CARB OR INJECTED
My 04 roadking is carb.
The guy that did my dyno said you can do more fine tuning with a carb.
All I know for sure is that I am happy with mine, you will be too.
I remember this same conversation MANY MANY years ago once apon a time, butwith automobiles. Electronic Fuel Injection has been around for a long time for Automotive, so that technology in Bikes isn't that much different. If EFI was this bad we would see thousands of vehicles and motorcycles daily on the side of the road for this very reason. Some people don't like change, and that is okay. If you have a Carb, nobody is going to take it from you. This isn't the first year motorcycles have had EFI. Resale value on bikes doesn't matter which fuel delivery system it has. I am guessing that everyone speaking negative of EFI still driving pre-1980's vehicles. I still have onecarburetor automobile, a 1966 Chevy II Super Sport and will die with this car still in my name and feel the same about my FLHRCI. Every vehicle I have owned in the last 18 years has been EFI, everything has to have bugs worked out of it including the carb. I have owned many vehicles and none of them have given me EFI problems. My work truck is a 1995 Chevy with 216,000 miles with no EFI or Electrical problems. If my 2003 Harley Road King Classic FLHRCI with EFI gives me this type of service. You are more likely to be stranded with a flat tire, or a dead battery than you are sitting stranded on the side of the road waiting on a tow truck with Electrical Fuel Delivery problems from EFI.
If you don't have a fuel gauge, or don't glance at it every once in a while,or watch your trip meter (Easy Task, reset every time after refueling) then I would highly recommend a Carb bike. When the bike starts starving for fuel just reach down and switch it to reserve (Need to learn to do this while in motion especially if you find your self on a major highway during rush hour). Then next fuel station we come.
We have been around a lot of other bikes and I have yet to see people hanging outside a Harley dealer or at a Rally listening to Exhaust. "Yep, that one over there is EFI with no potatos, the one behind it sounds like a Carb,I can hearda 1 potato 2 potato 3 singing." No noteworthy differences unless you have ears like a canine or carry a decibel meter with you, LOL.
Bottom line,BUY WHAT YOU WANT, EFI OR CARB,maintain what you buy.Drive it and enjoy it as long as you want.Don't go on with life worrying what a group of people (on either side) say will happen because they have the OTHER option. I will see you on the road with my well self-maintained FLHRCI and running my miles up high and living life to the fullest. I recognize and respect both Bike Options & Riders.
First off I do beleave that it does matter for resale, and second I can and I do listen to see if a Bike isCarbed or FI. If you've been around them long enough you can tell very easily. OH wait I must be half man half canine,LOL.......
D
Well,
LOL, Half-man-Half-Canine-MAN. That is GOOD. I have been around long enough to know that their is an exception to every rule. Congratulations !!!Another whole year and I will too be an old timer. Sometimes a year makes a whole lot of difference and being of the OTHER group.
I much rather be riding than sitting under the shade tree tuning all day. Lets see, TUNING or LAYING THE MILES DOWN. Tuning does have it's benefits. If you are tuning all day on the Carb, you are keeping low miles on the bike. Which in turn could make the resale higher than a EFI. I starting to see, and you can say you are from the OTHER group.
Just Buy what you want the first time and you will never be wishing you were in the OTHER group making excuses why you bought what you bought.
Carburetors are great for gearheads like me..... I enjoy working on my bike, and I don't have to sit under a tree and fiddle with my carb all day, but so what if I did?? thats better than sitting on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere land in Nebraska, for 4 hrs waiting for a tow because my ecm decided "f' it, I'm done" on my '00 RK, maybe I had a lemon and it damn sure left ME beside the road, but that's why I now have an '06 with a carburetor, with a few tools and a spare ign. module in the bags, I doubt I will be stranded again.
FI is great for ppl that just want to hit the button & go, but I am a firm believer in letting things warm up a bit before you take off, even on my FI vehicles.
HD is catching up to automotive FI technology with the O2 sensors and such, and will continue to improve their systems, but till then, it's a carb for me.
The Best of Harley-Davidson for Lifelong Riders
It is one of the most awesome rides to go on, just incredible scenery, and we had some of the best ribs I've ever had at Grand Lake.


