Jetting '80 GS850

[Billy Ricks]

http://dynamic.dynojet.com/cfml/Jetkits/suzukijets.cfm

Dynojet offers a Stage 3 kit for your bike. It comes with all the necessary jets, usually a drill bit for drilling the slides, and easy to follow instructions. At $122 it seems a bit pricey, but by the time you finish buying individual jets to get it in the ballpark it could look like a bargain. The thing about CVs that makes them so hard to tune is they don't have adjustable needle jets. The Dynojet kit does have adjustable needles. They are also good about answering questions over the phone and in the past sent me extra jets at no charge whenI was still running stock carbs. The kits do call for an aftermarket exhaust though. Something you may or may not want to do.

[Anonymous]

The engineers who developed these CV carbs were forced to make emissions the primary objective. If the emissions levels could not be met, the bikes could not be sold in America. That required CV carbs and a stable airbox environment. I personally feel that a properly running GS850 (stock) has one of the nicest powerbands in motorcycling - smooth, fast and responsive - and it can easily provide 100,000 miles of performance that way. One of the most memorable quotes from Joe Minton (mechanic guru/writer from Motorcyclist magazine) concerned people who messed with things before they really knew what was going on. He implied that they were going to the "hand-grenade school of high performance" - something to think about.

All true. The 850 is sweet. However, even a good stock setup like the 850, could be made to perform better. The factory dials it in for emissions first, and performance second. On most bikes, richening the jetting, putting on a less restrictive airfilter, and opening up the airbox can make a big difference, particularly in the low and midrange. But there is a lot of patience required, not to mention sparkplug checks. As an example, on a Honda xr650L, I gained 4 horsepower on the dyno,, and much improved drivability. But such mods aren't for everyone, and you can get real tired of taking carbs apart to get it right