Weekly Quiz

the pods look cool,work great,and do away with the pain in the ass of the box and boots.........


only turd punchers are afraid of pods....turdpunchers...


no offense OMR

650ed, if you hate pods so much, why don't you help rid the world of evil. Whenever someone can't get their bike to run right with pods, why don't you supply them with a totally amazing, life saving, race winning, made by the factory so it must be the best thing in the world, FACTORY AIRBOX...I need one for a 78 kz1000, you can send it to this address...

I am one of the people who have pods on a CV carb bike and I love them...b

The reason I am posting is in response to Larry's question. Maybe it has to do with fuels (but I don't remember any other kind of fuel but I think it may have more to do with the fact that the people having the issues are newbies...in the 70's if you put pods on your bike, some guy on your street had a bike like yours and could help you. Despite how much we love our old bikes most people think we are weird for it. The people these days have never seen a carburetor, and don't know what it is. My girlfriend once said at Canadian Tire when I sent her on an errand to pick up something for our old truck "it's a 1987 toyota truck, it's carbonated" Not one of my friends knows a lick of anything about working on their machines...they get a brand new one, and replace it with another before any service work is needed. When we talk about me working on my bikes they say "I change my oil and stuff, but I'm not much of a wrench" I have a sneaky feeling that in the 70's there were more "wrenches" around. Like Tri said, people these days are less handy than they used to be, so if they buy a bike with a rotted out exhaust and no airbox and CAN'T get an iPhone app for it, they have no clue what to do.

gd4now wrote:

Ok I will try Captian, but am not interested in a twinkie. :lol:

Slider carbs lift the needle mechanically while CV carbs lift it via vacuum created in the venturi. This vacuum acts on a diaphram which moves the needle. When a CV carb is working correctly there is a direct relation between air speed and the needle location. This direct relation of air speed and needle location is not necessary there with the mechanical slider carbs.

That'd be the concept, except nobody seems to take into account that the entire CV setup is designed around restricted air flow.. chuckle.

If you crack those butterflies open on the engine side you still have a slide sitting there in the way of all that air you're after with them pods.. heh Mechanical carbs don't suffer that fate, they don't give a crap at all, turn and holes are open to air and fuel.

Without constant velocity, vacuum, whatever name does it for ya, until you create the required vacuum at the top of the carb that slide is going nowhere. So you crank the throttle from idle and open them butterfly flaps, yet the slide just sits there blocking the air, because air is just freely flowing in from the pod and creating no vacuum at the rear of the carb to do the work of the invisible mechanical lifter. Your motor can't breathe.. grin :ohmy:

without the reserve vacuum the box creates, low end throttle response is fubar since there is no excel pump to give the burst of fuel to respond with that slider/butterfly carbs enjoy. That is achieved in cv by a sudden increase in that reserve vacuum lifting the slide with minimal input and increasing air flow to draft with and provide that burst, pretty much instantly. (as I comphrehend it) So you get stutters and bogs while attempting to accelerate from idle because the slide isn't lifting and is blocking air flow. You're motor can't breathe.. laugh :ohmy:

People end up with wacko mid ranges, because the pods don't provide constant velocity.. they fluctuate up and down, or provide no suction at all due to their design to be free flowing. So you get a slider bouncing up and down and constantly interrupting air flow, flat spots, bogs, erratic surges.. you name it.
Of course a hard nosed inexperienced type will just keep cranking it until their diaphragms rip. A costly lesson. Once again, your motor can't breathe, laugh. :ohmy:

I don't hate on pods, they have always been a better alternative to running a slide or butterfly carb wide open. I do kinda miss carb fires, (even my own) they were at times very entertaining.. lol I would highly recommend PODS to anyone with slide/butterfly carbs, looking for a tiny HP gain, ease of removal/install and replacement.

I just don't think inexperience people trying to learn should be told to put pods on CV carb setups... they are a challenge for experienced people. If someone isn't going to race the machine, the factory pretty much had performance, reliability, and all weather durability covered with the intake system for normal street use for the CV carb.

Pods don't mind the rain much on slider carbs, but the constantly changing vacuum created as they absorb moisture reeks havoc on CV carbs reliant on Constant Velocity.

