the chicken's torque and handling, you can really **** people off when you get in to the tight corners. There's nothing like passing up a group of R1's Ninjas and Gixxers in the mountains!

tauntis

I assume that the CCT is the cam chain tensioner? Wow thanks for all the info..I will try it with the cans on and get an oem filter to start, mabe a season, as it is my first ride with this bike....then I will put back the K&N and a Jet kit...I have not ridden for 10 years...so I will start with it slow then after I get used to it I will do upgrades...I still think I need to change the bars...mabe the VFR clip ons just to get a little more comfortable...looking forward to the torque....can't wait till spring....

Tweety

Well... If you haven't done much riding in 10 years, wait with the bars until next season too... Your body will need to re-learn how to sit on the bike supporting yourself with the legs/torso without putting your full weight on the arms... New bars won't help much until you figure that out... You will just get pains in other muscles, but no less...

ranchomice

The manuals sounded like a train wreck in my bike. That, to me is a negative!" Yes, I adjusted them as much as a full turn with no change in sound. I got peace of mind with new stock ones, and they sound smooth as silk. That's just me. It helps to know people with 80k on their bikes with stock, original cct's as well. I'm also a believer that if you don't engine brake hard, and you don't warm the bike up on the sidestand constantly, they seem to last fine.

Tweety

Well, you are the exception to the rule... And I'm pretty sure that the CCT's in your bike could have been adjusted to the point where they where quiet... It's pretty unlikely that your bike alone is i special and since the stockers can be quiet, so can the manuals...

Warming up on the sidestand and other things are kind of universally stupid, manual or automatic CCT's doesn't matter, you still hurt the engine...

What however is preven beyond the point of discussion is that on a second hand bike with unknown condition, swapping out the CCT's to either manual or fresh OEM CCT's saves you a heap load of trouble...

ranchomice

Yes, for sure, I was just a little apprehensive to keep tightening them as this can cause other problems. I'd actually rather have more peace of mind with manuals, and someday I will go back to them. I'm not, however, the exception to the "rule". Those who are fine with the stockers just don't chime in much.