So I was talking to a friend at work about bikes, seeing as how I am a beginning rider who has yet to take the MSF and get my license.

But I've been searching for bikes tirelessly for the past few days and found a couple nice ones.

Specifically the one I was looking at was a 1994 CBR600 F2. As I mentioned the bike she proceeded to tell me that it's a good bike but warned me that carburetor bikes sometimes have trouble starting?

So I was just wondering what are the negatives of getting a carburetor bike, and in general is it worth it to get an older bike? I know it's definitely good to get an older one for a first bike but I plan to keep it for a while and if I get bored with the appearance I plan to just swap out fairings exhaust etc.

Let me know some of your opinions!

 

Some downsides to carb bikes....

-More difficult to start in cold weather conditions
-Needs more time to warm up
-Depending on vehicle to vehicle but Fuel injection has been shown to be slightly more fuel efficient and environmentally safer due to the air fuel mixture ratio is electronically adjusted to achieve ideal combustion.

Mechanically speaking, it is as reliable as a fuel injection.

 

I stopped reading after she.... lol

carb bikes aren't hard to start, you just have to use the manual choke. I like fuel injection better for a few reasons but it shouldn't determine your purchase

 

The main issue with a carb set up is that it is usually tuned for one set of atmospheric conditions and can't be changed on the fly, save for a tunable exhaust. A FI system allows the ecu to adjust the A/F mixture for varying barometric pressures and so can be ridden anywhere anytime with what is nearly the same engine performance outputs.

I remember in the 1970-1980's when the two strokes were running at daytona, they would have a heck of a time doing plug checks because the bike would be running lean on the infield and would be running rich out by the ocean.

So fro the rest of us what this means is that you mill loose performance more rapidly over FI when you get away from the area your bike was tuned for... eg going up into the mountains

Personally, I love the feeling of a really crisp big bore carburator set up... but that feeling is out weighted by the freedom of FI

 

I had an F2, and once I cleaned the carbs, I never once had a problem starting it, not even when it was 35deg outside. Just make sure the choke works properly, clean the carbs, and you'll be fine

 

Yummy!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MSchu &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The main issue with a carb set up is that it is usually tuned for one set of atmospheric conditions and can't be changed on the fly, save for a tunable exhaust. A FI system allows the ecu to adjust the A/F mixture for varying barometric pressures and so can be ridden anywhere anytime with what is nearly the same engine performance outputs.

I remember in the 1970-1980's when the two strokes were running at daytona, they would have a heck of a time doing plug checks because the bike would be running lean on the infield and would be running rich out by the ocean.

So fro the rest of us what this means is that you mill loose performance more rapidly over FI when you get away from the area your bike was tuned for... eg going up into the mountains

Personally, I love the feeling of a really crisp big bore carburator set up... but that feeling is out weighted by the freedom of FI</TD></TR></TABLE>
Yay for the new FI 09 CRF450R Although we'll see how it does....

 

They just sound funny when you accelerate.

There's this asshat at my school that thinks he's king on his Ninja 250R 2008.

Every time he mashes by the other riders...everybody revs their bike to shut him up!

 

ive never had a problem with any of my carb'd bikes but ive enjoyed my fuel injected bikes better. but my 1200 bandit with mikuni flatslides kicked ***

 

Thanks for all the feedback. I was definitely hoping for an FI as opposed to carb for those good reasons, but carb'd bikes are usually cheaper because they're older.

But I did find a few F4is around my area that look promising, heard it's a pretty solid bike, I might have to jump on it.

 

I loved my F2. I do love my F4i even more however

 

haha those are the two bikes im torn between. of course...i could just get a suzuki...sigh just kidding, suzukis cool but honda is better.

 

F2 are tanks and will run on forever if properly taken care off. Also, it will be a better begginer bike than a F4i, IMO. Besides, it will be cheaper to fix if you lay it down or something.

And all my bikes have been carbed and no major problems at all. Sure, they have their perks, but it's not like they have hidden demons out to devour your sour.

Nothing like hearing the sound of 4 properly synched Mikunis singing at once

 

I loved my F2. it was invincible.
I loved my F4i. it was also invincible.

Carb'd bikes are simpler in theory, but in practice, it's just easier to throw a PC3 on an F4i and load a map. But there's nothing wrong with carbs either.

I'm only just now beginning to mess with carb jetting, and it's pretty interesting (and great because jets cost $1.50, vs. $250 for a PC3), but FWIW i never touched the carbs on my F2 and it ran like a champ.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Starscream &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Nothing like hearing the sound of 4 properly synched Mikunis singing at once </TD></TR></TABLE>

Well, there's nothing like the sound of 2 properly synched Miku's feeding a 2-stroke twin with straight through pipes either

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MSchu &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Personally, I love the feeling of a really crisp big bore carburator set up... but that feeling is out weighted by the freedom of FI</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes. FI has only given my bike the freedom to run like crap when the computer thinks something is out of sorts. [freak] all that, carbs FTMFW.

 

Haha looks like theres ups and downs to any fuel setup as is inevitable. Hmm, it'll probably come down to what I can get my hands on. I saw a nice white/red 02 F4i for 4k, it looks sick but ya never know I might get an F2 and swap out the fairings for the F4is (correct me if I'm wrong, the headlight assembly/windscreen and its components are also considered part of the front fairing right?) . There's just something I like about the front fascia of the F4i.

 

I have a 93 Ninja 500, and it's my first carbed vehicle.

advantages are that they are simple since there is no computer to go bad.

But they are very tempermental.

I think I got water in my gas after a big storm and the bike which ran perfect the day before, started stalling and dying, so I just took apart the carbs and am cleaning them out.

It was actually easier than I thought it would be, just need to remember to assemble it back the way to took it apart.

 

sounds good.