Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Performance Mods TBS needles

Where'd you guys that switched to TBS needles purchase them?

Call your dealer, I think mine were in stock, $8-ish per pair.

My dealer had to order mine, but they are a newish dealer... Yours will probably have them, or I'm sure some of the dealers that do buisness over the web could get them to you.

Dealer ordered them, $8/each. Waste of time/money on my bike, made ZERO difference. (Specialty Spares long cannons, 132-45 jets, Uni)

Hey Al,

Was there a problem you were trying to fix?
-------------------------------


To anyone thinking about plunking down a $20 bill for them, don't do it unless you need to.

The only reason I changed was because of a detectable slump in the 3500-4500 range RPMs in all gears. The slightly more radical taper of the TBS needles cleared this up for me. However, I am running what you see in my sig in South Florida (a lot different atmosphere than say..., Denver).

Another thing to consider is the type of riding you do. Most of mine is light to light (even with concerted avoidance) with a few longer stretches thrown in. Some weekends, I get out for longer runs.

As everyone's mileage will vary, so will performance. The best bet is understand how you ride and what other people in your area with the same bikes are doing and use that information as a working point. I've tuned Raven to work best for me and down here.

If you can afford it (or can get one free! ), a dyno and a gas/fuel - exhaust analysis will give you the complete technical answer but not the whole answer. My response is the most important.

I used them to help the same obvious midrange slump as Phil, and it worked perfectly. My power is constant and smooth from bottom to top.

I paid more than the average here - my dealer charged $15 each, and didn't even take me out for dinner. It was still worth the $30.

These are sort of a weird mod. Some folks they work great, some they don't. I would say, as Phil suggested, not to bother at all unless you can feel a slump in the mid range. If they don't help, you can always sell them here to someone else. Not a big risk of $14.
I am running the Thruxton needles now (not recommended at all unless you have the big bore by the way) but ran the TBS needles before. My seat of the pants felt good with them so i sold my TBS when I was in Georgia. But since then, my dealer had a sale so I got another pair of the tBS to try when I get around to the dyno again. I will leave in the set that works the best.

Yeah Al, we have the same setup except you have cannons, and I have slash-cuts. I noticed the reverse of an improvement. I am actually more sluggish with the TBS needles than the stock. I am going to take them out and retry and then tweak as necessary (filter, shims, etc.).

Easier to do this than to rejet, so what the heck!?

Ride Safe

Ryan

I just put TBS in last night and rode to bike nite...

I felt the difference immediately from Stock and 1 shim. My low to mid throttle response is much improved.

Tried the Thruxton's, didn't like em. Now I think I am too rich at 45s and 145s. Gonna change her around this weekend.

I just picked up me set of TBS needles last night. Maybe tom. I'll get around to installing them.

TBS needles made a big difference in my 05 America. After EPCO pipes, a Freak kit, AI out, 45 and 160 jets, it ran bad at 1/4 throttle (3500 RPM).It cut out and was flat at that point. TBS needles cleared it up. Mine were $7.45 each, which the local Triumph dealer ordered.

Thanks for all the input.

I ordered the TBS needles and they came in on Friday. I was in a hurry so I picked them up without looking at them. Yesterday I thought I'd put them in and I noticed they don't have any nail heads on them like the stock needles do. Accordingly I put them back in the little baggie, put them aside and went for a ride. Are they the right ones? Should they have the nail head looking thing? Do you have a stock or part number?

Yes they should have heads.

Triumph part # T1241024

Pat, I still haven't tried my Truxton needles only becasue I want to dyno with stock and my current set up. Sounds like I do have to get away from the stock ones at some point. I do have a question though. What is your seat of the pants set up with the Truxtons? We run different pipes and I do have cams but it may give me a good start point. I was thinking leaving the pilots at 42 and trying 130 to 140 main jets.

OK, I give. What does TBS mean?

ThunderBird Sport

Yeah Lary, lots of TLA's running around this board...

Pat,
I am curious why you say the Truxton needles should only be run with big bore.
Jango

Ok, well maybe not only, but they run extremely rich and if someone was to use them on a stock motor I would figure they would probably have to go down to like 100 mains to compensate. I have only heard of one person successfully using them and this is what he had to do to keep the motor from sputtering at WOT due to overrichness conditions.

I figured one would have to go way down on jets to avoid running rich. Though I would think throttle response should be smoother. It does seem to work ok in the Thruxton. I also wonder what changes are made in the 865 Speedy as far as needles, jets and mains?

What is your airbox situation? I have the freak and the Thruxton needles. Running 160 mains and stock pilots still. It hauls but really good too. But I did have the heads ported which will allow for a much freer gas/air flow through the entire system. Much more go faster.
But a note, my gas mileage is not all it should be at this point. On the highway I get 40, but around town and the hills with my twitchy wrist I get about 33mpg. If i can ever get a clear day and they can fit me in on the dyno I will get a better see what is really goin on inside there. I can probably afford to drop my 160 mains down to 145-150 at least. But I don; want to lose any of the high end power it has now. Once I hit 4k it just rockets all the way to the red line in every gear. It runs fine below the 4k range mind you, but at 4k it seems to literally ignite and yanks right out from underneath me. Quite the fun feeling. She really likes the abuse I give her.

I run the Freak, stock needles with one shim and 160s and a good exhaust system 4 turns out. Before BB my best dyno run was just under 69HP and running a little rich. Only mods after was BB and cams. Just changed plugs and the color is good. I can run it hard and I am up over 40 mpg. I pull strong as you right up to top end. Almost had the nerve to hit redline in fifth and it was getting there when I abused a Victory on Sunday. Once I get Dynoed I look forward to comparing notes.