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Hi Mark, I don’t know of anyone who has done this. Obviously you will need a one off inlet manifold. In other conversions on other bikes that i have seen, is seems to me that using a SU carb is prefferable. Perhaps some of the Turbo conversion specialists might be able to help as the SU is often used.
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Hi Mark,
I’ve been considering doing the same thing to my XV1100. This company supply the kits :
http://www.kjsmotorcycleworks.com/
I’d be interested to hear how you get on if you do decide to go down this route before I do…
Cheers,
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Yes Mark,
Although horrendously expensive I took the plunge over the summer and I now have a Smithtech ‘Evenflow’ single carb manifold fitted to my ’97 XV1100 imported from Adam Smith in California. You can find his manifolds on ebay and he is the only person I’m aware of who can put the whole kit together for you (http://www.viragoperformance.us/) with Mikuni TM40 carb and K&N pancake air filter. Nicely polished, excellent welds and looks nicer than the ones by ‘Searayguy’ and KJS, the KJS versions I believe are made of a composite, although apparently these work well too. Having already researched the KJS system before I bought mine I don’t think KJS are in business right now as weren’t answering my emails and I later learned they were hit by a hurricane recently…?
Anyway, it has turned out to be incredibly costly for me because I made a big mistake in taking it to my local garage to have the installation done and they didn’t know what they were doing despite me showing them instructions directly from Adam Smith at Smithtech. Good old UK bike workshops…
They only took half of the AIS off so it ran horribly and moaned no end about how I shouldn’t have bought an alien part. It was like trying to control a bloody rearing horse.
Another problem I notice on mine is the weight of the carb hangs on a rubber boot which is bolted to the manifold, so this flexing was affecting vacuum. There is no other means of support for the carb and I was given no advice on this on purchasing.
So having taken a load of varying opinions from some guys on Viragotechforum over in the U.S. and putting them into one melting pot i.e. my brain, I took the brave/maybe rather stupid decision of trying to tackle it myself; stripped the AIS off completely, capped the exhaust ports etc. but this turned out to be an even bigger mistake and I felt like throwing the hole lot in the nearest skip, as the thing ran beautifully before I got the single carb idea into my head.I’ve calmed down a bit now but the old girl is just sitting out there all miserable, my old mate for the last 16 years, and I’m left with no alternative but to pass the whole thing over to another mechanic who’s more familiar with tinkering with classic bikes, but the point is, despite Adam Smith denying this, I think the Smithtech carb needs some kind of bracket fabricated to provide extra support for the carb.
I Canadian guy has a KJS system fitted to his XV on youtube (same Mikuni TM40 carb), which seems to work really well without a support bracket but having asked him a couple of questions about this I’m still waiting for an answer. Be very wary of making any mods if you’re not mechanically minded without concrete guidance as there are hundreds of opinions that don’t help much if you get into difficulty.
I also have an AME 14º fork kit, custom apes, forward controls and Highway Hawk exhaust sitting here to be fitted at the same time, so hopefully it’ll all be worth it in the end….
I’ll keep you posted on my progress, but I would love to hear how anyone else has got on???
Cheers.
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