I was reading a preview on the KX250F in Cycle World and saw that the new model is fuel injected. Now I know that there is a world of difference between the KXF's and KLX but I'm hoping that some of this technology will trickle down to the KLX. The thought of a bone stock fuel injected KLX with 28HP almost makes me drool. And the thing is I think Kawasaki could do 28 reliable horsepower on a stock bike.

 

The KLX250 that is sold in many European & Asian countries already has FI and it still doesn't have 28bhp because it's restricted in gears 4-6. It can be derestricted fairly easily but still nowhere near 28bhp.

 

Meh.

I prefer a carb myself.

 

You know...a year ago I would have never thought that, but I'm liking the carb on the KLX. I'm not an FI hater either. I installed a multiport Edelbrock FI on my old full size Jimmy 4X4 and love it, so I'm not totally old school on fuel systems. When you get the CVK34 dialed in on the KLX, it works quite well. I was thoroughly surprised how well it handled altitude at over 13,000' in CO last month. I knew CV carbs are better than slide carbs at wide ranges of altitude change, but this stupid thing ran darned clean everywhere this year...1500' to 13114' without any jetting change. FI is good. It's the future for the internal combustion engine like it or not. But I have no heartburn over the stock carb.

 

No question that FI is good for many engine applications, but i think in motorcycles where i want things to be as simple and robust as possible theres just to much that can go wrong; especially on an off road bike.

Besides MOST FI systems on motorcycles are little more than glorified electric carbs anyway, with none of the advantages of say, direct port injection.

Alot of people seem to think theres this whole new exciting world of horsepower and hooliganism to be unlocked by FI (mostly in the uninformed sportbike world) but the reality of it is that a well tuned carb (especially a CV one as you pointed out) has little disadvantages when it comes to fuel metering, and a whole lot of advantages when it comes to simplicity.

 

Good point on the throttle body FI vs. ported FI. And I notice that most street legal FI bikes almost require a $300 Power Commander or other manipulation device to get any real power potential out of them.

 

Good point. Plus the possibility of having to get a larger injector in a case like BB 351 or other mods.

 

I like FI just for the simple usage of it. Turn the key and forget about it. The PCM (ECU) does all the work. No matter the altitude, pressure, humidity, temperature, or season, it just works year round. Plus a FI system can compusate for changes in the engine. Also a FI system works at any angle, so as long fuel can be pumped.

But with the horror stories of Kawi FI on the KLX over sea's, I just my stick with my CV carbed version.

 

How long have the FI euro/asain KLXs been out? I think with it being put in their race bikes, they'll get the problems sorted real quick. They sell a lot of bikes by winning races and they're not going to be losing races because of fuel system problems.

Last Feb/March(I can't remember which) when my friend and I bought our KLXs at the dealer, it was a few days after a Kawasaki won a Supercross race. The dealer said guys were coming in and buying multiple motocross and trail bikes for themselves and their kids since that race.

 

I like a carb for it simplicity. well not simple to set up but once done, very few failures other than dirt or water. And I have taken a carb apart in the field a few times.

Having said that, in the jeep world (1970-1980's) all had carbs- no one wanted FI, because "we could not fit it in the woods" but we found out FI rarely fails.

I think FI will be here on all bikes in a few years, it will be the only way to make the bikes pass emissions.