I just bought my first Harley...My 98 SG with 10,170 miles has pausein the carb when I am just cruisin along and accelerate, alsowhen I filled up the tank it backfired through the exhaust when I started it.Are the stock carbs any good? What can I do to improve the performance?

TOM

 

Stock carbs are good unless you have big bore and other go fast items.
Sounds like it might be running a little rich, backfire out the exhaust w/carb means unburned excess gas.The pause, does it sound like the engine bogs then takes off? It maybe jetted so its running a bit rich.
Any independent shops near you that have a dyno you could run it on to check the air/fuel mixture? The one by me only charges by the hour for bikes w/carbs and it usually takes an hour.

Also check out the Engine/fuel/intake section of the forum.
https://www.hdforums.com/forumid_266/tt.htm

Let us know what you come up with.

 

No the engine does not bog when I take off. It idlesand runsout fine, except for the pause. The bike is totally stock except for an aftermarket air filter assembly.