Single carb conversion

[Mickster]

I think I've had it with these 45 year old carbs.

1979 Gl1000, about 40K miles but who knows.

Do you guys know of anyone, anywhere, that makes a single carb conversion that really works? Don't care about a slight loss in top end performance or drag strip low end, just a single carb conversion where the bike starts, idles, and runs.

Thanks for your help now and in the past.

[Rat]

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Gord

[CYBORG]

I have a 78 with half a million miles on it, four carbs, and it starts, idles ,and runs great. Might want to send the carbs to someone who knows how to fix them

[redglbx]

I have ridden & worked on a few single carb conversions,,,, the one’s using the Weber single carb have worked the best of the single carb group,,, BUT,, they have their own set of issues. Yes, it’s nice that they seem to always run smooth, but you give up a significant amount of power and because these are conversions everyone that I’ve seen & worked on had problems with the linkages working correctly & jetting is rarely correct .. they have issues with icing up, the intake made for the Weber is significantly better (still not good) than the POS other spider type,,, they really aren’t all that good.. the hype on them is way better than their actual performance.

I have to say that I 100% agree with Cyborg on his oe carb assessment, a well done set of oe carbs will run extremely well forever and really can’t be beat, but the key is to get them setup correctly, for every good carb rebuilder there’s probably 100 or more hacks that have no business working on them. The real issue on this is that there are fewer people doing this every year as these bikes age… I have a set of 1100 carbs on the bike that a supposed expert worked on years ago that never ran after he rebuilt them and they have a significant number of WOOD screws holding things together,, wood screws ! Hack ! No excuse for that..

I recommend you contact our own Robin here and have him help you out.. My .02

[CYBORG]

I agree. Robin is your man..... and the answer to your problem

[wingrider]

I agree with what everyone else has said. You will most likely spend more money trying to get a single set up to work properly vs what you would pay Robin to work his magic on your original carbs. He is top notch!

[Sidecar Bob]

I used to dream of having a single carb on my GL1000. Then I learned how to adjust the carbs properly........

AFAIK the only good single carb conversions are similar to this https://www.randakksblog.com/randakks-s ... da-gl1000/

[CYBORG]

what he said . If you're not qualified to deal with more than one carb, send them to someone who is

[redglbx]

That setup on Randakks bike was developed by Carl Hinsey and Jim Hugh’s working with the Magnuson Supercharger owner… I was asked to help tune it to get it to work well,,,,I’m not a big fan as the Weber carb was problematic..

I rode that combo on several bikes a great deal,, my friend Fast Eddie here has one of those setups from Carl on his 78 and he’s worked on it a great deal to get it to run well. My impression of a well setup combo is that it has a terrific torque hit initially but seems to run out of wind as the rpm’s rise, probably due to the h-power required to drive the blower which is fairly substantial, and the manifold is fairly restrictive.

Jim & Carl were constantly busting my chops about my 80 CBX that I had just finished building and was sorting it out on my friends dyno, they were convinced that the 78 blower bike “Emotional Rescue” that we had prototyped the blower setup on would just tear my CBX a new one. Emotional Rescue was an interesting and fun bike that had a lot of Jim & Carls ideas in it to improve the GL platform, like a reinforced swingarm,, a 1100 motor with 76 heads and cams,,, lots of brainstorming and ideas in that one.

I offered to let them find out as I was pretty sure that wouldn’t happen since I had ridden both bikes a lot,,, my CBX was 100+ lbs lighter with much better gearing and a bit better rwhpwer but Les torque. Could never get them to line them up,,, but it would’ve been interesting and fun.

On the setup itself, that particular intake manifold is the best of all the single carb manifolds by a huge margin ,it was better sorted but still restrictive at higher rpm, a better carb than the Weber like a Holley 2 bbl or possibly a Holley fuel injection setup would’ve provided a much better setup imho, but Carl & Jim liked the Weber and Carl felt he had spent all the development money he wanted to on that setup..

That time I spent on the initial blower setup & development is what drove me to machine & build my custom 1100 carb setup, it is better imho ,, but it is MY opinion..

Anyway, spend your money on getting your oe carbs correct, it’ll work better !