Got it fitted by an expert mob

 I normally do things myself, but I head scratched and procrastinated with fitting the Mikuni TM-40 carby I bought to replace the standard carby (a VM34) on my SR500. This photo is of the old and the new (from my aborted attempt to mount it).

I could probably have done it, but then the prospect of tuning it made me feel like "I'll take it to an expert" ... as it happens I had heard very good things about Nippon Performance in Brisbane (Queensland Australia) from a friend who has had a few biked worked on there.

So first I'll show you some of their work:

Carb fitted

View to the pod air cleaner

They did an excellent job of (simply) fabricating a tube and a bracket to prevent cantilever stress on the manifold.

and it all fits in very snugly

Performance is fantastic, many of the niggling and annoying aspects of the old carby (probably related to diaphragms which were dodgy and unavailable) are gone and the bike is very smooth across the entire range from idle to redline. Bottom end power is better than it was before, although I'm still learning exactly the starting; but its better than before.

Some Dynos

This power is now slightly above the original factory specs.

But what's better than that is what doestn' show on Dyno, like; the improved smoothness, the nice linearity of throttle response, better idle and the easier starting

Great!

The next best thing (although unexpected) is that it now uses less fuel by a significant margin, giving me 3.7L/100km on the way back up the mountain range from Brisbane yesterday; normally its 5.2L/100km

The complete list of "what was done" is:

• fit and tune carby
• new steering head bearing (its been in there since 1985)
• rebuild forks (seals and inner parts) use 15 weight oil (up from 10)
• new tyres and tubes

Total bill was a sniggle under AU$4K

So, there you have it basically feels like a new bike!

Win Win