I have had an S&S Super E on a Heritage Softail and thought it was a good carb. But, I'm looking at the Mikuni kit and it looks pretty cool too. Any opinions on which is better for real world applications? I know that with my S&S it seemed to run rich in the mountains.

I like the round air cleaner on the Mikuni. I liked the location of the choke on the S&S.

 

How do you ride?

 

I have had both---------------the mikuni to me wasnt a good deal.Keeping it tuned right was like trying to keep the space shuttle flying.It SEEMED to make more power but I never could see it on the dyno



The s@s is a simpler carb and it seemed to be a little more friendly for my riding technique --------I also will say that if you run drag pipes stay with the super e or play hell to keep the mikuni in tune .I ride from about 3800 feet to the rocky mountains and the mikuni with drag pipes is allways off fuel wise

 

I have a Super G on an 89" stroker.
It runs great and never needs tweaking.
I live at 5000' and travel as high a 10,000 without problems.
I have peacemakers and with the baffles wide open it will pop a bit on deceleration but closing the baffles a bit will cure that.

 

if you already have the S&S Super E, just tune it properly. There is no need to spend hundreds to replace it with something else.

S&S has very good tuning instructions on their website, and it is easy.

 

 

Not to offend anyone who chooses S&S, but there is no comparison between a Super E and an Mikuni HSR. The comments about adjustments are most likely coming from someone who doesn't truely understand carburation and/or know how to adjust them properly. The S&S simply does not have the number of tuning circuits (in stock form) as the Mikuni, and cannot be as accurately tuned. In tuning the carb, with the Super, you get what you get; with the HSR, you get what you want.

If you put a Mikuni on your bike, and tune it properly (they also have a great tuning manual), it will be the best carburator you have ever owned on a motorcycle. The throttle response is crisper, the accelerator pump is 10x better, the midrange adjustments work, the WOT main jets are easy to change, the enrichener circuit (which also works great on the S&S) make starting a breeze, and you will get better fuel mileage than you ever did with your tractor carburetor.

I understand carburetors, transistion circuits, air bleeds, etc. and I have the a/f monitoring equipment to verify and see how they are working. I can assure you the Mikuni is the better choice.

I have run S&S Super E's on both my Evo and Shovelhead. I desperately wanted to keep the Super E on my Shovel. It's foot print is smaller, it looks good, and it has that classic American vintage feel. I ended up with the Mikuni in the end, again, and it's a huge hassle to run one on a shovel (because of the oil line between the heads).

The real problems with the S&S show up when running drag pipes. You have enough adjustments to still make it work well with the HSR in that situation. Don't get me wrong, with decent exhaust mufflers, you can certainly have a good running bike S&S Super, I know I have. But when you get serious about having the best possible running bike, the Mikuni is what I spend my money on.

I don't know what year bike you have, but 2 of mine have the dash mounted chokes. I modified my setups to use the stock location with the Mikuni. If you have a newer bike, you can use the stock location under the left tank, or there are brackets to mount it right on the carb.

Good luck whatever you decide.

 

I also wanted to add, my TC also runs an HSR 42. I have it tuned at 1100 ft. I have ridden from the top of Pikes Peak at 14,000+ ft to as low as the beaches of the Atlantic ocean and NEVER have to adjust a single thing. That bike will get 50+ mpg and has over 100 hp.

 

I understand carbs just fine-----------------And if you read my post I dont dislike the mikuni just indicated its hard to keep right,If you run lots of altitude ranges and temps etc. you will see the better tuning of the rpm ranges of the mikuni require more attention to keep right.Couple that with finicky needle and seats there is no denying they require more maintenance---------------If you run one in my neighborhood you must have a super tight fuel filter to get all the microscopic particles out to keep the float from sticking and dumping all of your gas on the ground.Everyone I have ever had seemed to change idle speeds on a daily basis as well.But I run big cams in everything so that might change part of the picture as well


The drag pipe comments as well as the tractor carb comment kind of throws me------the crudeness of the carb is more forgiving even knowing you are sacrificing power thaN THE MIKUNI .


I like carls speed shop typhoon if you have a wide open application more than not,I dont like the price though.



I had a weber setup for a while and figured it makes the mikuni seem like a simple carb setup-------looked cool but that was it

 

I have not experienced any of the float problems you speak of, but do run filters on 3 of the 4 bikes I have mikuni's on.

In regards to the drag pipe situation: The S&S has an idle circuit, the intermediate circuit (which includes the air bleed) and the main circuit. The problem with drags is generally in the 2000-3500 rpm range, right where that intermediate is doing all the work as you are rolling on the throttle. The only 2 things you can do are to change the intermediate jet size, and/or change the air bleed to alter the time when the main takes over, hoping you can get past the rich hiccup without making the main too lean. Air bleed tuning is pretty much impossible for the average joe if you don't have A/F meters or are working on a dyno. At least S&S changed to an adjustable air bleed around 10 years ago, so you don't have to drill out the air bleed and pray you don't f it up. That's the reason people add the thunder jets, to get that extra tuning ability.

The Mikuni allows you to raise or lower the needle (and change needle diameter) to lean out the drag pipe problem area better than the S&S. Off the shelf Super vs off the shelf Mikuni, you simply have more circuits you can adjust to get it dialed just right.

If you aren't going to spend the time to work with all the circuits on the HSR, then you probably will have better luck with an S&S and just adjusting the idle mixture, intermediate jet, and main and simply riding it. There is a big range where an engine will run just fine without rich stumbling or lean popping, 11:1 to probably 15.5:1

The S&S (without all the extra **** hanging off it) simply cannot deliver as flat of a fuel curve as you can get from the Mikuni HSR. It's that flat curve and the ability for it to change (and still stay flat) with throttle opening change is what makes the bike run as good as it possibly can. It allows you to achieve max HP from your combo and at the same time get max fuel mileage.

Can you get an S&S Super E to run good, start good, and be a good carb? Absolutely, and there are more of them out there than you can shake a stick at.

I've done the drill. Slap on the a/f meter and data monitoring gear, and spend as much time as I needed to get the Super to run as good as I possibly could. Changing jets, air bleeds, idle mixtures, and testing at different throttle positions. Then swithed to the Mikuni and did the same thing. The mik will just perform better in the end.

I honestly could care less what carb anyone runs. I try to tune my carbs so they work as close to fuel injection as they possible can, and after more hours invested in tuning than I would care to admit, I have found the Mikuni a superior carb to the Super E; if you take the time to tune it like it is suppose to be tuned. The interweb is full of opinions, and that's fine. I'm just sharing what I have found, working with both carbs the OP mentioned.

It all boils down to what you are looking for and what you are trying to accomplish. The good news is, both brands still command a decent used price, should you decide you chose unwisely...