[Civil_Response]

Supposed to be raining this week so it's time to work on the bike and do some maintenance as well. I'm looking for any tips to make things go as smooth as possible.

2003 Honda Shadow Spirit

1. Vance and Hines exhaust - should be pretty straight forward.

2. New chain/sprockets.

3. Vance and Hines jet kit (not sure if I'm going to tackle this myself, it's the more challenging dual carb (I believe). Might do the snorkel removal while I'm in there as well, although it's only a state 1 kit, is that acceptable with the K&N filter?

 

[80130]

Supposed to be raining this week so it's time to work on the bike and do some maintenance as well. I'm looking for any tips to make things go as smooth as possible.

2003 Honda Shadow Spirit

1. Vance and Hines exhaust - should be pretty straight forward.

2. New chain/sprockets.

3. Vance and Hines jet kit (not sure if I'm going to tackle this myself, it's the more challenging dual carb (I believe). Might do the snorkel removal while I'm in there as well, although it's only a state 1 kit, is that acceptable with the K&N filter?

Yes, I can assure you it's the dual carb setup, which is why I took mine in to a shop to have them do the jet kit. However, that won't be cheap! I was going to install a K&N type spike air cleaner on mine, and would need to re-jet, but I didn't have the right jets. When I get them, though, they said it would be $400 for them to install the jets and 'tune' the bike for best performance. Since I can't afford that now, and will still have to get the jets, though I know I can get those cheap direct from either carbjets or dynojet, I'm having to hold off on the whole thing, for now. I may have to try to put some $ aside from my 'budget' for that, but I'm also trying to 'save' to 'upgrade' to a VTX, maybe next year.

I believe Stage 1 jet kit is for 'mild' mods, like just pipes, but I think for a K&N you would need a Stage 2 kit, since you're changing the air flow, or a Stage 3 kit, which is for both pipes AND K&N type, because you're changing both exhaust back-pressure and air intake at the same time, along with more 'race-like' performance.

Keep us up on what you've done, though.

 

[Civil_Response]

Thanks man, yeah we'll see - The shop quoted me in the neighborhood of $240 for the jet install/tuning since I already have the kit, but they are a couple weeks out yet and I don't really have the extra money for that kind of thing at the moment either.

 

[tobimaru]

I jetted and "tuned" my 2006 750 which is the same bike essentially with dual carbs. The carb boots and reinstall was the toughest part for me, but required little more than hand tools and elbow grease. Put in a Stage 1 kit from carbjetkits and it ran great in my bike.

One word of caution - snorkel removal. I took the snorkel off my airbox and it ran like ****. Bogged down, died on the highway. Too lean, too much airflow. Had to reinstall snorkel and then the bike ran great and gets 50MPG. Maybe it's just my bike but I probably won't modify the airbox anymore until I'm ready for Stage 2 or 3 with new exhaust.

Do you have a chain tool and master link for the new chain? Go slow and dont rush the chain install, be sure nothing binds and everything moves freely. Use plenty of grease.

vt750dc.com is a great reference site with walkthroughs and technical data.

 

[Furball Zen]

As far as the chain is concerned...if you disconnect the left shock at the swingarm, you can just slide it on all connected and not have to try and do the master link on the bike.

You guys moddng the airbox are doing it wrong, especially if youre on stock exhaust. But, you can tune the airbox to match the stage 1 jets, but if you didnt get the DynoJet kit, you probably have an unknown sizing issue as well.

I only got less than 50 mpg combined once, not sure why. I always got closer to 60 mpg on my Spirit and thats with a possible 0-60 of 8+/- seconds with a 320 lb rider.

 

[Civil_Response]

Thanks for the tip, in that case I might remove my lowering kit at the same time then (I bottom out on my under fender light/plate mount on occasion).

It's my understanding that the Vance and Hines kits are rebranded DynoJet kits, although maybe one off for their particular exhaust systems, which points back to your unknown sizing issue thought.

 

[Chris72]

I think you should give the carbs a shot. They're not hard to remove or re-jet. Take pics, take your time. Worse case scenario bring it to the shop you mentioned.

 

[Chris72]

I actually think changing the rear sprocket was more of a pain in the rear.

 

[Chris72]

Feel free to pm me, we have the same bike.

 

[KCochran]

Do the carbs yourself and you will wonder why you ever considered paying a shop to do the work. The on and off of the bike part for me was the hardest. Just take lots of pictures and take your time and don't force it. The actual work on the carbs is the easiest part, take your time its not hard. For me the hard part was getting the adjustments & jet sizes correct. I got lucky and hit the sweet spot on the 2nd try, which was better than the 1st time. The 1st time took a total of almost 5 hours (I had never worked on bike carbs before) the second time was just a little over 2 hours!
The shops around here wanted $350.00 (and this was only labor, did not include the jet kit) to do the work and would not guarantee their work would clear up the problem (popping on decel) so my thought was to do the work myself, learn about the carbs and if all else failed THEN take the bike to the expensive shop.

 

[Civil_Response]

Thanks guys, still waiting on the rest of my exhaust parts to arrive but did get my chain and sprocket set. Just need to set aside some time.

Found a place that will do the jet install for 60-70. For that I think it's worth a professional to do it.

 

[Furball Zen]

You do realize that paying someone makes them a pro, but it doesnt mean that they know anything about doing what youre paying them for...

 

[Civil_Response]

He has a shop and it's his full time business. He actually makes/builds custom bikes, just happens to be someone I know.

 

[jkustomz28]

He has a shop and it's his full time business. He actually makes/builds custom bikes, just happens to be someone I know.

if this guy that you know owns a shop what i would do is ask him if you can buy his time on a saturday have him come over and supervise you. DO THE JETS YOURSELF. you will learn a lot and know more about your bike. but i would ask the guy you know if he would be willing to come over and help you and teach you or if he would be willing to come by if you get hung up. i would offer to pay him for his time thats my .02cents. its all easy stuff

 

[2500hdon37s]

X2^ Jets are pretty dang easy. I swapped them twice on my aero. Really doesnt take much time and simple hand tools. The hardest part is getting those 4? ( IIRC) screws out of the bottom of the carb and the carb out of the intake tube.

 

[Civil_Response]

Yeah, excellent points and I have no doubt I probably could do it just fine. My problems is time, I work full time and have my kids half time. In my 'free time' I teach firearms carry classes. Any time left is when I ride, do house work, etc. I could probably do it, but it would get done in chunks of time over the course of a week or so, and that's valuable time I could be riding (our riding time is limited in Minnesota).

If I was doing this in the winter, which I guess I could wait for - it wouldn't matter much, other than freezing my tail off in the garage (not heated).

Right now I have a chain and sprockets I'm more concerned about getting installed, my current one is maxed on adjustment and needs replacing. I accidentally ordered a master link that rivets on, shop doesn't have a slip on one so I'm kind of stuck until I get a tool now.

Only other thing on the list is the exhaust, still waiting on the mounting hardware to arrive. Once that is on I can put the stock air filter in and ride it that way until I can get around to the jets.