I went and removed the caps for the pilot jets( talk about a pain in the butt) But after I screwed the jets out half as turn it now runs like a whole other bike. The best way to ride it before I adjusted the jets was to get up to 5-6k rpm as quick as possible. Now I can run around 3-4k and be able to accelerate from there. There was a horrible flat spot from idle to 5-6k but now it is a LOT more pleasurable to ride. I removed the caps by getting a small drill bit and holding it with a peice of plastic with a dimple in it and spinning it with my fingers. Once I had a dimple drilled out of the cap I then use a ratchet that you can twist the handle with a small star bit, pushing the screw into the cap. I will check my top-ups to see if it affected my mileage. Even though it was not easy to do(without taking the carbs off) it certainly is better to ride.

 

Those are the air/fuel screw adjusters, and they do make a nice difference. I also cut 4 coils off the slide springs and enlarged the hole in the slides, not the one for the needle, the one towards the edge inside the slide, to lighten it a little. You can only get it a few sizes larger but better than nothing. You will get better throttle response and she will rev a little quicker. A one tooth smnaller front sprocket is a nice addition also, gives them some nice boost overall, RPMs only slightly higher and I cruise mine up around 80 no sweat. Good luck, Jim.

 

I'm really interested in the MPG change. If its not too bad then a the low end power would definately be worth the trouble. Let us know when you top up.

 

I did this with my previous 500 and the effect on fuel economy wasn't bad. At 1/2-turn out, I was barely able to get worse than 50mpg by riding the pi$$ out of it, but I found that taking them to +1/4 of a turn out from the stock settings yielded a smoother low-end with almost no discernible loss of MPG.
Of course this will vary from one altitude to another, and from one bike to another too.

And another thing, at +1/4-turn out, the bike runs cooler in traffic. I'd forgotten about this until getting stuck in traffic with my current brand-new 500. I'm going to leave it bone-stock until the initial service, but after that the caps are coming out and the screws will be backed out +1/4 turn!
-CCinC

 

A rich mix really helps with cooling, thats how you lean aircraft at altitude if you have an exhaust gas temp gauge. You can vary the EGT by about 200 degrees by playing with the mix. altho that much variation can effect your range dramatically.

Thanks for the info. Now i just gotta find a bike to try it on.

 

You guys beat me to the comment about the enine running a little cooler. But I did notice that the engine sounds different. Some may say a little fatter. It dosen't ring at such a high pitch now. Sounds much better on the freeway at 75 - 80 mph. This is one mod that is certainly worth doing. We have been battling 50mph winds aout here in LA recently so that has thrown my economy out the window. It is not fun getting thrown from side to side in your lane and leaning the bike over just to ride straight. Heavy winds is a bitch. One moment you are doing 75 then bam you are down to 60. And the cars could be doing the same thing as well. But the winds are gone so I will let you know about the mpg. Don't forget about the Motorcycle Show at the Long Beach Convention Centre this weekend.