Start out by saying I know nothing about this topic other than what I've read here and a little investigating on line.
My question is, couldn't a wide band A/F meter be used as a poor man's dyno for tunning our carbs? Other than Marcus who has a dyno at home, it seems that going to a dyno tuner is not only somewhat expensive but also an exercise in faith that the tech can tune a SuperHawk.

I found this
http://www.innovatemotorsports.com/products/db.php

I'm thinking that for two bills and having my friend weld a bung in my exhaust, I could have a quantitative way to tweak my tune. Am I on the right track here?

 

tuning on the road is great. the motor is actually under load and faces real world forces unlike a dyno where you're just sitting there. tuning on the road with a w/b is how I did my car and what I would recommend but may be a bit more difficult on a carb'd bike.

 

I actually own both, sort of... The dyno bench in it's simplest form is just a way of providing a load for the bike and a bunch of sensors... I started building mine long ago when "portable sensors" was the size you put in the passenger seat next to you, and on a budget... But it has been upgraded along the way...

It's current shape is an Innovate LM-2 with a host of addon sensor and a laptop with a few more... And with the LM-2 dumping it's data into the laptop...

One thing I have learned from all my experimenting... The dyno tells half the truth and a 1/4 lie... The road test with a wideband gives you the other half truth and a 1/4 lie... None of them gives you the complete picture, but both can in combination with some trial-n-error and patience give good results on their own... But you need the both of them to be able to weed out the lies the sensors tell you...

The problem with doing W/B on the road with the VTR is that you have no OBDII interface, so you really have no way of matching the data you get to what the bike was doing at the time... On the LM-2 though it has inputs for the RPM signal which gives you some fix points...

 

I know the original founders of Innovate, and at one point we were talking about how to better promote their products to motorcyclists. There have been some good discussions in their forums about using their products with bikes, here's a link to search results for motorcycle carbs in their forum.

I can sell any of their products, so if there's something you want, let me know by PM and I'll let you know the best price I can give you.

Keep us posted. I bought an LM1 many years ago but never got around to installing the bung, I hope to make it a winter project.

Mike