[Motoduc1]

Given a choice, which would you REALLY want? I know the carb is not as responsive, but it seems that many of the issues with Ducati seems to deal with fuel injection.

I am thinking about moving up, but...I just trust my old carb'ed Monster 600. It just seems to be a more honest way of conducting internal combustion! Takes fuel through its own devices, rather than an electronic system telling it when its thirsty!

Kent

'01 600

 

[the_journeyman]

I like my carbed M750. I know the 695 is better on paper, but I can't bring myself to trade my 750. I'm sure the EFI bikes are great, but I like the way mine sounds and feels. Also, on a cold winter morning when it's still dark out, it idles so low at first it'll belch a blue flame from the cans. I'll bet EFI can't do that trick!!!

JM

 

[chipazzo]

'cmon EFI. My old ride (not a Duc) was Carbed. I vowed to go EFI.

 

[Mac900]

My problem with EFI is that I'd have to buy all the test equipment and tools to work on it.

 

[lifes_an_ocean]

The ease of tweaks aside in the favor of carbs, EFI doesn't gum up like carbs. My 695 is my first EFI bike and I can't tell you how much I love it just for that reason alone!

 

[greenmonster]

EFI is very good for a lot of reasons and the only way to go regarding emissions etc.
Snakebite response, good control over everything involved.
BUT, a bit soft and delayed power delivery compared to well adjusted carbs, especially
flatslides. With those you get that meaty allthejuiceatonce feel & fast response.
Wouldn`t trade my FCR`s for anything! 8) ;D
Not to mention the joy of getting lost in jetting and not in the hands of DJ benches, PC3`s,
chips, 2sensors etc...

 

[CRASH!]

You couldn't give me a Monster with Mikunis.

Love my FCRs though ;D
I'd say if you aren't going with FCRs, go FI.

 

[ducpainter]

You couldn't give me a Monster with Mikunis.

Love my FCRs though ;D
I'd say if you aren't going with FCRs, go FI.

That's pretty cold.

I have one of each. I like them both. My Mikuni carbed Monster keeps up OK with CRASH's FCR bike. :-\ Starts good cold too.

 

[CRASH!]

That's pretty cold.

I have one of each. I like them both. My Mikuni carbed Monster keeps up OK with CRASH's FCR bike. :-\ Starts good cold too.

Oh, the FCR bike is no faster than the Mikuni bike. Never said anything like that.

I hate the fact that I couldn't ride the Mikunis when it was cold and humid due to carb icing. I really felt like the bike was dangerous when it was in the high 30s to low 40s It just really sucked.

Add in the improved off-idle response of the FCRs and now setting up for corners and driving out is waaaay more fun than it was before (with Mikunis).

I'll concede that starting the bike in this fall/winter weather is getting pretty old. I'd like an injected bike for commuting ;D (and keep the Monster for Hooli riding when I don't mind being obnoxious (or taking a long time) getting the bike started.

 

[hiero]

...
I hate the fact that I couldn't ride the Mikunis when it was cold and humid due to carb icing. I really felt like the bike was dangerous when it was in the high 30s to low 40s It just really sucked.
...

carb heaters

I'd love a set of FCRs, but I've got some other projects that need to get off the ground too

 

[Bing]

Carbs look nicer and are great when set up but... EFI is a nicer place to be when it's colder or you don't want to spend hours fiddling with jets and jetting. Plus carbs can't perform the mutliple tricks that EFI can.

 

[jerryz]

Carbs are much better , i prefer my M750 to my S4 , fuel injection is a shitty technolgy, i have spent a fortune on tuning parts for the S4 and still not as satisfying to ride as the mikuni carbed M750, had a FCR 900 a few years ago and that was even better.

I will never buy a new bike ever again as i dont want fuel injection,


jerry

 

[Motoduc1]

Interesting points.

I keep my Monster stock, don't ride in cold weather (in Nebraska, cold means c-c-c-c-c-old!) Not long ago, I adjusted the idle with a screwdriver. Problem solved.

Thanks for your responses...keep 'em coming.

Kent

 

[KHM]

When shopping for a 900 last year I was pondering the same question. I ended up going with a 98 carby and love it. After riding a friend's 2001 EFI 900, I realized why all these people were telling me that all the numbers support EFI, but there is a "soul" to carbed bikes that isn't there with EFI. I'll give up easy starting for the fun of the carbs. I will admit, though, that I have spend many hours tuning these mikunis and have finally gotten them near-perfect. (I'll get the FCRs after I graduate and start making money ) But I'd rather spend $60 on a jet kit and some time working on my bike than spend $300 for a power commander and another couple hundred to take it somewhere to have it tuned/mapped. But I like working on my bike... its therapeutic.

As a side note - if you do go with carbs... keep in mind that the mikunis have needle jets (emulsion tubes) that are **** and don't last much longer than 5k miles (my experience). So before you start to do any tuning, replace them first. $50 for a pair from Chris at CA-Cycleworks.

 

[CRASH!]

carb heaters

I'd love a set of FCRs, but I've got some other projects that need to get off the ground too

Believe me, I spent months trying to get information on where to get carb heaters and how to install them. I never came up with anything, either on the electric or the oil heaters. Finally gave up (and had a good excuse to pop for the FCRs ;D)

Re: FI technology, it's getting there. More powerful processors, closed loops, shower injectors and slave butterflies are finally producing injection performance on par with the best carbs. One day soon the technology will be available across the board and there'll be little reason to mess with carbs (unless you want to, but then it'll be on old bikes 'cause emissions requirements are forcing FI). But many FI systems still have the snatchy off-idle response that the Mikunis have. After experiencing the sublime response of FCRs, I'm very critical of that when I demo bikes.

If I rode over wide changes in altitude, FI (closed loop) would have another thing going for it. But here I see 2-3000 feet difference in my riding so that's not a factor.

 

[greenmonster]

Believe me, I spent months trying to get information on where to get carb heaters and how to install them. I never came up with anything, either on the electric or the oil heaters.

Funny as heaters were standard over here, at least on Scandinavian & UK bikes.
Oil heated has special runthrough float covers connected to the line of the cooler.
Could PM a pic of carbs if you want.

 

[the_journeyman]

My Mikunki's have plugs for those heater thingies you're talking about, but aren't fitted ~

JM

 

[test-reg]

Ok... I feel I have to weigh in on this one.

My '99 M750 started life with a pair of Mikunis on it. It was OK, but hella-lean. Jet-kit took care of that. Ran fine, idled fine, cold-started fine, good performance.

Got a chance to buy a crashed '99 SS750i.e. for cheap, so I got bored and EFI converted my Monster. Had to jerry-rig a fix to the efi's lean-ness ($8 @ Radio-Shack but no substitute for a Power Commander...). Ran OK around town, would out-pull the carbs at WFO, cold-started fine, slight improvement over the Mikunis.

Now, I've got the efi dialed in (proper fuel adder device) and it runs good, idles good, cold-starts good and good performance... But, something's missing:

but there is a "soul" to carbed bikes that isn't there with EFI.

So (Well put KHM) I'm actually going BACK to carbs on my Cafe-Racer.

 

[count]

Depends on many things.

I loved my carbed M750, just not at elevation. I live at ~5,000ft and can be at 11,000ft within 2 hours, so FI gets the nod for me.

 

[hollowellreid]

I bought a salvaged bike that wouldn't run.

I had to troubleshoot the whole system, pretty much from the beginning.

If you can turn a wrench and read the write ups on DML, it's pretty straight forward.

The EFI system is not the black art that so many make it out to be.