This is perhaps the most common question on this board and I am trying to get comfortable with the my new position in Tinkerville

I have an 06 RoadStar Silverado, it has Cobra Speedster Slash Cuts, as the only perfomrance mod, AIS in place, sea level. I did a ride with a group here this weekend, the first relatively long ride since the pipes went on, the ride was mostly low speed along coastal road. Based on experience the pipes should have been a nice even black inside, but in fact I noticed this morning that they are a light brownish gray. A sure sign that I am lean!!!!

I plan the BAK and Dyna in the near future, but need to hold off a little while before investing.

Do I need to jet or will opening up the PMS be enough? The bike seems to run fine on the main, no surging and little or no backfiring on hard deceleration.

Can I get the cap off the PMS without removing the carb?

You all got me into Tinkerville, now I need you help to find my way.

Thank you for your help.

Nope. You don't need to re-jet with only pipes. That's the good news. Nope, you can't get to the brass PMS plug with out taking the carb off. That's the bad news but it ain't that bad. You might as well get in the practice. In tinkerville you will need it.

Crusierbob wrote:
Based on experience the pipes should have been a nice even black inside, but in fact I noticed this morning that they are a light brownish gray. A sure sign that I am lean!!!!

It's sounds like you are where you should be.

Black means unburned fuel ..... excess carbon.

Doc

I expected the pipes to be black as we were running between 30 and 45 all the time. This is South FLorida and our beach roads are a lot of stop and go. If I were running at 65 for a 100 miles I would expect to get brown gray.

I will pull the plugs tonight and see what they say.

I think I am on the ragged edge and probably could stand to be a little richer. Don't want to burn any valves.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Bob

Musky wrote:
[quote]Nope. You don't need to re-jet with only pipes. That's the good news. quote]

Not doubting you, but is that correct? Every pipe I've looked at says you have to re-jet, or rather, they recommend you re-jet. Well hell, I've been puttin off getting new pipes cause I don't wanna fiddle with the carb yet, so maybe now I won't have any more excuses.

"Honey, I know what you can get me for Xmas!!!!!!"

I obviously screwed up the quote function, now you know why I don't wanna fiddle with the carb. Maybe it's cause I don't have any karma? <br><br>Post edited by: RoadieFF, at: 2006/10/31 12:33

Not doubting you, but is that correct? Every pipe I've looked at says you have to re-jet, or rather, they recommend you re-jet. Well hell, I've been puttin off getting new pipes cause I don't wanna fiddle with the carb yet, so maybe now I won't have any more excuses.

I've put pipes on bikes before(including this one) and have never jetted. You might have to tweak your PMS a little or you might not. Here's some Karma for ya just to get you started on your journey.

Thanks for the info Musky, now another one for ya. If I do put on new pipes, I'm assuming the new one's will be less restrictive than the stock pipes. Does that cause the bike to run leaner? If that's the case since most stock bikes seem to run a bit rich wouldn't this be a helpful thing by leaning it out some?

RoadieFF wrote:
Thanks for the info Musky, now another one for ya. If I do put on new pipes, I'm assuming the new one's will be less restrictive than the stock pipes. Does that cause the bike to run leaner? If that's the case since most stock bikes seem to run a bit rich wouldn't this be a helpful thing by leaning it out some?

Yup, it will help lean it out. But depending on how rich you are (if you are rich) you still might have to tweak the screw.

Thanks.

Well went full to Tinkerville last night and want to thank all of you for your help and technical letters that guided me through the process. This was my first trip into Carb land on this motorcycle and I expect there will be others. The first time is always the worst as you have to find out where everything is. I used the Service Manual as a guide and only found one surprise not mentioned on the site before. Perhaps it is a new feature on the 2006 model??? I was able to remove everything on the carb except the Throttle Position Sensor. It was attached with Torx Safety Screws. In other words the torx screw with a post protruding up in the center of the screw. I had torx drivers, but not the version with a hollow center to accommodate the pin. Fortuantely the cable on the sensor had enough free play in it to allow me to turn the carb over and work on it resting on the cam cover. I drilled the plug about half way through and used a small sheet metal screw to pull it free.

It was raining today so I did not get to ride, but it started nicely, warmed up and idled well after I put it all back together.

The PMS was set at 1.75 turns stock so I turned it out 2.5 turns as a starting point based on much of what I have read on the site. Hope that gets me there.

Thanks again for you help.