Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Performance Mods FNG-Questions

Okay,

I'm a new rider and new 06 TBA owner. Love the bike. I've been reading all the threads I can everyday to understand as much as possible about our bikes. I'm running completely stock as delivered from the dealer. I get the feeling that there are some simple things most of you would have already tweaked to improve performance or for some good reason. I hate not knowing what those things are. If anyone can give me some quick tips or direction I surely would appreciate it.

I'm reading about pulled snorkels, pilots, AI kits and the like. I really don't know what those things are. I'm sure no one has time to make my dumba$$ a mechanic, but if anyone could reply with a quickie response as to what some of this stuff does I would love to start gettin' a clue.

Thanks for any insights

Travis

The AI (air injection are those tude things on the outside of the spark plugs). It takes maybe 1/2 hr to remove. Get the kit from NewSpeedmaster.com, it has terrific step by step instructions.

If you take your seat off, you will see where the air filter is. The snorkle is the rubber thing sticking up from it. That just pops off and will give you better air flow.

Soren

Ok, here goes. The air injection (AI) adds air from the airbox to the exhaust port to lower emissions. It also makes the exhaust hotter which turns the pipes blue and makes a pop-pop-pop on deceleration. It can be removed or disabled without having to modify the carberators.
If you want quick and simple things to do, I would say adjust the handlebars to the angle that feels best, remove or disable the AI, change the mufflers for something less restrictive and change to semi-metallic brake pads. If you're the tiniest bit mechanical we can walk you through these. Modifing the airbox and carbs I would leave for a mechanic.

Get a D tool from newspeedmaster to adjust your air mixture screws and in case you don't know about it, here's the link to Pat's carb site:

Dinqua's Carb Site

Thanks To all- it's making more sense already. I am pretty mechanical, have done a fair amount of work on cars etc., I just don't know bikes to well and didn't understand the lingo. But I will begin w/ pulling the snorkel and the A/I kit because I noticed some popping on decel today, and some blueing where the pipes turn up into the manifold. Thanks again for putting it into focus.

BTW- If I adjust the air mixture screws would it most likely be to make the mixture richer, I think I read some where that the bikes come superlean?

You guys missed the airbox. Either drill the air box at the bottom and or remove the snorkle at the top to allow it to breather much better. Cheap way to do the exhaust is to knock out baffles DO NOT remove the reducer cone at the header end that will give you a little back pressure. As far as the air box goes I reccomend the Freak kit to remove it completely and replace it with K&Ns. The advantage to the freak is brackets to mount the side cover and chrome filter shrouds.(they bolt to the airbox) that and it comes with new main jets. If you do any exhaust or intake mods BE SURE TO REJET THE CARBS. That is very important and not difficult to do.Dinqua has a jetting calculator on his web site for down load. just enter the way your bike is set up and the altitude you live/ride at and it will tell you the jets to use.I have tried it on several bikes and so far it hasn't missed.

everyone here is more than willing to help and give you advise. It is up to you to decide what you want and what is within your capabilities.

Yes, these bikes come from the factory setup very lean. You will get the best performance by adjusting the mixture for fastest idle then, during warm weather, adjust then about 1/8 turn richer for cooler running. Don't forget to slow the idle a bit when it starts to run extra fast because other carburetor circuits start coming into play and will confuse your adjusting. The idle speed is set by a black knob sticking out under the left carb.
If you end up with the idle mixture screws more than about 3 1/2 turns out from completely closed, you should consider getting larger pilot jets. These are inside the carb and it woud be a good idea to get help with this.

One other thing, buy a shop manual. And welcome to our special madness.