I thought the idea was to help people get on, and stay on the road, and you can't beat the stock setup for that. There are a crap load of mods and part swaps that can keep you busy for years, and I've never seen an exhaust setup change have a negative effect on an old Kawasaki(probably kill a new one), a Honda yes. So let em have fun with all that stuff, while their bike continues to run good, heck have them try to mold, weld, polish, some light aluminum as a cover for the exposed side of the ugly plastic box if it disgust them that much.

I have Pods on a set of CV carbs and have been stuck with them for years, they're no stranger to me. I know how raped I was by the removal of my mechanical linkage they replaced with this invisible vacuum thing, lol. Like I gave a crap if the motor sucked and farted a couple drops of unburnt fuel out the exhaust because I got off the throttle to quick... bah humbug :blink:

I personally think it would be an easier route to send newbs down telling them to get some old slider carbs to replace their CV's with and put PODS on those.. be less headache for them imo.

I'm way out of touch with anything like professional racing, do all the major motorcycle companies remove their air boxes in favor of pods when they race professionally???

You sure you don't want this Twinkie?? I don't think they ever go bad.. :woohoo:

lobstermobster wrote:

since a quote from one of my posts was used in this little quiz i'll chime in. Yes i am new to motorcycles, and i know its hard to believe but all of you were too. And I know some of you would like to believe you just magically know everything about everything, but im sure you didnt get to where you are today with out some guidance from some one else who was more knowledgeable about motorcycles at the time. So what it comes down to is, why do half the people on this site only come on here to boost their moral like a high school jock. The only reason these sites exist is to share information and link up with people of like interests. So why bash the new guys for trying to figure out their shit, who cares if its not what your into.. if you have the ability to help, why be a dick.

I can see why you would get that impression but nobody is picking on you. Sorry if my post led you to that conclusion.

Yes...absolutely YES you should be able to expect guidance and assistance.

This is not a case of "I know what you don't ...na na na na na na"

But there's justification for comments that get made by the senior members. Stick around a while and you'll see why...

Larry C

New, airbox ducts for the 81 KZ650-CSR are no longer available.
So, when they get hard or are missing, pods are a logical alternative.

9am53 wrote:

I am one of the people who have pods on a CV carb bike and I love them...b

The reason I am posting is in response to Larry's question. Maybe it has to do with fuels (but I don't remember any other kind of fuel but I think it may have more to do with the fact that the people having the issues are newbies...in the 70's if you put pods on your bike, some guy on your street had a bike like yours and could help you. Despite how much we love our old bikes most people think we are weird for it. The people these days have never seen a carburetor, and don't know what it is. My girlfriend once said at Canadian Tire when I sent her on an errand to pick up something for our old truck "it's a 1987 toyota truck, it's carbonated" Not one of my friends knows a lick of anything about working on their machines...they get a brand new one, and replace it with another before any service work is needed. When we talk about me working on my bikes they say "I change my oil and stuff, but I'm not much of a wrench" I have a sneaky feeling that in the 70's there were more "wrenches" around. Like Tri said, people these days are less handy than they used to be, so if they buy a bike with a rotted out exhaust and no airbox and CAN'T get an iPhone app for it, they have no clue what to do.

See :laugh: You're spoiled by technology...

Generational differences Adam. I see it with my nephews. Here's the difference between us 70's generation guys and you guys....

We were given someone else's junk.

To us though it was treasure. We'd work on it and get it going. We had little, if any money. Yes the older guys used to bust our balls to so don't hand me that...."Mom..he's yelling at me" crap.... :laugh:

I see so many kids handed brand new, shiny toys and they smash them, break them, don't take care of them...turn them into junk... Then someone buys them yet another one.... :ohmy:

For us, if we were given something we were expected to take care of it. If you didn't, there was a cure the old man found was very effective. He would forcefully place his foot where you fart!

It was a combined matter of economics & circumstances being different that formed us differently.

Looking back, things are the same as they always were in many ways. The older guys loose patience with the kids sometimes. Here's why.

Young guy asks the old guy how to do something. Old guy gives him the answer.

Later on the young guy comes back...still can't get it figured out or broke the thing. Old guy asks him "did you do it the way I told you to"?

