The nice thing about carburetors is life without maps, tuners, ecms, sensors, etc.
So what if I have to warm up the engine for a couple minutes before I hit the road. It's better for the engine anyway.....

 

Fuel Injection rules.

 

With all of the above being said, I really, really want to know where I can find one of those oversized bags of popcorn.

 

My local "Smart and Final" has them as do some office supply stores. Quality is somewhere between packing material and fertilizer.

 

To really get the harley "sound" you have to have a carb...and if you have a bike after they started putting electronic ignitions..you have to bypass the VOEs to get it...will never own a TC...unless they are giving it away.

 

I'll take the reliability of FI. I don't miss setting a choke, worrying about jet sizes, floats, needle & seats or syncing multiple carbs and sliders.

I guess i have a REAL Toro mower, a REAL Honda pressure washer and a REAL MTD snowblower. I'd love to be able to get rid of the snowblower. haha

 

B-29 aircraft had FI in 1948, if memory serves... Of course the B-29 had been having real problems with engine fires... In early form "FI" was not so far from a CV carb - all mechanical. Electronic fuel injection is horribly complex and expensive to produce and would be useless due to reliability problems if the numerous components were not very reliable. The economies of scale bring the cost down, but it puts the bike owner in a spot so that he's dependent on the logistical train. FI gives performance in exchange for transfer of the technical aspect to the vendor from the owner. Owner becomes slave to manufacturer when FI does fail. All systems fail...ergo...

The advantage of carburetors over FI is narrow...they are simple and fixable and tolerate fairly dirty fuel - and they work alright, good enough. This makes problems more frequent than on FI bikes, but usually owner-fix is possible with hand tools. Not so when FI krapzout...

I couldn't care less if the tooter makes a bike "real" or not, but I myself have no use for factory builds past the tooter/evo era. After that Jap or Kraut or Murkin - all "other than bike" ( ie junk).

Many people favor junk.

 

Having ridden Carb'd bikes all my life, I am still afraid of FI bikes. Because I expect to some day be broken down no the side of the road... With a carb'd bike I could always fiddle with it and fix it. With EFI, I'd probably be hosed.

... Except, I can't ever remember a carbureted bike breaking down because of the carburetor. I remember fiddlin with them when changing parts and such. A track kit (with needles and jets) is a heck of a lot cheaper than a tuner for modern EFI. I guess I've dealt with crud in the carb bowl for time to time, but never on the side of the road. Maybe when I forgot to treat the gas before shutting the bike down for a few weeks in the Winter?

I am always hesitate to rely on electronic sensors as well. And EFI takes bunch of them to run right.

However, I will say, I do love the smooth acceleration of my EFI bikes. And, the fact that my EFI bikes are so much newer than my carbureted bikes were, hopefully will add some reliability to the smooth operation. My wife insisted I buy a newer bike for reliability... She knew I was tired of wrenching and wanted to just ride. Hopefully that's what I can count on for years to come.

I was incredibly afraid of the Twitcam motor, EFI, all that stuff. Now, I look back and think of myself as the cavemen in 2001: a Space Odyssey... Beating my stick against a big black rock! Now, I'm just afraid I'm gonna be like Dave, trapped in the capsule by a rogue computer!

 

I have the best of both...either has it's good/bad traits, but equally fun to ride.

 

Opinions are never ending. Those that know and understand carbs love them. I understand why so many want FI go for it. The Real anything is such a joke spoken by wannabees. What? another opinion.