Ignition Timing

Seems I am always tweaking on my KZ650. For a while I was running at 0 degrees timing. After talking to some friends at the local honda and harley shop they suggesting bumping up my timing to 30. I did that and I kept finding a wall at 3 to 5 grand, it would slug through it bug it was not good. So I bumped it up again to 40 degrees and she seems to like it a lot. Can any one give some good numbers for the degree of ignition timing. I have pods, nearly stock exhaust with 15 pilots and 98 jets.
thanks,

First off, exactly how are you checking the timing?

Initial timing is generally 10 degrees BTDC (the F mark), and the timing advancer generally advances the timing to 35-38 degrees BTDC at 3500-4000 rpm.

The interesting part is that the above info applies to most of the gasoline motors used on the road, car, trucks, motorcycles, etc.

Pressurized and bottle fed motors excepted of course

The lack of performance you feel is likely due to the bike not being time correctly (buy a shop manual or a Clymers) and the fact that the bike needs to be rejetted for pods/pipes. It is going to run out of gas with those smaller jets.

I have a manual and have used it a lot. I use an adjustable timing light to set the timing. I thought my jets were too small, any suggestions on what to run?

bubbap wrote:

I have a manual and have used it a lot. I use an adjustable timing light to set the timing. I thought my jets were too small, any suggestions on what to run?

The timing light is calibrated for crankshaft degrees assuming one spark per two revolutions (old car with distributor). The KZ has one spark per one revolution. You have to divide the knob reading by two. If your knob is set to 40 when your T mark is lined up, you are firing at 20deg Before TDC.

why can't you use the marks on the advancer?

Ok that makes a lot of sense duh, don't know why I didn't think of that. Thanks a lot. I thought 40 degrees sounded too high. Any thoughts on the jetting?

107.5 mains 17.5 pilot