Young guy sheepishly admits " Well no...not exactly"

Old guy get's the impression he may be wasting his time but tries again to help the kid..... That scenario repeats and the next thing you know.....the old guy's getting on the kid's ass for not listening.....AGAIN.

It's frustrating to watch someone fail because they won't listen. But that's human nature...isn't it

It's also true that there is often more than one way to accomplish a certain task. Faced with options, most will choose the method they perceive to be the quickest / easiest. Sometimes that's OK....sometimes there are no short cuts....no substitutes for proper tools...etc.

Also, and this is my personal opinion.... your generation want's instant everything. You can't have that every time.

Good things / good results....take time, consideration, attention to detail....etc. etc. etc. Our modern "throw away society" has discarded that concept and filled people's heads with crap....

Young guys don't get the time they should with the older guys. Somehow that's been lost as well.

With each consecutive generation the problems are different in specifics but the frustrations remain the same as they always have been.....since time began.

Noah had problems with his sons when he set about building the arc...... Dam rotor wouldn't come off the crank on the motor they were using for parts

His cure was simple. He threw the motor overboard and made the boys row :woohoo:

Holly crapola... So based on all your guys expertise with pods...... My POD's are Poo-Poo?

OH No Mr Bill... what shall I do now.....

Someone asked me the other day why I don't ride in the rain. My answer "PODS". I told him that it helps if your bike will run in the rain for you to ride in it. As far as tuning I see the generation gap all of the time. For the most part the young guys are a generation of parts changers. For the most part they don't know how to fix anything if they can't change a part or hook a computer up to it and load a new map into the ECU. I saw an interview with Jay Leno and he was saying that the biggest hurdle that he has in doing a lot of his restorations is that none of the young guys know how to do the old school machine work and the the old guys are too old to do it and the young guys for the most part aren't interested in learning so we are back to the issue fewer and fewer mechanics and a lot of parts changers.

Larry I think you missed my point, I wasn't whining or anything, I was just saying that the quantum leap computers gave us in the last 30 years have yielded young people who have little or no connection to the old technology. So when a younger person comes on here looking for advice on their pods not working, it's partly because they didn't grow up in a time when anybody on their block had pods, likely nobody they know has even heard of pod filters. So they put them on, run like shit, and ask the only people they know that can help, the conglomerate of internet "friends". If growing up they had seen dad working on a bike and putting pods on it, and overheard him talking to buddy down the street how he jetted this and tweaked that he might have an idea where to start with his tuning, but he never heard that, so he's a complete virgin.

I bet 99% of the people asking how to tune pods (myself included) grew up with both parents working, dad driving a boring import and mom taking the bus. When the car broke it went to the shop because dad had no time or desire to fix it, and all the practical knowledge to be gleaned from seeing dad on the weekend have a few beers and get greasy under the hood of a car are lost. I am not saying we are not spoiled by technology, just that this is not as simple as just blaming us for lack of interest or discipline.

And if we must bring up my pesky rotor/sprocket problem lol, I think it only makes it apparent that not all of us youngsters expect instant results

I have spent over 2000 posts on here with you guys learning about these old bikes, why? Because for some young people interested in these bikes you guys are the only source of info, dialogue, or community.

Someone asked me the other day why I don't ride in the rain. My answer "PODS". I told him that it helps if your bike will run in the rain for you to ride in it.

Right on !

I had pods for 8 years and on CV carbs also with no problems. I guess I tinkered and it was fun and eventually I got everything right. Bike ran like a champ at all speeds except for that one day in all the 8 years when I got caught in a downpour. The only reason I put an airbox back on was the desire to go back towards a stock type look.

For some of us tinkering is fun and others have no interest. I dont think it's generational. Last weekend I stopped for a motorcyclist who was almost as old as myself, stopped on the shoulder of a country. Turned ou he ran out of gas. "I dont know anything about them I just ride them" he said. I got him some gas from my tank and helped him get going and I guess it occcurred to me that some of us enjoy tinkering ad fixing and riding and some of us just enjoy the riding part.

@Larry. Not trying to say I was getting picked on. But when all you get is a face in response when asking for help, that's pretty whack