carb balancing

[clayt74]

Is carb balancing something that should be done at any particular intervals?
I have had the bike about 18 months and covered almost 12k and have never attempted it.
The bike is still standard although I did replace the downpipes with motads.
Bike is starting to feel a bit lumpy at low revs, could this be due to unbalanced carbs?
Bike has done 32k in total but I havent had valve clearance checked yet either, could this also be a cause?
Thanks for any responses

[darrsi]

One of my carbs was well out of balance apparently a few months back, the bike did run like a tractor at low speed, but would clear it's throat with a bit of throttle, so i'd definitely say get them done, it makes quite a difference.

[Dead Eye]

Sounds like carbs to me - if you do it yourself then I'd suggest doing it every year or so along with the rest of general maintenance (oil, filters, other fluids etc). I think the guideline is about every 2 years though?

[Foxwood]

I did mine last summer for (apparently) the first time ever on my bike at about 31 000km and it did a world of difference. Strongly recommend you get your own carb balancer tool though, it'll save you a sh*tload of money. Cheapest quote I got at a bike garage was about 90€ and the tool cost only 63€ delivered to my hands.


I bought a tool similar to this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CARBURETTOR-CARB-2-CYLINDER-and-4-CYLINDER-VACUUM-GAUGE-BALANCING-VGA4-/290871789216?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item43b94f46a0

[limax2]

I've never really understood why the carb balance would alter if nothing else changes on the bike (like different pipes  ). However as others have said it can make a differance. The time to do it imho is when you notice the tickover is not as smooth as it should be. As well as the gauges you will need a fairly long cross head screwdriver to make the adjustments. A fidly job at first finding the adjusting screws but gets easier with practice.
At 32k it is certainly worth checking the valve clearances. They will probably be o.k. but still well worth checking. Not a difficult job to check, more difficult if they are out of spec.