OK. After seeing the predicament of our young comrade in the UK with his stripped carbie float bowl thread, I'm reminded of the carbie freezing saga of 1996.
I purchased a new 1995 black (metallic charcoal) 900 Monster in early 1996. After air box and jetting mods with open pipes she made a whopping 77hp and 63ft/lbs of torque
! After riding Harleys and old Triumphs for years I was excited!
By winter here the thing wouldn't run as soon as the temperature hit 15 deg Cel! I got a carbie heating kit fitted under warranty from the dealer who was genuinely supportive and right behind the customer. The kit didn't make a difference. I thought that maybe my open air box mod wasn't helping, but other owners of stock bikes had the same problem. Hey, the air box/jet kit was in the DP catalogue.
I went back to the dealer who spoke to the importer on my behalf, but there were no other solutions. I starting dealing with the importer directly and was put onto the importer's technical adviser/liaison guy for Ducati and Harley. Here's the thing, Harley were running CV carbs on their bikes at the time and having owned a '93 FXR those carbies iced up also.
The guy had no solution except to add an antifreezing additive to the fuel. He recommended the kind of additives used by people running vehicles in alpine regions. I couldn't find it anywhere in Melbourne. I thought this was unacceptable as I knew it was the particular design of carburetor that struggled in cold wheather. (Some Kawasaki ZXR's had this problem also). I solved the problem on my Harley by fitting a flat slide carb (Mikuni 40mm smoothbore). The group I used to ride with numbered 15 Harley riders, and about half had later model bikes (at the time) that would all pop and fart on those cold night runs. The guys with flat slide or S&S, Bendix and Keihin butterfly carbs didn't have a problem. Only the CV carbs struggled.
So dealing with this technical guy for Harley/Ducati again... I asked him if Ducati would give me a deal on the FCR kit in the DP catalogue. I was prepared to pay to fix the problem with their carb and only wanted a good price. Not even interested because that would set a precedent! Imagine all the people lining up for their cheap flatslides....
He said that the Norhern hemisphere didn't have this problem because the fuel companies put the antifreezing additive in the fuel during production. Hey you guys up North, is this true?
Now I find on my current Monster that the CV carbs don't ice up very much at all. Very rarely and only rough running (stumbling/missing) just off idle. This current bike has higher compression and ported heads and manifolds. The stock manifolds are very rough from the factory and mine are cleaned up. A factor?
So what solutions have people tried. What worked and what didn't, besides a change of carburetor?
I was wondering if the newer, denser premium fuels reduce icing. I use them with the higher compression pistons.
What about a manifold "sock" with heat insulation in a tyre warmer type material that you can Velcro onto the manifolds in winter? You let the bike warm up and the heat stays in the manifold to stop the icing
.
Does anyone buy an anti freezing additive?
What about electric float bowl warmers? This has been applied in cars hasn't it? Sounds scary to me, electricity near petrol/Gasoline. You wouldn't do that with an old Triumph!
Cheers
Tony.
