Dial-A-Jet

[WALLYBANGER]

Hey guys,
Not sure if this has been beaten to death before, I UTFSE and didn't find anything for dial-a-jet...

Has anyone installed, used or is currently using a Dial-A-jet? How well do they work? Are they worth the $70?

We went on a ride yesterday that took us from about 1500' to nearly 7500'. Once we hit about 4000' all of our bike started to run like $hit, especially around the idle->low-> throttle areas (I'm on a 95 KLX650, and there were 2 new KTM 450EXCs).

I don't know if my bike is jetted properly, as it is, for my base elevation (My city is at about 350m (1080') so I'm basically starting from scratch. I'll also add that from time to time I travel to the wet coast so we're looking at an elevation band of anywhere from sea level to 10,000'.

So anyway, I'm hoping that a dial-a-jet will make life easy for riding around here and I'm looking for some input.

[old trials guy]

Another reason to consider a fuel injected motorcycle. My Sherco 4.5i performs perfectly at both sea level and at 6000 feet. No rejetting, no air box mods to make, no pilot screw hassles, just ride and enjoy :)

old trials rider

[WALLYBANGER]

Yeah, I'm looking fora slightly Cheaper solution :D

[old trials guy]

In case you haven't found this here are links to some reviews:

<<http://www.thunderproducts.com/media.htm>>

otg

[WALLYBANGER]

old trials guy wrote:
In case you haven't found this here are links to some reviews:

<<http://www.thunderproducts.com/media.htm>>

otg






Thanks otg!

Man, I've gotten more replies here now than I have on Thumper Talk. :X i don't know what's wrong with people on that site.... they never seem to reply to anything.

[Sparkle]

Hi WALLYBANGER et al:

My understanding is that most manufacturers set their new bikes up to run slightly lean at sea level mostly to comply with emission standards. In theory the mixture should become correct at some higher altitude and then begin to run rich as you continue to climb.

Back in the "old days" 2 smoke guys used to install a bleeder valve in the intake runner which was just a small ball valve to allow air to lean out the mixture by allowing air to bypass the carb at high altitudes. I never tried it but apparently it worked good, at least the bike ran smoother.

But the other problem is the reduction of density of the air as you climb and the resulting reduction of oxygen. Aircraft guys stress the following rule:


Rule of thumb: A normally aspirated aircraft engine loses approximately

3.5% hp per 1000 feet increase in DA

This is true for bike engines also, including fuel injected models. At 10,000 feet for example your bike would suffer a reduction of horse-power of 35%, unless it was turbocharged or supercharged. Of course withfuel injectionthe mixture would stay correct and the bike wouldcontinue to runsmooth, although the power would still be reduced.

IMHO unless the bike runs so rough it can't be ridden safely "dial a jet" may not be any better than simply setting the bike up to run at a compromise condition and acceptingany loss of performance.

My 2 cents...

Sparkle