85 GPZ 550 pods or no pods

On a '85 GPZ 550.... Pods or no pods?

I can see how pods would be handy for pulling the carbs on and off for jetting.... Any ideas?

I am on the "stock airbox" side of that fence ...a lot of guys DO run them though, if you do a search, there are a bajillion and five threads on here with people asking this very question...A lot of headaches, (IMO)... once dialed though, I can see how it would be much easier to R&R carbs....(A blow dryer is your friend when it comes to working with airbox boots, warmed up, they are like butter!) But consider that once the carbs ARE right, there really is no need to pull them that often, (unless you would rather wrench than ride, LOL!) I don't see the return on time invested...They look cool, but to me, that is not sufficient reason to open the whole jetting "can of worms" (Getting caught in rain is a problem for pods, &c) Good luck man !

How often do you plan to remove your carbs - and why? If you stick with the airbox you shouldn't need to rejet. :dry:

Consider the following - I've owned my 1977 KZ650-C1 since April 1977. In those 37+ years I have removed my carbs exactly 2 times. Once because I screwed up and left fuel in them for a number of months, so I had to clean them; once to replace leaking carb holders. Each time it probably took me 10 or 15 minutes longer than if I had pods. So that's maybe 30 minutes in 37 years. Big deal? No; not even a blip on the radar screen.

I guarantee you that I would have spent much more than 30 minutes trying to rejet for pods to get them to work as well as the airbox, so what would I have gained? Money saved? No. Pods and jets cost money; the airbox was already on the bike. More usable power throughout the rpm range? No. Easier filter maintenance? No; replacing one stock filter using zero tools is much quicker, easier, and cheaper than fiddling with replacing or trying to clean 4 filters.

I gotta say; I do not see the attraction to removing a perfectly good airbox and installing pods (and yes; I have used them before on an older bike when no other option was available). Ed

If you decide to experiment with pods, make sure you put away the airbox in the event you go back to it.

I've used pods before, and I'm in the camp that if you have a stock engine, with maybe a pipe, you'll get much more consistent running with the airbox.

Plus, I remember a period test where they took a KZ550, put on a pipe and pods, jetted it right, and promptly LOST a little power on they dyno. It wasn't until they did higher compression, cams, porting, etc., that they hit 60hp on the dyno. Somebody commented that they would have been better off dollar-wise to just go trade up a '82 GPz750 that made 65hp on CYCLE's dyno, without all the work.

So I ended up going from 114 to 117.5 on my main jets and shimmed my needles with 2 washers. It was really just a guess but I knew I would not need a lot with just a free flow exhaust. I made a custom baffle with a 2" pipe, so it has a deep growl type sound at idle. It took awhile to get the idle mixture set, but it's finished. The test drive went well. It's my first ever ride on this bike. The gears worked! I flushed the old brake fluid and put a new battery in it.....